Bathroom photos

So the bathroom isn't quite complete, but I thought I would post some photos anyway. The only things left are to put on the baseboards, paint the window frame and door, and install the closet. Other than that, all done! And I love it! It will probably be completely done when I get home from Waterloo next weekend.

Our lovely vanity with marble top, which is 5 feet wide.

A view of the built-in shelf. That was totally my hubby's project. His idea, he built it. Looks great! It will eventually have a divider in it to make half of it 2 shelves.

Our new one-piece toilet.


A look at the mirror and vanity light. Where CT is standing is where the closet is going to be.

Crazy weather, eh?

I’m just glad it’s Friday! I am looking forward to the weekend because for the first weekend in ages, we don’t have many plans. We have a couple more small items to get for the bathroom (accessories), but other than that, I think the bathroom reno should be pretty much done. Except we still need to paint the window fame and door, but that can wait for a bit. So we can start moving everything back into the bathroom and get our house in a more organized state; it’s been an absolute mess for the last month. I think the men were going to build a closet for the corner in the bathroom today for our towels, linens, extra toiletries, etc. since we don’t have a closet for that kind of stuff.

My mother-in-law offered to come and clean my house (she cleans houses and offices as her job). Which is very sweet. She knows we’ve been really busy with the bathroom reno and of course, now I have a broken finger so cleaning has become more difficult. I know I should just accept her help, but somehow it makes me feel like a bad wife if my MIL comes in and cleans my house. But I obviously need the help. CT has been really good with picking up the slack, but he’s been really stressed with work lately, so the house has been taking the back burner. I wish my finger would hurry up and heal already!

Yay for new bathroom

I had my first shower in the new bathroom this morning; I love it! The men will be putting the finishing touches on in the next couple of days, so it should be all done by the weekend. Then I will post some pics!

I had my WW meeting last night. I lost 1.5 pounds in my first week, I thought that was pretty good! My mom lost 4, go mom! Next week, I will be in waterloo for my course Monday night to Friday night, so I’m going to go weigh in on Monday at lunch. So my week 2 will be 5 days instead of a full week, but it will all even out since week 3 will be 9 days. I really like the meetings and being ‘officially’ part of WW again. I totally stayed on program last week, even had 1 flex point left over! I know it’s not much, but I used to go over on my flex points, so I considered this a success for sure.

I’m hoping I’ll be alright food-wise when I’m out of town next week for 4 days. I will likely have to work in the evenings, so I won’t have a lot of free time, which sucks, but things are so busy at work right now, that I have to take work with me to do in the evenings. So, in terms of food, I will have to eat out the whole time. I’m going to make healthier choices like subs, pitas, and fast food salads, so hopefully I’ll do okay! If I have a mini-fridge in my room, then I’m going to hit up a grocery store to stock up on some fruit and veggies for snacks. I can do this!

Tonight is the season premiere of Lost. Anyone else watch that show or am I alone? I missed most of the second season, but I watched most of seasons 1 and 3.

I got a new cell phone for work (same number as before). It's a motorolla razer and I love it! A huge step up from what I had before! Now, I just have to learn how to use it.... think I'll be reading the manual this weekend. I have the basics figured out, but this phone is a camera phone and plays mp3s, so I have lots to play with!

Went to see a specialist...

I went for my follow-up appointment with a specialist this morning. He put a much better splint on, which is only on the tip of my finger, so I will have some use of my other knuckle. He said I’ll need to wear the splint for 6-8 weeks and that it’s normal to feel some discomfort that entire time, so the pain I’m feeling is normal. I go back to see him in a month. So, it was very positive. I like my new splint a lot better, it gives me a little more mobility.

The bathroom reno is really coming along! This morning, they put on the rest of the barker board (tile-like stuff in the shower) and they put the flooring down too. I'm thinking we can start using the bathroom tomorrow evening, most likely!

Update

A couple of you asked what happened with my rings. Well, even though I was in a lot of pain, I was still able to think clearly enough to take off my rings about 10 minutes after it happened. I thought if I seriously hurt my finger, I should take them off before my finger swells up because I didn’t want to have them cut off! Good thing I did because they put the freezing in right at the bottom of my finger where my rings were and of course, there was some swelling. So, I pat myself on the back for that one! Since it is my top knuckle, I’m not anticipating that I will have so much permanent swelling that my rings won’t fit. I just have to wait the up to 6 weeks until I get the splint off.

I am still in quite a bit of pain, but am on prescribed pain meds for the pain. I’m hoping it will calm down in a couple days. And hopefully I can get in to see the plastic surgeon later this week just to make sure the tendon is healing properly and he’ll likely put me in a better splint too.

I never knew how much I depended on the use of all my fingers! I am finding so many things difficult! I’m glad next week is my course because that will give my left hand a bit of a break since most of that is writing, work with the mouse, and some number inputs; so not a lot of typing.

In other news, the bathroom is almost done! I think I should be able to shower in there in a couple days! I can’t wait! We picked up our vanity on Saturday; it is gorgeous! I will post pics on here when it’s all done!

It gets worse...

So, I broke my finger. I fell down the basement stairs. It could have been a lot worse, I suppose. So, mom drove me to emerg, we waiting for 3 hours, had an x-ray. When I got to see my x-ray, it was crazy! The top knuckle on my left ring finger was completely dislocated, so they had to snap it back in place. Good thing they froze it! I tore the tendon completely too, so I will need to have a follow up appointment with a plastics guy in about a week or so.

Of course, this timing sucks since I'm so busy at work. I am still able to type, but my pace is about half of what it was. Sheesh. Good thing it's the weekend now. I am in a splint, which should make it interesting for doing everyday things, like showering and driving.

Healing takes about 6 weeks, hopefully I don't need the splint that long!

One sick c-dub

Well, I was not able to fend off the sickness, so I am home today. At least it's Friday, so I will hopefully be better by Monday. I hate being sick! Last time I had this was last January, so I guess I was 'due'.

The men are making amazing progress on the bathroom! Ceiling is painted, and they are painting the walls right now. At this rate, everything but the trim will be painted by the end of tonight! Should only be a few more days and then we can start using our brand new bathroom!

Nej asked how my first WW meeting went. It went really well! And my starting weight wasn't as bad as I expected, which is nice. It's still almost 5 pounds heavier than my starting weight last time, but oh well. This is a new attempt, so I am starting fresh. I'm going to start with losing 10% of my current weight, and when I reach that goal, then I'll start thinking about what I would like my ultimate weight goal to be. I'm really excited about this new attempt, mom and I are going to go to a meeting together every week. I can't wait to see how much I lose in my first week!

Long day yesterday

Yesterday, I worked a total of 14 hours – it was a long day! I had a meeting to attend which was 3 hours away, so a lot of that time was travel time. The meeting went well, which is good. And I'm glad to have the OT.

I woke up this morning with a sore throat, which is not good! I haven’t been sick in over a year, so I figured I was due soon. But I don’t have time to be sick; I am really busy at work and I need to spend my entire weekend painting! I hope I feel better soon. And it’s not like I can work from home right now, my house is a construction zone and I wouldn’t have any quiet. So, I’ll have to make it through the week somehow. As long as I don’t get any worse, I’ll be okay.

Tonight, mom and I are ‘officially’ going back to WW. We are signing up tonight and attending our first meeting. I really hope knowing that we have to go to WW to weigh-in every week gives us the motivation we need to be successful. I think initially, we are going to get a bit of scale shock since I’m used to weighing myself first thing in the morning and without clothes. So, I think I will be pretty shocked with my starting weight tonight, it will be the highest number I’ve ever seen on the scale. But, nowhere to go but down! I’m actually looking forward to this since it’s something mom and I can do together once a week and I am excited to try something different, since trying it on my own has just not been working.

The men are finishing up the mudding/sanding today hopefully so that we can prime tomorrow. The bathroom is getting there! We are going to paint on the weekend and our vanity is in so we can pick it up on Saturday. I can’t wait to see it! Our flooring should be in by Saturday too, so we’re going to get that as well. I think by this time next week, our bathroom will likely be done! I can’t wait!

I had a good weekend.

On Friday evening, we didn’t really do too much. I needed some relaxing time after my meeting on Friday.

Saturday, we went to Home Depot to buy some more supplies for the bathroom. We bought the Barker Tile Board stuff which we’re using instead of tiles in the bathroom. I think it will be great! We also asked about the flooring, and it is supposed to be in on Wednesday (that’s just an estimate), so I think we’re going to make another Saturday morning trip to Home Depot on the weekend to get the flooring. It should be in by then. And hopefully our vanity will be in by Saturday as well so that we can pick that up too! Then I think that’s it for the major purchases for the bathroom, the rest is just little things.

We also made another trip to the landfill on the weekend to get rid of more demolition material. It’s amazing how much stuff came from one little room!

On Saturday evening, we went to Oshawa to see Three Days Grace. We had floor seats and were 16 rows back, so our seats were pretty good! The concert was very good, they play really well live. Econline Crush and Seether were the 2 opening bands. Econoline Crush weren’t anything to write home about, but Seether was really good. All in all, it was a great night! Before the concert, we went for dinner and it was difficult to find a place that didn’t have an hour+ wait for a table! So we ended up going to Denny’s, which was okay.

Sunday, we went to Red Lobster to celebrate CT’s parents’ birthdays. We then had everyone over to our house for coffee. CT’s sister and brother-in-law had not seen our house before, so it was nice to show them our place.

Last night, we watched Juno that CT had downloaded and it was quite good. There were a few parts that were incredibly funny.

This week will be a busy week. Tomorrow evening, I’m going to a meeting out of town and will likely not be home until almost midnight, yikes. And we are hopefully going to be able to paint this coming weekend! It will be so good to get that done!

My weigh-in this morning was disappointing, so I think mom and I are going to join WW and start going to meetings in the next couple of weeks. I have to try something new because this is just not working on my own.

Double sticker day! Yay!

I earned 2 stars yesterday! I stayed within my points range and also did a workout. Feels great! Although, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I had gained a pound since yesterday. I don’t know why it is, but on the days when I am really good, I always gain and on the days when I don’t take as much care, that’s when I lose. It’s a little frustrating, but I’m hoping it’s just water retention or whatever. I did drink a ton of water yesterday (3L), so maybe I’m still holding some of that.

My dad doesn’t think the bathroom will be ready to be painted this weekend. Which is too bad, but that’s just the way it goes. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to know for sure. In the case that we can’t paint this weekend, we’ll have to wait and paint next weekend instead. At least that way, by the time we’re done painting, our flooring and vanity should be in. And we’re already quite busy this weekend, so fitting painting in was likely going to be a bit tricky. Next weekend, we have no plans.

I have a meeting at the MOE in Toronto tomorrow, so that should be interesting. I hope it goes well!

Oma phoned mom yesterday to let her know she got to Florida okay and that her condo is absolutely gorgeous. She has a double bed as well as bunk beds, so she said we are welcome to come down and visit. I really wish I could! All we would have to pay for is the flight since we’d stay with Oma and she would feed us (she has a full kitchen). But I just can’t take time off right now; I am crazy busy at work. And it doesn’t seem worth it to fly all that way for a weekend. Besides, the cheapest flight I found was $550, and I just can’t afford that right now. Oh well. It was a nice thought though.

GAH!

I just went to re-fill my water bottle, and we are completely out of water here. Yikes! And we can't drink the tap water since we're in the country on a contaminated site. Sheesh. And our office admin person is home sick today. There is a guy who comes to supply us with more water and take away the old jugs, so I hope he comes today! Otherwise, I guess I'll have to get a diet coke from the vending machine to drink with my lunch and then I'll just have to drink lots of extra water when I get home. This sucks!

EDIT 11:40am

Our office admin came back into the office (I guess she's feeling better) and she called the water place, so they will be making a delivery to us shortly after noon. I'm saved! She also asked him to come every week now instead of every 2 weeks, so that should mean we won't run out of water again.

Pub outing was fun!

I went out to the pub yesterday, and I am quite proud of myself. I didn’t have beer even though I wanted it, I had a cocktail instead which was 3 points. I have no idea how many points a beer would have been, but I’m guessing it would have been more than that; beer has lots of carbs. Several people ordered lattice fries, potato skins, wings, jalapeno poppers, etc. to share, and I didn’t have a single bite of those. I ordered a chicken sandwich with a garden salad and oil and vinegar dressing. So, I was thinking I was doing pretty well. However, when I went to put in my sandwich on the WW website, it was 15 points! Yikes! I kind of thought it would be around 10 points, oops! Which means I didn’t get a sticker for yesterday, boo. But, I am still proud of myself because I had a 15 point supper and it could have been much worse if I had ordered something fried. So, I am still happy with myself even though I don’t get a sticker. I know I’ll earn one for today since I’ll be exercising tonight! Actually, I will earn 2 for today since I will also stay on points for today! Yay!

Bathroom reno update: Yesterday, dad got all the drywall up. So today, he’ll be doing the prefilling and putting the half bead stuff in the corners. If he can get that all done today, then tomorrow it will be ready for the mudding and sanding! I’m still hoping that we can paint on the weekend. I think we have our toilet picked out too, which is good. It seems to be a really good one based on reviews and is in the middle of the price range as far as toilets go. We also have our flooring picked out, but they are currently sold out of it at Home Depot. When CT asked about it on Monday, they hadn’t even realized they were out of stock yet, so hadn’t ordered any more. But they know now and have ordered more, but it takes 1-2 weeks. I’m hoping it will be in stock by the time we’re ready for it, which will likely be early next week. We’re getting there!

Very productive weekend

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot with dad to get the drywall supplies. So now we’re all set to drywall this week! Dad had to work out of town again today, but he should be back working on our bathroom tomorrow. I’m hoping that the drywalling, mudding, and sanding will be done by the end of the week so that CT and I can paint on the weekend! That would be great! We could apply the primer on Friday night, first coat of paint on Saturday, and second coat of paint on Sunday. That’s the plan anyways, we’ll see if the bathroom is ready to be painted by then.

Saturday we also did a lot of shopping around and bought our faucet (found an awesome one, just what we wanted at Canadian Tire for $30 off!), vanity light, main light, towels, towel racks, and toilet paper holder. So, we got a lot accomplished!

We also decided that we’re going to paint the ceiling the same chocolate brown that we have on our living room ceiling, we’re going to paint the window frame and door the same white colour as the window frames in the living room, and our walls are going to be a faded seafoam colour. So, because of all the paint and primer we have in our basement that we have leftover from our painting the rest of the house, we will likely only need to buy the seafoam colour; all the rest of the paint we already have. That will save some money, which is great!

Right now we’re trying to pick a toilet. I thought a toilet is a toilet, but apparently there are good toilets and not so good ones. And I think a toilet is one of those things that you want to make sure it works well! So, right now we’re researching to try to figure out if there are any good quality ones we can get for less than $300. Anybody know anything about which brands of toilets are good? Or which ones to stay away from?

In good news, I lost 1.0 pound last week. It isn’t much, but at least it’s something! I’m going to work really hard again this week. I will have 2 meals out this coming weekend (Saturday night, CT and I are going to Oshawa to see Three Days Grace and I’m sure we’ll go for dinner first), then on Sunday, CT and I and his sister and her husband are taking CT’s parents to Red Lobster for lunch to celebrate their birthdays. So, I am going to save most of my flex points for the weekend.

I just got an email from a coworker that we’re going out for wings tomorrow night. Yikes. That could put a kink in my plans. Of course I don’t have to go, but I don’t want to look like I’m being a pooper and not part of the team. And I know I can’t go and not order anything; that would be torture! Dilemma! I guess what I could do is bring an extra snack tomorrow and eat it right before I leave work and then just order a few wings when we’re out and then have a healthy supper when I get home. Sheesh. I was also planning to exercise tomorrow which I guess won’t be happening unless I do it after supper! See, I can have the best intentions when I plan my week and then it gets thrown off by things that are not in my control! Sometimes I hate watching what I eat; it’s no fun sometimes.

EDIT: 12:05pm

Well, we are going to go to a local pub tomorrow, which is good news because I have been there before and I know they have a full menu. That means I can order something more healthy than wings, I can get a wrap or sandwich with a side garden salad. That would work.

Yay for Friday!

I am really looking forward to the weekend. It has been a busy week at work this week! I work a few extra hours, so those are going to be banked, which is good since I used the rest of the banked time I had when I took the time off between Christmas and New Years. So, I want to start building up my OT banked again.

Today, both CT and dad are working on the bathroom all day. I can’t wait to get home and see what they accomplished! I think they were going to work on the electrical today and getting the last of the plaster off the walls so that they can drywall next week. Tomorrow, CT and I are going to look at a tile store here in town (they are only open 9-12 on Saturdays, how stupid is that). We tried going last Saturday at 1pm and were out of luck! I think we’re going to do with plain white tiles in the shower since they are only $0.29 each (as opposed to $2 or $3 each for the really nice ones), but I was thinking we could get a few really nice tiles (with the colours we’re using in the bathroom) and mix them in with the white tiles to make it a little more interesting. We may not find anything that works, in which case we’ll just stick with the white ones only.

Also tomorrow, we’re going to look a few more places for a bathroom faucet for our vanity. We want to get a brushed nickel one and those are hard to find for less than $100! There was one at Canadian Tire that we liked that was on sale, but of course, they were all sold out. Our hunt continues!

My Oma is going to Florida for 6 weeks and she leaves on Tuesday. This really worries me since she is losing her mind more and more every day. She forgets our names half the time now, she really has deteriorated a lot in the last 2 years. The upside is I think she forgot how to be mean! She is A LOT easier to get along with now!

The thing that worries me is I’m afraid that she’ll be in Florida and forget where she is staying or who she is or forget her passport somewhere. She’s going as part of a tour group, thank goodness, but I don’t know how closely they will keep an eye on them. I hope it all turns out okay! I offered to look after her finances (pay bills, etc.) while she is away, so I went over to her place to make sure everything is in order. Poor Oma is losing her mind so much that she doesn’t even know which bills she needs to pay and when we looked at her bank statement, a couple of things she paid twice because she forgot she paid it the first time! I am really glad that her house is attached to my parent’s house so that my parents can sort of keep an eye on her. I am really nervous about her leaving the country though!

I’m bringing sexy back

I wanted some new workout DVDs to mix things up a bit, so CT downloaded Carmen Electra’s Strippercise for me (gee, I think he had an ulterior motive when he picked that one to download!). Anyways, I did some of it last night and wow, my legs were shaking after that! And I only did 35 minutes of it! It is quite the workout!!!! But loads of fun! I think I’m going to do more tonight.

My dad made amazing progress yesterday in our bathroom reno! He did all the plumbing for the vanity and bathtub, so all the plumbing is done now and plywood is on the entire floor and the bathtub is in place now. Yay! My dad isn’t working on it today since his boss called him out of town to do some work. But tomorrow, he and CT will both be working on the bathroom for the full day, so I can’t wait to see how much they get done! I’m sure it will be a lot!

New episode of Grey’s on tonight, so I am excited about that. I guess it’s their last new one from before the strike, so it may be awhile before we get another new one.

Post #401

As of yesterday, CT and I have been married for 4 months. It has gone by quickly!

The bathroom renos are moving along. Yesterday and today, my dad showed up at 7am to get started. I think he’s really having fun! And CT helps him for a few hours each morning until he has to leave for work. CT is going to take Friday off so that he can help my dad all day. As of right now, dad has replaced the plumbing for the toilet, leveled the floor, and put down some plywood over the joists on about half of the room. I think next is to put in the plumbing for the tub and work on the electrical (we want to have a plug just above the vanity). By the time we’re done, it’s going to literally be a whole new room! I can’t wait until it’s finished!

This has been a busy week so far at work. I stayed late on Monday and yesterday I worked through my lunch. Now through to the end of March is our busiest time at work, so I think I’ll be getting quite a few OT hours in the next few months! And I’m also really excited about my Modflow course coming up in a few weeks. I think I will definitely learn a lot and I’m excited about going out of town for a couple of days. I know I’ll be swamped and likely have to work on reports in the evenings from my hotel room, but I still think I’ll have fun. I always love staying in hotels and dining out on someone else’s dime ;)

Wow, is it ever windy today! I had to dodge runaway recycling bins and garbage my whole way to work. The wind is just howling outside. Crazy!

Bathroom renovation continues!

My weekend started at about 3:30pm on Friday when me and 2 coworkers (it was only the 3 of us in the office) went out to watch the third period of the world juniors while enjoying a pint. It was so nice to leave the office a little early. Friday night, CT and I didn’t do too much, just relaxed.

Saturday, mom and I took a trip to the landfill to get rid of all our old flooring, vanity, and tiles while the men worked in the bathroom. Then, the 4 of us (mom, dad, CT, and me) we went shopping for stuff for the bathroom. We bought our bathtub and a bunch of plumbing supplies. CT and I also went to order our vanity. I am really excited about the vanity. The cabinet is a medium brown colour and the top is a green marble and the top is all one piece (i.e. the sink is marble too). It’s going to look amazing!

Saturday afternoon we watched the hockey gold medal game, of course! Sunday was spent relaxing since no work was getting done on Sunday, it was a day of rest for everyone. We did shop around a little bit to get ideas for what we want for lighting and fixtures, etc.

I am really surprised at just how expensive this renovation is going to be. I am really thankful thought that my dad is doing the work because if we had to hire someone, that would be an extra 50% I bet. And my dad seems to be having a really fun time doing this. He was off work for most of December, so I think he was starting to get bored, and this project has been keeping him busy. If you want to see pictures, check out CT's profile on facebook, he has some pics of the demolished bathroom (unfortunately, we didn't take any pics before we started the renos, I wish we had).

This week is going to be a busy one at work for me. Lots of work to do, not much time to do it in. I spent the entire morning this morning in meetings, which means I have less time to do my work!

EDIT 1:45 pm

In other news, my ex and his wife had a son yesterday. I hope their son grows up to be nothing like his father! I was hoping they would have a daughter because maybe that would have taught my ex to respect women. I like to think he's changed since he's married (albeit for the second time) and now he has a child. So glad he's not my problem anymore!

Wow, is it ever quiet today!

There is only me and 1 other person in the office today. Most people in my office took until Monday off and then most people who were in Wednesday and yesterday took today off. So, it is very quiet around here today! It’s going to be very busy next week when everyone is back. And we have a new employee starting on Monday, she’s an engineering grad with approx. 1 year experience, so she’s like a mini-me ;) She’s where I was 3-4 years ago. I haven’t met her yet, but I’m sure she’s nice. That will bring us to 12 employees. We’re growing!

I got my P.Eng. application mailed off yesterday, so it is officially out of my hands! CT told me that when I get my P.Eng., he'll take me for dinner anywhere in Ontario. So, I'll have to think on that one! Ontario is a very big province, I'm not sure he knows what he got himself into ;)

Our bathroom renovation is going well. Right now, the bathroom is completely demolished. Yesterday, dad took the tub and tiles out. Today, he’s taking the boards that were under the floor out. He’s taking it right down to the rafters so that he can build a floor that is level. Apparently, one side of our bathroom is 2.5 inches higher than the other! He’s also taking the cabinet out today, so after today, there will be literally nothing left of the bathroom. That means tomorrow is time to take everything to the dump! It’s amazing how much stuff came out of one little room! Our house is a disaster right now, and that’s just from the stuff from the bathroom.

Tomorrow we also have to buy a bathtub, we already have one picked out at Home Depot. And we also need to order a vanity. CT and I are going to check out one last place at lunch today (we couldn’t check this place before because they were closed between Christmas and New Years). If we don’t see anything better than the one we already have our eye on, then we’re going to order that one tomorrow.

So my weekend will consist of home renos. I can’t wait until the bathroom is all done! I have no idea how long this reno will take, but I’m thinking at least a couple weeks because dad is building the entire room, flooring from the joists up, drywalling, tiling, etc. I sure am lucky that I have such a talented daddy! I thought he may have to hire someone to do the plumbing, electrical, etc., but he's going to do it all himself! What a man!

A year in review

I liked lj’s year in review, so I thought I’d also do a year in review type deal.

January
I attended 3 bridal shows this month. Yay for free stuff! CT and I hosted an MBA party for my mom. As an aside, she’s on the fast track for her PhD, so she will be ABD (all but dissertation) by the end of 2008 and then probably another year or so to do her dissertation. Go Mummy!

February
Lots of wedding planning was completed this month. Flowers, cake, and musician were booked. Registries were set up. Also went to an invitation making workshop.

March
Nej came to help make the wedding invitations. They turned out amazing! Had first meeting (of three) with the officiant. This was also the month when Smokey had his bout of Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. He is a-okay now though; we just have to feed him the special food that lowers the pH of his urine so that crystals cannot form. I’m so glad our little guy pulled through!

April
Went to a favour making workshop at Michaels. Took CT and mummy to a leafs game for their birthdays.

May
Rebuilt the deck. Had second meeting with officiant. That’s all I really remember about that month.

June
Another big wedding planning month. Met with DJ, reception venue, and officiant. Also got marriage license. Sent out wedding invitations! Attended best childhood friend Alison’s wedding. It was beautiful! Also this month, got the wedding party together for a (hot) day at the zoo.

July
Had final meeting with officiant. Had first dress fitting, excited that my dress fits!!!! Attended one of CT’s friend’s wedding. The most disorganized wedding I’ve ever been to; we somehow were not invited to the ceremony! I think there was a mix up with the invitations or something. Cheered lj on in her first half ironman! You’re amazing lj!!!!

August
Went to NYC with lj and nej for my bachelorette weekend! Good times! Also had bridal shower which was absolutely perfect.

September
Spent labour day weekend at the cottage and then nej came up to help fill the favour boxes and make the pew decorations. Then, GOT MARRIED! The wedding day was exactly the way I wanted. What a perfect day. CT and I then went on our honeymoon for 11 days (4 days in Puerto Rico and then a 7-day southern carribean cruise). It was an amazing trip, I definitely want to go on more cruises!

October
Settled into married life. Also went to Toronto with the girls one weekend and saw lj’s new house another weekend.

November
My birthday. Had several weekends of social gatherings this month.

December
Very busy month getting ready for Christmas!

I’m glad this is a short work week because that means tomorrow is Friday already – yay! My boss came in for the morning today, so I gave him my P.Eng. application to sign. Hopefully I can get it back from him today (not sure if he wants to review it or just sign it). I may be able to mail it off tonight! So excited to get that mailed off!!!

I found out some interesting news. Also on New Years Eve, there were about 4 cop cars across the street from us all evening. We knew that something was going down. Turns out it was an attempted murder! Yikes! A guy was stabbed several times and almost died! My mom said she was watching the news and our house was on it. Crazy! There has been a cop car parked outside our house ever since New Years Eve. It leaves at night, but is back by the time I leave for work. So, my New Years Eve drama continues…

The bathroom renovation has officially begun. Dad went to the house yesterday and took out the toilet, vanity, and flooring. I bet it will be all gutted by tomorrow at this rate, then it’s time for some dump trips on Saturday!

A New Year

I had a great vacation. Christmas was really good. One of the gifts CT and I received was a certificate for help from my dad with our bathroom renovation. My dad is off work for a few weeks while his boss find some more work for him, so we thought this would be a good time to do our renovation. So, I think it may even start today! Yay! Hopefully in a few weeks, we’ll have a whole new bathroom!

Much of my vacation was spent relaxing. We also spent some time looking for things for our new bathroom. We have our bathtub, toilet, vanity, flooring, and shower tiles all picked out. It will be a bit of an inconvenience for the next few weeks since we won’t be able to use our upstairs bathroom. But, luckily our downstairs bathroom has a shower, even though it’s not very nice. At least we have a second shower to use, so I’m happy.

New Years Eve was not a good night. First off, I stubbed my toe so hard that it’s all swollen and purple. It’s not broken, but I did sprain it pretty badly. At least I can walk now, even though I limp and it hurts to have any shoes on. Also on New Years Eve, we went out for an hour or so and when we came back, we had this awful smell of rotten eggs in our house. It wouldn’t go away and was worse in the basement, so we thought it could be a gas leak. Which if course is very dangerous. So, we called the gas company and they sent someone over, but it took them an hour and a half to get to our house. In the meantime, they told us to ventilate the house and to not light any matches, etc. So, we were freezing our butts off waiting for the guy to come and check it out. And of course my mind was running wild with visions of our house blowing up or us having to leave our house that night. Anyways, it turned out not to be a gas leak. We have no idea what it was, but it wasn’t gas. The smell went away after we ventilated our house, so it’s all good now. But, all that drama made for an interesting New Years Eve. I actually fell asleep around 10pm, but CT woke me up at 11:59 so that we could watch the ball drop. How pathetic is that, I couldn’t even stay awake on New Years!

I did get my P.Eng. application done, so now I just have to wait until my boss gets back on Monday because he has to sign one thing. Then I’m mailing it off on Monday afternoon. Yay! It actually wasn’t bad at all. I got an example from a friend of mine, so I had something to go by. And I had already submitted the application form and sent them my transcript in 2004 when I applied for my EIT and I passed the exam in 2005. So really, all that was outstanding was my experience summary, which only took me a couple of hours to complete and then I got my mom to review it. So, it wasn’t nearly as much work as I thought it was going to be.

So now it’s back to work. A lot of the people in my office took until the 7th off, so it’s really quiet around here. Which is good because I have a lot of work to get done.

I do have some goals for the year:

1. Get my P.Eng. That one will hopefully be completed in the next few months!

2. Lose some weight. This one has been on my list for several years in a row now. Miraculously, I didn’t gain any weight over the holidays. So, I am starting fresh today. Of course, I can’t really exercise much until my toe gets better, but I have a feeling my next week, it will be back to normal. It’s already starting to feel better. So, I hope 2008 is the year I can finally have some success and lose the weight I want to.

3. Get some more work done on the house. This year, I want to get the upstairs bathroom completely gutted and re-done, the downstairs bathroom painted, and get some other painting done that we haven’t got around to yet (like the doors and trim upstairs).

4. Spend time with hubby! Since item 3 above is going to take a lot of money, and we are still trying to chip away at some debts, we want to save some money this year and instead of going on a trip out of the country, we’re thinking of just doing some weekend trips here and there and maybe a week at the cottage in the summer. One of our wedding presents was a gift certificate for a B&B outside of town, so we’re thinking of using that in the spring for a weekend getaway. And then we’re thinking of going to Niagara Falls for our first anniversary.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!

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!

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.

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.

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!

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?

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!

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!

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.

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!

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?

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!

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!

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!

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).

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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!

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?

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!

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?

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!!!

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?

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?

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 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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

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…