Well I’m glad that’s over

The meeting last night went okay. There are these two guys who are totally opposed to the project and no matter how many times we explain things to them, they just don’t get it. It’s annoying. Glad I’m done with the meetings for this project until July! For the site visit yesterday, I actually felt okay, which is good. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes though – not cool! I have tons of bites now.

As of today, I am 6 weeks along in my pregnancy. That’s progress! It still seems so early, but I’m sure it will go by quickly.

Marathon Monday

What a warm weekend! CT set up our air conditioner in the bedroom, and I’m so glad we have that. I don’t think I would have been able to survive the heat otherwise!

I have solved the puzzle as to how my ex found out I’m expecting. I was close with my guess, but not right on. Brother Al was pretty much telling everyone he knows (I think it’s adorable that he’s so excited and he knows now that we’re not really telling people yet). So, he told his youth group leader who told Al’s girlfriend’s sister. She used to be friends with my ex and was instant messaging with him on Thursday night and he asked about me (she didn’t even know that he knew me, much less that we were engaged at one point). She also didn’t know I was so early on that we weren’t telling people. So, she told him. And now that we’ve explained that he is my ex and I don’t really want him knowing about my life, she feels awful and of course won’t pass on anything else. So, hopefully we have this contained now.

Today, I am leaving the office at around 10:30am to go out of town for a site visit and meeting. So, I will likely be gone until around midnight – yikes! I am taking Friday off though, and I likely won’t even need to use any of my vacation time since I’ll be working such a long day today. I will be spending 12+ hours with my boss today, so hopefully he won’t suspect anything. My queasiness comes and goes, so hopefully I will feel okay today!

Another piece of the puzzle

I got an email from the ex's stepdad (I still keep in contact with the ex's parents). Here is what is said:
-----------------------
I heard an interesting rumor last night, It seems according to your friends, That you are expecting???????
I can't tell you who told me other than we were video conferencing with (the ex) last night!!
So! Is it true? Don't keep us in the dark
-----------------------
The only thing I can think of is my brothers girlfriend's mom knows my ex's parents. So, she may have told them. I wonder why he said "I can't tell you who told me"!!! Very strange! Guess it's hard to keep this sort of thing a secret! I bet my bro told his gf, which is fine, but I bet she told her mom who in turn told my ex's parents! The gossip chain!

Perplexed

My ex tried to add me as a friend on Facebook… again! He did this about a year ago and I decided to ‘reject’ him. Well, today he adds me again and there is a message saying basically “congrats on the wedding! I hear other congrats are also in order. Is this just a rumour or is there a little one on the way?” I haven’t accepted his friend request, I think I’ll likely reject him like last time.

I wonder where he heard I’m expecting?!?!?! I have NO IDEA! The only people I’ve told is you guys and my immediate family. My ex’s parents are on Facebook, but I am purposely not mentioning anything about me being pregnant on there because I have one of my co-workers and several of my former coworkers on my friends list and I don’t want my boss to hear through the grapevine. I want him to hear it from me at either the 12-week mark or earlier if I get really sick.

So, I don’t know what to think about my ex’s comment. And he did say it was a rumour, so it’s obviously not from a direct route like my family because then he’d know for sure. Very strange!

Looking forward to the weekend

I have been SUPER tired this week. I have been in bed by 9pm at the latest all week and I still wake up feeling like I could sleep more. Welcome to pregnancy fatigue! I’m glad we don’t have any major plans this weekend, I think I’ll need to relax a lot this weekend! I am planning on going for a walk with my mom this afternoon, but if we get the storms they are calling for, I think I’ll just stop by her place and we can chat for an hour instead.

In terms of morning sickness, I haven’t really had much yet. I do feel slightly queasy at times, but it comes and goes. I figure if this is as bad as it gets, I’ve got it easy! I’m only 5.5 weeks along at this point, so I know it could get worse. So, I have my house stocked with soda crackers, ginger ale, ginger snaps, and cheerios just in case!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! What are you gals up to?

Got the results!

I just heard back from my doctors office. She said my Hcg levels rose well, so she said congratulations! Now it's REALLY official! My first appointment with her is Thursday, June 19th (so I’ll be at 7 weeks by then). My doctor doesn't deliver babies, but she can refer me to an OB either right away, or after 3 months. I asked about what if I wanted to go with a midwife, and she said that I could talk that over with my doctor at my appointment. But, I'm thinking I should call the midwives and see if I can get in to at least meet them before my appointment with my doctor because by then I'll know whether I'm going with them or if I am going to go with an OB. I can always change my mind later after I talk with my doctor, but I don't want to wait too long and risk missing out on the midwife option.

So YAY!!!! I thought the results would come back okay, I was just glad to hear it FOR SURE!!!!!!!

EDIT 11:53am

I just called the midwife practice and they took all my info and will call me back in about a week and a half to let me know if there is a spot available. I can't imagine they would be all booked up already for my due date range, but I know they only take on a certian number of patients because they want to be sure they can be present for the birth. So, we'll see.

Testing my patience

Well, looks like I am not getting the results from my most recent blood test until tomorrow. GAH! I spent a good portion of my afternoon staring at my phone trying to “will” it to ring. Guess that didn’t work ;)

I’m sure I’ll hear tomorrow then. I am anxious to get these results because if everything comes back okay, I will call the midwife practice to see if they can get me in to meet them/see what midwifery is all about. I know they only take on a certain number of patients for each month and are in high demand. So, I wanted to call them by the end of this week so they at least know I’m interested.

I have my second Pilates class tonight, so that should be fun!

Doctor vs Midwife

I got a notice that I have a package to pick up and the notice said P.Eng. on it, so I am quite certain that the package is my stamp! Yay! I am going to pick it up tonight after work… I’m excited!

So today I go back to the doctor for more blood work. I should receive the results tomorrow and I’ll be sure to update once I receive the results.

CT talked to his sister last night, who had already heard the news from his parents. She is absolutely thrilled and has requested that we have a girl. She wants to be able to buy pink frilly things for the baby ;)

I have already started to think about the whole doctor vs midwife thing. I know it’s still early, but I know that the midwife practice in town only takes on a certain number of patients for each due date range, so if I want to go that way, I should book in within the next few weeks. I am seriously considering going with a midwife. A couple people that I know are currently under the care of these midwives, and they are absolutely thrilled with the care they are getting. And midwives are now covered under OHIP, and they have full hospital privileges.

Other bonuses are you have a team of 2 midwives, and every time you go for an appointment, it’s one of those 2 that you see (there are a total of 6 in the practice) . So they really get to know you. And one of those 2 (they swap out as necessary) are with you right from the early stages of labour (they come to your house to care for you and assess when it’s time to go to the hospital) through the entire birth and even 3 hours after the birth to help you with breastfeeding, etc. Then they visit you at home to provide care when the baby is 1 day old, 3 days, 5 days, and 7-10 days… then you take your baby to their practice and they provide care until the baby is 6 weeks old.

I also like the fact that every time you go for an appointment, it is 45 minutes long so you have all your questions answered and they are very thorough. And they have a pager on 24/7 if you have any questions or concerns. So, it seems that the level of care you receive is just phenomenal. So, I am seriously considering going that route. I want to wait until I receive the results of the blood test this week, and if everything comes back okay, I think I’ll call the midwife practice to go for an initial interview to find out more about midwifery care and to help us decide if it is the kind of care we are seeking. I have heard nothing but good things about them. Decisions, decisions!

Update on my weekend

Friday evening was excellent. I went for a walk with my mom on Friday afternoon and was able to not let my news slip at all. Mom talked about her interview; she said she nailed it. So, she was in quite a good mood and feeling relieved. Then, CT and I went over to my parents house for dinner. The whole family was there except my brother Thom who was working. My parents, brother Al, and Oma were all there. They were all very happy and excited with our news. My brothers are already saying things like “I can’t wait to take the baby for boat rides at the cottage” and “now we’ll have somebody else to play road hockey with”, etc. They are really excited about being uncles. Thom will be 19 when the baby is born and Alex will be 23, so they will be old enough to babysit ;)

Saturday was a fabulous day. Dirty Dancing was amazing! The sets were what I found most impressive, they really captured everything that was in the movie, which was awesome. We also went shopping and mom insisted on buying some clothes for the baby. We found 2 outfits and a sleeper that are so adorable and on sale!

Yesterday, we went to CT’s parents house and told them our news. They are also very happy. This will be their second grandchild, CT’s sister has a son who is 10. So, it’s been awhile since there’s been a baby in the family ;)

My mom’s boss called her on Saturday night. She didn’t get the job. Her boss told her she should talk to a lawyer though because she has grounds for a law suit. She has been treated very unfairly. It all comes down to jealousy. There are 2 women who are very jealous of mom and are trying to bring her down. One of them is retiring in 2 years and the other one is mentally unstable and will likely not be there for much longer. So, mom is trying to think long term. If she sues the university, regardless of whether she wins or not, they would never hire back someone who sued them. So, she’s thinking it’s better to just wait it out and the situation may be very different in a couple years. She could always work part time until then. So, she’s looking on the bright side. She’s thinking it’s just a job, and she’s not going to let this come in the way of her joy about becoming a grandma! The funny thing is, Oma used to work at the university, and in 1980, when mom was pregnant with me, Oma sued the university for wrongful dismissal and won. Now, 28 years later, I am pregnant and my mom has grounds to sue the university. Strange how history repeats itself!

I hope I have an easier time concentrating on work this week than I did last week! Tomorrow, I am going back to the doctors office to get bloodwork done to check my HcG levels again to make sure they are rising. In hindsight, I probably should have waited a little longer to go to the doctor the first time, but I was just so darn excited! I was only at 4 weeks that time, so that would explain why my HcG levels were low. Still high enough to be considered positive for pregnancy, but that’s why the doctor wanted me to come back tomorrow. I’ll be at 5 weeks then and my HcG levels should be MUCH higher. I should get the results on Wednesday, likely at the end of the day like last time.

My poor Mummy

My mom just got some upsetting news. I mentioned earlier that she has to re-apply for her job since it is only for an 8 month contract, so she has to reapply every year. Well, there is absolutely no reason to have thought she wouldn’t get the job again since she does an excellent job, the students say things like she’s the best prof at the university, she was nominated for a teaching award, etc. Well apparently this has caused some jealousy within the department since she’s new and already being nominated for awards; some profs go their whole career without that. So, a couple people in the department have started making allogations towards her, accusing her of tampering with her application after it was submitted or something like that. Which of course, she didn’t do. They are also saying the university where she’s doing her PhD is not prestigious enough. They are just grasping at straws since they don’t want her to be hired. This is only 2 people out of the department, everyone else absolutely loves her. So, I think she should still be okay, but the allegation of her tampering with her application is very serious, it will have to go through the whole investigation process.

I feel so badly for her. Her interview is today at 2pm. I hope it goes well and she doesn’t let this stuff affect it! So, I’m sure she’ll want to vent for our whole walk, and I’ll let her. She can vent the whole time and then when CT and I go over there for dinner, we’ll give her our happy news, which I’m sure will pick up her spirits and cheer her up. I’m sure it will be exactly what she needs to be able to focus on something else.

Stupid university politics! I wish they would just hire the best person for the job and not let people’s own insecurities get in the way!

Is there a cloud 10?

Because cloud 9 just doesn’t seem to cut it! I am completely over-the-moon excited that CT are expecting a baby! We have been planning this for awhile. Pretty much ever since we got married, we decided we’d start trying within a year of getting married. I really wanted to get my P.Eng. before getting pregnant, and that’s what happened!

I am absolutely bursting to tell my mom our news!!! I only have to wait until tomorrow evening though, yay! Only 1 more sleep! I know she’ll be SUPER excited since she has made comments pretty much since the wedding that she is really looking forward to being a grandma. I’m not sure if she’ll scream with glee or start crying with joy. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow ;)

I’m going for a walk with my mom tomorrow afternoon, so I am going to have to make sure that she talks the whole time so that I’m distracted. I’m sure that won’t be a problem since you all know how much my mom likes to talk ;) I just hope she doesn’t suspect anything by looking at me (CT says I have been ‘glowing’ in the last few days). It’s very important to me that I not tell her until dinner tomorrow when the family is together and we give her the present, so I’ll just have to hide it for the hour I spend with her tomorrow afternoon.

Heard from the docs office

I just got the call. Which is kind of ironic because I just posted that it looks like I wasn't getting the call today (so I promptly deleted that post).

They said the results came back that I am pregnant, but very early on. Which of course, I knew since I wasn't officially late until yesterday! So, they want me to come back next Tuesday to have my bloodwork run again to make sure that my HcG levels are rising (that's the hormone that is present in pregnancy and it doubles every couple of days in early pregnancy).

So, this is good news!!! Time to celebrate! Oh, and it's my half birthday today! I am exactly 27.5 years old today! What a nice half birthday present!

Bloodwork - check!

My doctor’s office called and turns out I don’t need an appointment to get the pregnancy confirmed. I just show up at the office and they send me for the bloodwork. So, I went today at lunch. I will get the results likely tomorrow, Thursday at the latest. I would be very shocked if it came back negative since I had 3 positive pregnancy tests, but it will be nice to have it confirmed!

I will of course post as soon as I get the results!

Digital test results

After tossing and turning for a couple hours, I finally got out of bed around 4:30am this morning to do the digital test. I guess I was just too excited to sleep! I woke up CT to let him know I was doing the test. So, I went and peed on the stick and then brought it back so CT and I could see the results together. The result showed up after about a minute and it said “Pregnant”!!!!! We are both absolutely thrilled! I only got about a half hour of sleep after that before my alarm went off, so it wasn’t a good night sleep-wise. But I’m too happy to care! ;)

I called my doctor this morning (they weren’t open yet, but I didn’t want to call from work for obvious reasons) to see if I can get an appointment to have the pregnancy confirmed. I should hopefully hear back later this morning to see if I can get in this week. I am not too concerned though, we now have 3 positive pregnancy tests, so I am pretty confident that I’m pregnant! Very rarely is there a false positive, and we have 3 positives in a row now for the last 3 days.

Based on several online due date calculators, the baby would be due during the first week of February. So exciting! We went to Babies R Us last month when we officially began trying to conceive and we bought 2 “I love gramdma” bibs to give our mothers when we tell them our news (I guess we were planning ahead since the nearest babies r us is an hour away). So, we’re telling my parents the good news on Friday evening and CT’s parents on Sunday afternoon! I can’t wait! I really wanted to tell my mom before Saturday since she and I are spending the entire day together on Saturday and I wouldn’t be able to keep this secret from her. We are going shopping in Toronto and then to see Dirty Dancing.

I really wasn’t expecting this to happen so fast! It was only our second month trying! I am so happy that it did happen when it did though, I think a February baby will be absolutely perfect!

Some potentially big news

I think I may be pregnant!

I have taken a couple pregnancy tests and they came back positive. With faint lines, but the one this morning was a lot darker than the one yesterday morning. I bought a digital test and I’ll take that one tomorrow morning so that I can get a “pregnant” or “not pregnant” result instead of all this interpretation of faint lines. I am trying not to get my hopes up (good luck) until I see the word “pregnant”, but the instructions for the pregnancy tests I’ve taken so far basically say that even if the second line is faint, it’s still a positive result. I was using an “early response” test that can be used before your period is due, so that would explain the faint line; not as much of the hormone in my body as if I had waited a few more days. But, I still saw a line and it was definitely darker on today’s test than yesterdays, I wouldn’t even call today’s line faint. It’s not as dark as the “control” line, but definitely there!

So, I am VERY happy, I can hardly contain myself. I’m trying hard not to get ahead of myself until I have this confirmed though. If the digital test tomorrow morning is positive, I will call my doctor right away and hopefully I can get in this week to have it confirmed.

I love short work weeks!

It’s already Thursday; yay! This has been a bit of a slow week for me work-wise. I have had to wait for data from other people, so that’s not cool. I have what I was waiting for now, but they did the tables all wrong; sheesh! It’s the client, so it’s not as if I can complain to them. Just means my interp will take a little longer since they broke the data apart really strangely. Oh well.

Tonight, I am going out to a pub with some coworkers and a former coworker. I can only stay for an hour thought since I have a massage booked for tonight! I love my monthly massage!

So looking forward to the weekend! Saturday, CT and I are meeting nej at the zoo for some fun in the sun! Seems to be an annual thing, I make it to the zoo about once a year. At least it’s not supposed to be as hot as it was last time ;) It’s supposed to be about 20 degrees on Saturday and sunny, so just perfect. I’ll have to find my sunscreen!

Sunday, we have to study for our boating exam. We want to do the exam sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Cold weekend!

The weekend at the cottage was a cold one! When we got there, it was raining, which is never nice for crossing the lake. But, as soon as we got there, dad started a fire in the fireplace which was great. That really made the place cozy and dried us off. We were opening the cottage, so it actually was good weather for cleaning. So, we spent the weekend cleaning, playing games, eating, drinking, and lighting off roman candles. So, it was a good weekend nonetheless. And the bugs weren’t as bad as I was expecting.

So glad it’s a 4-day workweek!

Who am I jealous of?

CT! He just called me to tell me he’s already done work for the day. So, he worked a total of 2.5 hours today. I am SO JEALOUS! Oh well, I’m done at 3pm today, it just ticks me off that I work 40+ hours per week and he’s lucky if he gets to 30! Lucky duck!

I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend! I know I am going to really enjoy the break…

In other news... As of tomorrow, I have been at my job for exactly 4 years!

How’s this for crazy…

I just called my doctor’s office to book my annual physical (I am due as of the end of May), and they are booking into July! Crazy! It’s a good thing I’m not on the pill anymore and don’t need a prescription refill! They had a couple openings on my week off in July, but since I want to spend most of that week at the cottage, I don’t want to have to come into town for an appointment. I would rather miss work, so I booked it for a work day ;)

My doctor only works 4 days a week and only 1:30-4:30pm, so I guess I can understand why she’s so booked up. And I’m sure if it was something of a more urgent nature, I could have gotten in earlier. It just surprised me! I’ll know for next year to call 2 months ahead of when my physical is due!

Well that’s done.

The drilling finished up today around noon. So, all in all, it didn’t take too much longer than I had hoped. If they had started drilling before 5pm on Monday, then it would have been done in 2 days for sure. Needless to say, we will NEVER be using this company again, it was a real pain to deal with them. And I wasn’t even the one out there with them! Apparently they had a VERY poor attitude and just complained about everything and really dragged out the work, which is not cool. So glad to have that all done!

I am really looking forward to Friday at 3pm because that’s when the long weekend officially starts for me, thanks to summer hours! Mom and I are going for a long walk after I’m done work on Friday. Then on Saturday morning, CT and I are heading up to the cottage until Monday. It will be a nice break! I think the black flies will be out, but I’m going to have fun anyway!

Speaking of the cottage, CT and I bought our very own boat. Which will be nice. CT’s father was selling it, and of course he let us have it for much cheaper. (actual price has yet to be determined, I have a feeling he may give it to us for free). The boat is nothing special, just a 12 foot aluminum boat with a 4.5 horsepower motor, but it will be perfect for the two of us to cruise around in and get back and forth to the cottage. It could fit up to 4 people or 2 people with luggage and supplies. We’re not sure if we’ll be able to get the boat up to the cottage this weekend since CT’s dad wants to fix it up a bit before giving it to us, but that’s okay. That will give us more time to get our boating license since you need it for any boats which are less than 13 feet. Strange rule, but oh well.

Misery loves company

I am having one of those days where I want to pull my hair out. Anyone ever work with geotech drillers? At one of the sites I manage, we are attempting to install 4 monitoring wells. We know the materials and the depths and only require split spoon sampling on 1 of the 4, so the other 3 are just straight installs. Should be easy, right? Think again! It is almost 4pm and they still have yet to START drilling! First, they showed up an hour late (supposed to be there at 10am, showed up at 11am). Then, they were all concerned they couldn’t get to the well location because of mud. You have a track mounted rig, buddy! Whatever, we move location slightly to accommodate. I have a feeling some of the problems we're experiencing with these drillers is the guy is 23 and has only been an operator for a month. Great.

Then they got their vehicles stuck in the mud going down an old logging road where they should have only taken their track mounted rig down, not their pick-up truck. So, I had to call the Township to get them to pull them out. That finally got all sorted out and they were all ready to start when they decided they didn’t feel comfortable drilling because of the presence of bears. Which I understand is a concern, there are bears in the area, but the noise of the drill rig in operation will scare away any bears! Give me a break. Well, they outright refused to start drilling unless we provided them with bear spray and an air horn. Our field staff only had 1 bear spray on them, so they ran into town to buy another one and the only store in town that sells bear spray sold the last one this morning. Perfect. So, I had to get our other field crew who was an hour away to drive to the site on their way home to drop off another bear spray. If we’re lucky, we’ll start drilling by 5pm and get maybe an hour or two at the most in today. GAH!

Just had to vent. Sometimes being a project manager is not all it’s cracked up to be. Because I spent half my day on the phone with our field staff and the client trying to get this all sorted out and in the end, it will get done, but likely severely over budget which I am accountable for!

Thank goodness for summer hours!

Starting on Monday, we are going on summer hours! Which means I’ll work 8.5 hours on Monday-Thursday and then 6 hours on Fridays to be done at 3pm. Which will be so nice! Mom and I are going to go for a long walk (1.5 - 2 hours) together most Friday afternoons throughout the summer, so that will be great! That should help me out with my new focus on upping my fitness level.

My other plan for getting back into shape is I’m going to take a beginner Pilates class. I think this might help me with my hip flexor problem, which is really holding me back right now. I had this problem 2 years ago, and it has crept back. So, I’m willing to give Pilates a try to see if that helps. Classes start on May 28th and will be Wednesdays from 5:30-6:30 and run for 8 weeks. Then I’ll assess whether it is helping me and decide whether I want to move on to level 2. The benefit of being in level 2 is I could take classes with my mom, which would be fun.

I submitted my vacation request for the summer, so I hope it’s approved. Since we had a very expensive year last year with the wedding and honeymoon and we have been spending a lot on the house lately, we don’t really want to spend the money on a huge trip this year (other than our weekend trip to Niagara Falls planned for our first anniversary). So, we’re going to spend 2 weeks at the cottage, 1 in July and 1 in August. I am really excited about this since last year I didn’t get to spend nearly as much time at the cottage as I would have liked.

Back to the grind

I had a fabulous 4 days off. Saturday, we worked in the basement cleaning up and getting rid of stuff. I always love the feeling that comes with de-cluttering. We also celebrated with my bro Thom who got a full-time job. Get this, the kid is 18 years old, has no education (not even highschool), no experience, and gets a job that has benefits and pension with a starting salary of $33,000! The job is working in a group-home type deal. Thom is such a go-getter, he’s already talking about saving money and buying a house and then renting out rooms to students to help with the bills. I have a feeling he will move out long before my other brother who is 4 years older than Thom.

Sunday, we didn’t do much and it was great! Monday, we went to Toronto to meet up with CT’s groomsmen from the wedding for dinner. Then CT and I went to see the wrestling event. We had AMAZING seats! 11th row and it was so awesome!!!!

Yesterday, I relaxed for the day and then mom and I walked down to WW, which was an hour walk. It felt good to get some exercise in.

Speaking of WW, I am sort of at a crossroads right now. I think all the celebrations and meals out lately have finally caught up to me because I gained 3.5 pounds this past week. Which I am sure is partly water retention, but it is depressing nonetheless. As of right now, I have been on WW for 15 weeks and have lost 3.5 pounds. Not the results I was hoping for. I am at the end of the pre-paid plan I paid for when I started, so I have to make a choice whether I want to continue with the meetings or not. I just don’t think it’s worth it to me to keep paying when this obviously isn’t working. I would rather put my money to try something else, like pilates or something. My mom has been going to pilates for the last few months and absolutely loves it. I think that would be something to help me out with my hip flexor problems since that has crept back again and is keeping me from being able to run.

I by no means want to give up. I just don’t think I want to continue to pay for the meetings when it is a constant disappointment. The weeks I lose, I feel great, but the weeks I gain, it totally depresses me and sometimes I end up crying when I get home from the meeting. And I have been gaining more often than not lately. Not something I want to put myself through anymore. I think I may even try to NOT weigh myself so often, I think I am driving myself nuts. I am also getting really sick of counting points. So, I may try the core plan for a bit on my own and see how that works out.

Can’t wait for my long, long weekend!

I am leaving today at 3pm since I have some extra hours for the week. And then I am outta here until 8am on Wednesday morning. Yay! Can’t wait until my 4 day weekend! I made myself a deal that if I leave early today, I have to exercise when I get home. So, I’m not going to let myself down! ;)

Tomorrow, we have some work around the house planned. We are replacing the door from the outside to the basement since it is in very rough shape and water is getting in. So, dad is ripping it out and putting a new door in. While the men are working on that, mom and I are taking a load or two to the dump. We have this “room of junk” that has been sitting in the basement since we moved in that we want to get rid of. It will feel so good to get rid of that stuff!

Sunday, we have no plans, but if it’s nice, I want to go for a long walk. And I’m sure we’ll play some Halo 3 too ;)

Monday, we are heading to Toronto in the afternoon to meet up with CT’s cousin Nuno and his wife as well as Josh (Carlos’ groomsmen from the wedding). We are meeting them for dinner and then CT and I are going to the ACC for Monday Night Raw. Should be a good show!

Tuesday, I have the day off too (trying to use up some of my OT). CT will have to work, but he doesn’t start until 11am. So, I will have the afternoon to myself to go for a long walk with my mom and do whatever I want! Should be a fabulous weekend!

EDIT 2:45 pm

Also, tomorrow is Zeke's 7th birthday! Hard to believe I've had him for that long! He doesn't even have 100,000 km on him yet, but he will after the weekend since he's at 99,800+ right now.

Busy c-dub

I have been really busy, which is why I haven’t posted in awhile.

I had my annual review on Friday. I don’t know why, but I am always nervous about these kinds of things. But, it went very well and I even got a 5% raise, which was more than most people (the salary increase budget was 3.5%). So, I didn’t get a huge jump just because I got my P.Eng., but I am quite happy with my raise, so it’s all good.

My weekend was great! When I got home on Friday, there were a dozen pink roses waiting for me with a card that CT had made that said “Congrats to my sexy wife on becoming a P.Eng.” and it had penguins on it (since P.Eng. is the first 4 letters of penguin). What a nice surprise!

On Saturday, CT took me out for my P.Eng. celebration. It was YUMMY! Then on Sunday, I had my celebration with my family and Oma made my favourite dessert EVER! It’s a german cake and the best way to describe it is a braided coffee cake with hazelnut filling and icing dribbled over it. Man, is it yummy and such a treat since she rarely makes it anymore! I felt so special! My family made me a nice card, again with penguins all over it. It was really nice to get everyone together to celebrate my accomplishments. I guess everyone is proud of me ;)

Yesterday, I had to go to a meeting in the evening that was 3 hours away, so I didn’t get home until midnight. So, I worked a total of 16 hours yesterday! So, I came in at 11am this morning to compensate a bit. I still have an extra 5 hours for the week, so I may either leave early on Friday or bank the time (or some of each). The timing of me being away worked out well actually since Grand Theft Auto 4 came out yesterday, so CT had the entire evening to play it with my brothers. My parents even had him over for dinner since I was away, which I thought was really cute.

I am really looking forward to my 4-day weekend since I have Monday and Tuesday of next week off!

(insert clever title here)

My week has been a good one. Most of that is due to me getting my P.Eng., of course ;) So tomorrow, CT is taking me out for dinner to celebrate and then Sunday evening, I am having dinner at my parents house to celebrate. I am so darn happy that I finally have my P.Eng.! I really wanted to get it before we have a baby, so the timing was perfect. Now I don’t have to worry about “what if I get pregnant and don’t get my P.Eng.”.

Yesterday, I was in the field for the morning and the weather was gorgeous. What an awesome day to be outside for a few hours! We saw LOTS of bear tracks though, so that kind of made me nervous. I didn’t want to come across a bear on my trek in the woods! Luckily, we didn’t see any. I’ll be up there again in a couple weeks for the installation of new monitoring wells, and will likely spend 3 days at the site, so hopefully the bears will be scared off with the sounds of the drilling.

So this weekend should be a good one. Lots of celebrations for me, so it’s bound to be good ;) Then next weekend, I’m taking Monday and Tuesday off (May 5 and 6), so I will have a 4 day weekend – yay! CT and I are going to see wrestling at the ACC on the Monday night, so that should be good. I actually had a dream about it last night. I dreamed that one of my favourite wrestlers (Triple H) walked by and I told him what a huge fan I am, etc. and he invited me to join him in the ring! Then my favourite wrestler (Shawn Michaels) was also there and he started beating on me. I guess it was a tag-team match and Triple H and I were partners. Guess I didn’t really realize until it was too late what I had gotten myself into! It was funny! The things I come up with in my head when I’m sleeping…

P.Eng. – approved!

I got my P.Eng.!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!! I am on cloud 9!!!!!!!

CT was home when the mail came, saw that there was something from PEO and called me right away. Of course, I told him to open it, and sure enough, it was what I was waiting for – my P.Eng.!!!!

I don’t think my stamp was in the package, I think you have to pay for your first year of fees before they will send you the stamp.

But, I have had my new business cards for a month now (that say P.Eng.) so now I can officially use them! And CT told me that when I get my P.Eng., he’ll take me for dinner anywhere in Ontario to celebrate. So, I have to think of somewhere since we’ll do that on the weekend.

That didn’t take as long as I thought. They told me 8-10 weeks about 6 weeks ago, so it was a little earlier than I expected. Still 4 months since I applied, but oh well. I have it now, so that’s all that matters!

And I haven’t had my annual review yet (likely will be this week), so perfect timing!

Man, I am so happy right now!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOOO!

Long Weekend of Relaxation

I really enjoyed my long weekend. It was very relaxing and the weather was gorgeous!

On Friday, I went to the spa with my mom and I got a pedicure. So enjoyable! Saturday, I went to visit with my friend that I hadn’t seen in awhile and then went to the baby shower for CT’s cousin’s girlfriend. Of course, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law were laying it on thick asking when we are going to have kids. Between them and my mom, I don’t need to worry about anyone’s reaction when CT and I do have news; they will all be thrilled! I didn't want to tell them we're trying though because then I'd know they would keep asking if I'm pregnant yet. So, it's better to not tell them until we actually do have news!

Saturday evening, CT and I went out for dinner and then headed up to the bed and breakfast to use our gift certificate for a little getaway. It was a gorgeous place on 55 acres in the country and the house was 160 years old. Lots of charm. Our room even had a Jacuzzi tub, which was awesome!

On our way home from the B&B yesterday, we stopped at a conservation area and went for a walk. I was surprised that they still had snow and ice in some areas. So there we are in t-shirts and CT was in shorts, walking through the snow. The snow was only in the heavily shaded areas, so it was fine. We definitely want to go back there sometime this summer because they have 7 caves there you can explore, but the caves are currently still closed for the season, they will likely open in a couple weeks once all the ice is gone.

So here we are at another Monday. I can’t believe it’s already April 21st! Wow! I can’t wait until we go back to our summer hours here at work, then I’ll be done early on Fridays. Hopefully we’ll go back to the summer hours sometime in May.

Spam and I love Rocky Road!

Yes, that’s right, I am going to see Weird Al in concert this summer. CT *REALLY* wanted to go, so I agreed to go with him. I think it should actually be a good show; I hope he does some of his older stuff from the 90’s. Some of that is solid gold!

Last night, the whole family took Oma out for dinner for her 80th birthday. There were 13 of us in total. Actually, Oma took us all our for dinner; she wouldn’t let us pay! Silly woman! I think she was feeling really thankful for all the trouble we went to for her party on Sunday, so she wanted to treat us all.

I am so looking forward to my long weekend, I can barely contain myself. I have been really sick of work lately, I need the break. It’s not as if I hate my job, I just am feeling burnt out. I am not a fan of getting up between 6 and 6:30am anymore. I don’t like working 40 hours a week, I wish I could reduce that, but I really need the money. I have been at my job for almost 4 years now, so I guess I’m just starting to get restless. It’s not that I’m wanting to leave my job, because I want to stay, I just wish I didn’t have to work 40 hours a week anymore.

Maybe this is just me getting ready for the next phase of my life, so maybe it’s a good thing. I’m really glad I’m using some of my OT to take Friday off this week, I really need it. Even though I have Friday off, it’s still going to be a busy weekend. On Friday, I am going for lunch and the to the spa with my mom. Then I have to buy a baby gift for the shower on Saturday. The shower is an hour away, but really close to a friend’s place whom I haven’t seen since the wedding, so I am going to visit her for a couple hours prior to the shower. After the shower, I have to rush home and CT are going for dinner and then to the B&B for our weekend getaway (we got a 1-night’s stay as a wedding present). So, it will be a busy weekend, but all of the things I have to do are fun, so it’s okay!

Double Birthday Party Weekend!

My weekend was so busy, I can’t believe it’s over already! Saturday was spent cleaning at my parents house in preparation for Oma’s 80th birthday party the following day. Then, after all our cleaning, we had a little birthday party for Carlos. He got a ton of Future Crap gift cards from my family, so we headed right to Future Crap after the party so he could get some goodies. He got a second game (so now he has Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4). Both my brothers came over on Saturday night to play. Once Thom left (he had to get his gf from work), I played for a bit. I think I impressed them both because I was pretty good! I think it was beginners luck. I went to bed just after 11pm, but CT and Al stayed up until almost 2am playing. I’m glad they are enjoying it.

Sunday was spent preparing for Oma’s party and then Oma’s party lasted the afternoon. A total of 35 people showed up, which was great! Oma really loved it! So after the busy weekend, I pretty much just crashed yesterday and worked on my cross-stitch for a couple hours.

I probably mentioned a few weeks ago that CT’s cousin and his girlfriend had a baby girl. Well, I am invited to the baby shower which is on Saturday. What is a baby gift to get for someone that you barely know? Any ideas on fool-proof items that every mother needs? Maybe a cute sleeper or receiving blanket? I figure you can never have too many of those.

Hooray for Friday!

This has been a really long week for me. I think I just need a break from work. I still like my job, I just need a break. I’m so glad I’m taking next Friday off! And this weekend couldn’t come soon enough… only 8 hours until the weekend ;)

This weekend will prove to be a busy one, I’m sure. Saturday, I have to help my mom clean the house for Oma’s party the next day. We’re also taking a break from cleaning to have a little birthday party for CT. So that will be nice. I have it on good authority that he will be receiving a whack of money in Future Crap gift cards, so I’m sure he’ll love that since he can get accessories/games for his new XBOX!

Then Sunday is the big party/open house for Oma’s 80th birthday (her actual birthday is on Tuesday). We are expecting around 30-40 people to show up, so it will be nice… I don’t think Oma has any idea the scale of this gathering!

I think as part of my present to Oma, I am going to offer to help her with her finances long-term. She needs help. She just can’t cope with the stress of it anymore. She’s constantly forgetting things, even after 2 minutes. I think at this point in her life, she should just be able to enjoy herself and spend time with those she loves and not have to constantly worry about whether she’s remembered to pay her bills. She certainly is losing her mind, which is quite sad. Just the other day, we realized that her drivers license expired a year ago. She’s been driving with an expired license for a year! When she went to renew it this week, they would only give her a temporary one since she needs to take a driving test since she’s turing 80. Which I think it great. I certinaly do not think she should be driving anymore, so I am hoping she won’t pass the test. That way it’s the ministry that will be making that decision and we don’t have to. I would be very surprised if she passed because she has become a horrible driver lately.

So that’s my weekend in a nutshell. Oh, in other news, I stop wearing my splint today! For the past 2 weeks, I have just been wearing it at night, and I stop that today. My finger is getting better, I still can’t bend it fully, but it is getting there. I go back to the doctor in another week and a half and he’ll assess at that point whether I will need physio. I’m thinking likely not, but we’ll see.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Top secret mission: success!

CT has wanted an XBOX 360 for months. So, I decided I would get it for him for his 30th birthday. I actually bought it in February when it was on sale and hid it at my parents house for 6 weeks. Every time CT would bring up getting an XBOX, I would come up with some excuse to put it off. Money was a good one; I used that one for awhile. Our mortgage increase is going through this Friday, so I kind of told him that as a timeline. I said we could re-asses our finances after that and see if we could afford it. So, I think I had him fooled ;)

So yesterday, I took the afternoon off work (CT didn’t know that) and did a bunch of errands. I decorated the house with exactly 30 balloons and set up a big scavenger hunt for him to find his present. I actually wrapped a “decoy” present that was obviously too small to be an XBOX to fool him. I had that sitting on the table all during dinner to build the suspense. Then after dinner, he opened it and there was a clue inside. Eleven clues led him all over the house and then finally to a hidden XBOX 360. Man, was he ever surprised! He’s so happy! I have never been so excited to give someone a gift before!!! And the scavenger hunt was fun; I had to make him work for it a bit ;)

I certainly loved working a half day yesterday… I wish I could do that more often! Sigh, back to 8-5 for now.

I have no idea how my weigh-in this week is going to go. I had a few meals out this week and we ordered pizza last night for CT’s birthday (his request), so who knows. I would be happy to just stay the same for the month of April with all these birthdays to celebrate! We are doing a birthday celebration for CT on Saturday with my family, then Sunday is the open house for Oma’s 80th birthday, then Tuesday is the dinner out on Oma’s actual birthday with the whole family. Yikes! At least the weather is getting nicer so I can start going for walks outside again!

Fun with crafts

Well, it’s Monday again. I am actually okay with that since I’m really excited about my hubby’s birthday tomorrow! He’s turning 30! I think I’m more excited that he is ;) I think he has some mixed feelings about turning 30, so I’ll do my best to make sure he has a great day.

My weekend was good. On Saturday, we had the birthday dinner for my mom. My brother ended up switching shifts at work so he could be there, so that was great. We even played a game after dinner, which was nice. I think mom was very pleased!

I also ventured into one of my favourite stores: Michaels. I wanted to get a cross-stitch kit. I used to do cross-stitch all the time when I was younger, and I really wanted to get back to it. I wanted something I could work on in the evenings while watching tv. My plan is that if I have my hands busy doing something, that will cut down on the snacking! When I went to pick one out, I wanted one that I would actually want to hang up when it’s done. So, the one I got has a white tiger, black panther, and leopard in it, so it totally matches the theme in our bedroom. So that’s where I’ll hang it when it’s done. Of course, I used my 40% off coupon (I never pay full price for anything in that store), as well as my gift card (thanks nej), so I got it for really cheap! I’m excited! I spent a few hours on it on the weekend. I think this one is going to take a long time since it’s huge, but that’s okay! I really enjoy it, so I want it to take me awhile to complete. I’m thinking it will take me a few months.

So, another day, another 10 cents. I wish the weekend was longer. But, I am taking next Friday off (the 18th), so I’ll have a 3-day weekend then… yay!

Car repairs galore!

Seems like everyone is getting car repairs lately (nej awhile back, CT, burger, now me!)

I have Zeke in the shop today for various regularly scheduled things. Oil change, transmission fluid change, and I also needed a new rear wiper blade. And my check engine light has been on for a few weeks, so they checked that too. All in all, it’s going to cost me $277 today, but the reason my my check engine light was on is I need a new air fuel ratio sensor. Basically, she said my car would not pass an emissions test without getting this part replaced and my gas mileage is also reduced because of this. So, I am going to get that replaced as well, but they need to order the part… that’s going to cost another $390! So altogether, Zeke is going to cost me over $650 this month in repairs! Yikes! Oh well. When you look at the fact that I’ve had him for 7 years, he hasn’t cost me much in repairs over his lifetime. We just spent almost $500 on CT’s car a couple weeks ago. Sheesh!

Day to celebrate!

Today is my mom’s 50th birthday. As her birthday present, I got us tickets to go see Dirty Dancing musical in Toronto in May. I think she’ll love it! It will our third musical we go see together in Toronto I think, the first 2 being Mama Mia and Lord of the Rings, which were both excellent. Mom and I are meeting for dinner tonight and then going to WW, as usual on a Wednesday. Then on Saturday, I’m planning a family birthday dinner at my parents place. So, I think she’ll be happy!

Then Tuesday is my hubby’s 30th birthday. He didn’t really want any big parties or anything, just a quiet evening with me. He does want to order pizza for dinner from this amazing pizza place in town, I haven’t had pizza from there since I was a kid! I am SOOOO looking forward to it!

And then Oma’s 80th birthday is a week after my hubby’s, so lots of celebrations! I think I will be lucky if I stay the same in terms of weight for the first couple weeks of April. I would like to get to 10 pounds lost by the end of April, that’s my goal.

Boourns to another Monday

I had a good weekend. I did take some time to relax. I did some reading, went out for lunch with my hubby, visited Oma, stuff like that. I’m re-reading Lord of the Rings since I haven’t read them since before the movies came out. We re-watched the movies over the last few weekends, so that made me want to read the books again.

Saturday evening, we participated in Earth hour. We turned off all the lights and unplugged everything we could (we left our fridge on, of course) and we lit some candles and enjoyed some quiet time. It was fun!

Yesterday afternoon, we went to my cousin’s hockey game. It was for the Midget A Ontario championships, game 4 of a best of 5 series (my cousin’s team was winning the series 2-1). And they won yesterday! Which means they are the Ontario Champions in their Midget A league! It was a very exciting game! Probably the last game of his amateur hockey career since he’s starting university in September.

Last night was Wrestlemania. We had a couple friends over, as well as my dad and his buddy. The local movie theatre wanted $35 a ticket to go see it there, so it was definitely cheaper for the 6 of us to order it at home, even at the hefty price of $65. Everyone chipped in for the cost, which was nice. It was a pretty good show, although I was pretty sleepy by the end. Since I’m used to going to bed between 9:30 and 10pm, staying up until 11 was quite difficult! Especially since I didn’t sleep in much this weekend, I was awake at 7:30am both mornings.

So here we are at another work week. Boo. At least April is around the corner because I have a few days off scheduled in the next few weeks – yay! I haven’t taken any time off yet this year!

I did it.. phew.

As I’ve said before, we have a pile of reports due March 31st. I was working on 2 that I just got back comments from the client yesterday. One of these reports is massive, think 40 pages of text, 150 pages of tables, 18 figures, and probably 300 pages of appendices. That’s the report that is the most work for me every year. Well, it’s done… and going out today. Along with the other report I was working on. Which is the last possible day they could go out and meet the deadline. Phew! I am so glad to have that done!

I am SOOOO looking forward to the weekend. After all the OT I’ve worked lately, I can’t wait to just relax. We don’t have any plans this weekend, which is really nice since we were so busy last weekend.

Don't forget Earth Hour tomorrow night between 8 and 9pm!!

My doctor's appointment went well. I can wean off the splint now and only wear it at night and during strenuous activity. I do that for 2 weeks. 2 weeks from now, I stop wearing the split altogether. I go back to see the doc on April 22nd, at which point I should be able to make a fist again. If not, I may need physiotherapy. So, it was quite positive. I'm keeping the splint on for the afternoon, but once I get home, it's coming off until nighttime!

WW success!

I just wanted to share my weigh-in results… I was down 1.5! So, in the last 9 weeks, I have lost a total of 7.5 pounds! My second 5-pound star is in sight! I think I’ve found that the weeks I seem to do the best, are the weeks when I have one or two days when I eat a lot of my flex points. So, for me, it’s better to spend my flex points on one or two meals rather than spread out evenly over the entire week.

Tonight I finally get to do laundry in our new machines… I can’t wait!

Tomorrow, I go back to the plastic surgeon about my finger. I hope he’ll tell me I don’t have to wear the splint anymore. We’ll see! It’s been 9 weeks now since I broke my finger… the tendons should be healed by now!

Laundry fun

Last night, CT did a load of laundry in our new washer/dryer! We’re nerds, so we were down in the laundry room watching the action for awhile. We realized that although the washer and dryer have an “estimated time remaining” indicator, it is just that - estimated. The washer automatically senses how much clothes is in there and adjusts the water level accordingly. So, I think since it was a full load, it took a little longer than the estimated 54 minutes. The dryer, same thing. It has a moisture sensor, so it automatically senses when the clothes are dry and stops then (but sill tumbles intermittently without heat to prevent wrinkles). The estimated time was 35 minutes, but it took a little longer. All in all, we figured it took almost 2 hours to do a full load (wash and dry), which is less than half the time it took us previously. So, we are quite pleased! And I know we’ll see a difference on our electricity bill!

I’m going to do my first load of laundry tomorrow night (since I’m out at WW tonight). Speaking of WW, I have no idea how my weigh-in will go tonight. I already know that my scale at home is different from the one at WW. It’s hard to tell. I chose to go a little overboard for Easter, but I counted everything and only went a couple points over on my flex. So, I think I did well considering the 2 massive Easter feasts. I even gave my chocolate bunny to CT because it wasn’t worth the points to me. If I’m going to have chocolate, I want to have the good, expensive chocolate and not waste my points on the cheap chocolate bunny. So, I am proud of myself for my efforts this week regardless of how the weigh in goes. I have a feeling I will be around the same as last week, maybe even down a bit. I doubt I’ve gained. I will find out tonight!

In other news, CT and I have been married for exactly 200 days as of today! Yes, I keep track ;)

Money, money

CT took his car in because the muffler is hanging on by a thread. Cost to replace the muffler and rusty piping: $481! Wow! Cars are so expensive sometimes, aren’t they? I know nej can relate! There is a long list of things he wants to get fixed on his car, but he’s just going for the muffler repair for now. We’re going to try to spread the rest of the costs out over the next several months. His car is 10 years old now, so things are starting to need repairs. But I think the rest of the things can wait for a few months. We have to prioritize the repairs since if we got it all done at once, I’m sure it would be $1,500.

There comes a point when you have to start thinking about whether it’s worth it to put that much money into an older car. But, we talked about it and decided that we do want to keep his car for as long as possible. It’s a Toyota, so we all know those things are built to last. So, we’re going to try to get as much life out of it as possible, I think it could likely last us for another 3 or 4 years anyway. It’s got just over 200,000 km on it, so I think it’s got some life left.

On a completely unrelated note, I have noticed some changes since coming off the pill. First off, my face has completely broken out, so I can relate to your struggle lj! I was hoping I would have outgrown the acne phase, but no dice. I’m hoping it will clear up on its own soon. Not fun.

I have also noticed a change emotionally. Not that I would consider myself depressed before or anything, but I am just happier lately. I can’t really explain it, but so far I am loving being off the pill! Now, my happier nature lately could be due to the fact that I am almost done my stupid reports at work ;) It may not be related to the pill at all.

And, at the risk of being too personal, I have also noticed a change in my sex drive. Again, not that it was bad before, but it has definitely increased! I don’t know if my hubby knew what hit him, although I don’t think he’s complaining ;)

So, judging from my first 2 weeks off the pill, I have definitely noticed some changes. I guess it’s too early to tell if it’s just coincidence or related to the pill, but I thought I’d share it since nej posted some of her discoveries about going on the pill. I'm still worried about how my periods will be off the pill, but I guess I'll find out in a bit! I'm hoping I've outgrown the awful periods.

What an amazingly productive weekend!

I know this is a crazy-long post, so get a cup of coffee and settle in…

We certainly got a lot accomplished this weekend. On Thursday evening, we had a meeting with our mortgage specialist. We have been wanting to get our finances in order and we wanted to consolidate some of our debts (line of credit, credit cards, etc.) with our mortgage to decrease the amount of interest we pay. We’re planning for the future and when we have a baby, I’ll have a reduced income. Since we only owe $90,000 on our house, we definitely have some equity in it since I’m sure it’s worth at least $160,000 now, if not more with all the upgrades we’ve been doing. Long story short, we increased our mortgage amount to cover all our other debts, but we still had some equity in our house, so we also applied for the HomeLine plan, which is basically a line of credit at prime interest rate for the amount of 80% of the value of our house minus our current mortgage balance. So, in the beginning, we’ll only have a $7,000 line of credit, but as we pay off our mortgage, the line of credit amount will increase. Of course, you only pay for the amount that you actually use. So, if we don’t use any of the line of credit, we pay nothing. It’s just a safety net incase we ever need it. And the line of credit will always be at prime, which is an amazing rate to get a loan at. We’ll never need to get another loan from the bank or anything. We’re quite pleased! When we calculated the amount of interest we are currently paying on my line of credit and CT’s credit cards, it’s over $300 a month. Which is crazy! The increase to our mortgage increased our payments by $200 per month, so we’ll still be further ahead and we’ll have all credit card debt and my current line of credit balance paid off. It was a very successful meeting! We still have to wait to find out whether we’re approved for the HomeLine plan, but I don’t think it will be a problem.

Friday, we went to CT’s parents house for easter dinner. Since they are Catholic, they don’t eat meat on Good Friday, so we had a seafood feast instead. Which is fine by me! We had 3 different kinds of shrimp, salmon, crab legs, salad, etc. It was amazing!

Friday evening, we did our tax return and we are expecting a refund of approximately $1,500, which is amazing! That gave us a budget when we went washer/dryer shopping on Saturday.

Saturday morning, we bought tickets to go see WEE Monday night Raw at the ACC in May. We got floor seats, 11th row! So, we could be right in the action if the wrestlers come out into the crowd like they sometimes do. I’m so excited!

Saturday, we went to 8 different places looking at washer/dryers. Right from the beginning, every place we went recommended the same set as a good mid-range in terms of price with excellent quality (Whirlpool Duet Sport). So, we knew that’s the one we wanted. Some sets were well over $2,000, so those were definitely too much. Leons was having an amazing sale on the set we wanted, but we ended up getting it another place that CT does the ads for and has connections with. They matched Leons price and had free delivery and removal of our old appliances (we were only getting rid of our dryer, the washer we are keeping for my brother when he moves out since it still works fine). They delivered the set this morning and we can use it starting tomorrow (I guess it needs to ‘rest’ for 24 hours after it’s moved before you can use it). And with taxes and everything, it only ended up being $30 more than our tax refund, so we did well!

The washer is 3.4 cubic feet I think and the dryer is 6.7. Since the washer is front load, it uses A LOT less water and energy than topload, which I guess is why you don’t have to pay PST. The government’s little incentive to buy energy star. I love the set and I can’t wait to use them! Front load washers also spin the clothes faster (over 1,000 rpm), so the clothes come out already somewhat dry, which reduces the drying time. The dryer has a moisture sensor, so it will stop when the clothes are dry. It also has a feature that will tumble the clothes without heat every once in awhile for up to 90 minutes after the clothes are dry to prevent wrinkles if you’re not down there right away to unload. That has to be one of my favourite features. I’m always playing the game of trying to time it just right so I can take the clothes out right when they’re done so they don’t wrinkle. With this set, I don’t have to worry about that, I have an extra 90 minutes to get down there.

One thing I did notice with front loads is some people buy the pedestals to raise them up, but that would have been an extra $300! So, my dad is going to build us a little platform to put them on so they are at a better height for loading and unloading.

I am very pleased with our purchase since we really did our comparison shopping and I know Whirlpool is a great name. And we got an amazing deal.

Sunday, we had the easter dinner and easter egg hunt with my family. Loads of fun, as usual!

So, it was a really great weekend!

At least it's fake friday!

Geepers. We get to the office this morning and the power is out. I guess it had been out since midnight. Luckily, it came back on about a half hour after I arrived here. So, I had time to clean off my desk a bit! And we were without running water until 5 minutes ago. I was afraid to drink any water this morning since I didn’t know how long the water would be out. I’m glad it’s back now!

The good news is that it’s Thursday before a long weekend! I have been working so many extra hours lately, that I’m at my 40 hours of banked time. That’s the most we can bank, then we get paid out on anything over that. So, I’m thinking I should take some time off! I’m thinking of taking a Friday in April off to go to the spa with my mom. We’re going to reward ourselves for being on WW for 12 weeks, so we’re going to get pedicures together as our reward. So, I’m thinking a day off work to go to the spa is well deserved. It will likely be the Friday of the weekend that CT and I are going on our little weekend getaway to a local B&B.

WW weigh-in was a success for both mom and I last night; we both were down. I lost 1 pound, so now I’m at a total loss of 6 pounds. Only another few more pounds until I’m back to the weight I was at the wedding. This week will be difficult with 2 Easter dinners, but I can deal with it. I’ll just make sure I exercise on those 2 days to get some extra points and I’ll save all my flex points for those 2 meals. It will be okay; I can do this!

I am so looking forward to the 3 days off work. Two days will be spent with family and the other day we’ll be doing our tax return and maybe going to look at washers/dryers. So, it will be a busy weekend, but I’m sure we’ll still find some time to relax.

Hope everyone has a great Easter! It’s one of my favorite holidays since it means so much.

Frustrations galore

I am trying like mad to get a report out today… it is an absolutely massive report that is the bain of my existence every year and I am trying to get the appendices printed off and…. Our printer runs out of toner! We usually keep this on hand, but I guess we have been doing A LOT of printing lately with all our reports. So, we likely won’t be able to get another toner until tomorrow morning. And this report was supposed to go out today. GAH! Oh well, at least I got one report out to the same client yesterday, so they can review that one while we are waiting on our printer. I have been working late several evenings in the last week trying to get this report done. How frustrating! I wanna have an office space moment and take a baseball bat to the photocopier sometimes… Who’s with me?

New member of the family

CT’s cousin and his girlfriend just had a baby yesterday. A little girl, weighing 8 pounds, 4 ounces. That’s all I know so far. Exciting! This is great-grandchild number 2 for CT’s grandparents, the only other being CT’s nephew, who is 10.

Oh, and I meant to mention this before, but my former co-worker Danica had her baby on February 25th; a little girl named Lily May. I mentioned this since lj knows her.

I had a great weekend. Evil Dead musical was awesome! Very funny and worth seeing. Yesterday, I didn’t really do much. The usual Sunday stuff like grocery shopping and laundry.

Speaking of laundry, CT and I have come to the conclusion that we need a new washer/dryer. The set we have we got for free from a friend. And when we got them, she warned me that the dryer was on its last legs. It never really worked too well. It works, just takes forever to dry a load. And the washer is in rough shape too. But, we were definitely glad to get them since they have been great to have and we’ve been using them for a year and a half now. And thinking into the future, when we have a baby, we’re going to need a better washer/dryer since our laundry needs are going to increase bigtime. We are thinking now would be a good time since when we do get pregnant, we will have a ton of other expenses to worry about. So it would be good to get this expense out of the way before that happens.

So, our biggest decision right now is whether to get electric or gas dryer. We have a gas furnace, so we could get a hookup for our dryer easy enough, we’re just not really sure if it’s worth the hassle at this point, especially since we are thinking we’ll only be in that house for another 5 years or less. I have heard that gas dryers are better on your clothes, and likely cheaper to operate, but they are more expensive to buy. And I think even if we were to get electric, we’d see a decrease in our utility bill since right now, it takes 3+ hours to try a load of laundry, which is terrible.

What type of dryer to you gals have? Any recommendations?

Awesome WW meeting

The WW meeting last night was the best meeting so far. First off, I lost the weight I had gained over the last 2 weeks, so I’m back to where I was 3 weeks ago, which is down 5 pounds. So, 7 weeks in, I have lost 5 pounds. Which I am really happy about. Of course, I would have liked it to come off more quickly, but I am happy with my progress. At the meeting last night, we talked about plateaus or slow scale progress. My mom brought up the point asking if everyone else is finding the progress is really slow. Because all we really hear about are the people who are successful. One girl there got her 4th 5 pound star and she’s only been there 5 weeks! She’s lost a total of 21 pounds so far. And here I am 7 weeks in struggling to lose 5 pounds. Doesn’t seem fair. So, it was encouraging to hear that other people are finding the weight loss really slow. We even stayed after the meeting to talk to 2 ladies who are experiencing the same thing as us: VERY slow weight loss. It was inspiring to hear. So, we walked out of that meeting feeling very inspired and encouraged to keep going.

I’m still upset about the whole PEO thing, but I have to just get over that. There’s nothing I can do to change it. At least you ladies can learn from my experience and know that when you go to apply for your P.Eng., expect that it will take at least 4 months before you hear anything! I wish I had known that going in, but oh well. I just hope they don’t come back with a bunch of additional information required. That would push back the timeline even more! At least the good news is, once I do finally get it, the weather will be nicer for CT to take me “anywhere in Ontario” for dinner to celebrate like he promised!

Sheesh...

I just got the following email from my admissions representative at the PEO:

"References responses have been received and your file will be forwarded for an experience assessment for consideration of licencing. You will be advised within the next 8-10 weeks if any further information is required or if you have been approved for licencing."

I didn't know it was going to take another 2 months! I thought I would hear in March for sure. I don't understand why they couldn't have been screening my experience summary at the same time as waiting for my references, but I guess they have a certain system that they use. Sheesh! So, at this rate, I won't hear back until May! Oh well, I guess another 2 months isn't a huge deal, I'm just getting impatient!

More snow?

We got another 5cm last night and are supposed to get more in the next couple of days. I am getting REALLY sick of all the snow. And usually, I love the snow. Just not in March! I am so looking forward to spring! Will it ever come!?!?!

Not much new here. Just working away on report after report. It’s getting really old. But, next week, I should be done all the ones that are due March 31st, so then I get to switch gears for awhile and do some modeling work. I am really looking forward to doing something different!

Tonight is my WW meeting. I am actually really looking forward to it since I think I should have a good weigh-in. I had little gains the last 2 weeks, so I am hoping to be back to where I was 3 weeks ago, which was down 5 pounds. We’ll see. But, this will have been my 7th week in a row where I did not go over on my points, so I consider that a huge success regardless of what the scale says. I don’t want to concentrate on the numbers too much. I want to more focus on how I feel and that my clothes are fitting better.

Last week at the meeting, they handed out several 5 pound stars. One was to a woman who had only been on the program for 1 week. Another woman was on the program for 6 weeks before she got her 5 pound star. I found the 6-week woman MUCH more inspiring. I really needed to hear that. I’m not alone. Other people are finding it taking FOREVER to get anywhere. When I signed up, I bought 16 weeks right away, so I committed to keep at this for 16 weeks and see where I am then, which will be the beginning of May. I think if I hadn’t bought 16 weeks right away, I likely would have given up after last week since it was the second week in a row with a gain and I felt like I totally didn’t deserve it. Mom gained last week too. So, we were both feeling discouraged, but we told ourselves that we just aren’t going to give up. Here’s hoping we both see losses tonight!

Happy Birthday Smokey

Today is Smokey’s 2nd birthday. I feel really lucky to have him since we almost lost him last March. But, he’s gone almost a year without a relapse, so that’s good news! I guess the special food must be doing its job!

What a weekend! We were planning on going out on Saturday night for our 6-month anniversary, but the weather was just too awful, even to walk. None of the sidewalks were plowed and the snow was about knee-deep, so it would have taken us forever to get downtown, so we just decided to stay cozy and warm inside. So we played PS2 together instead ;)

Yesterday, CT spent 2 hours shoveling just so we could get Zeke out of the driveway (I helped as much as I could with my finger). CT still has to dig his car out this morning, his car was absolutely buried! The only part of his car that was visible was the roof; the rest was completely buried. It was nuts! I have never seen anything like it!

I did use the time at home to get back into using my treadmill, I used it twice this weekend and am really proud of myself for that.

So now it’s back to work. On Friday, I got 5 reports out in draft, so that felt really good. I have another 3 to try to get out this week, so it’s going to be a busy week! So far, I haven’t had to work much overtime, but this week may be different! We’ll see how it goes.

This is a big step

Tonight, I take my last birth control pill. I am both excited and nervous at the same time. I just decided that I was sick of putting hormones into my body, and I really wanted to see if going off the pill would also help me in my weight loss journey. So, I made sure to stop at the end of a pack, so tonight will be my last pill. After being on the pill for almost exactly 6 years, that’s enough! I don’t know for sure if being on the pill is why I’m struggling to lose weight, but there’s no way to find out unless I try this! I am also quite nervous about how my periods will be since they were so awful before the pill, but I’m hoping I’ve ‘out-grown’ the crazy heavy flow and mind-numbing cramps.

Also, CT and I want to start trying for a baby at some point in the near future, so I wanted to give my body break from the pill for awhile first. So, this serves a double-purpose ;)

Tomorrow, is CT and my 6-month anniversary. Since it sounds like we are in for quite the snowstorm tomorrow, we may just spend the day relaxing at home and then we’ll walk downtown and go for dinner and see a movie as our date to celebrate. CT has really been wanting to see “Vantage Point” and I would like to see it as well. And we are only a 15-20 minute walk from the movie theatre, so that sounds like a perfect date to me that can’t get screwed up by the storm!

Also, my reference for my PEO application got his 2nd questionnaire this week (since the first one he sent never made it to PEO… stupid Canada Post!). So, he filled it out yesterday and both faxed and mailed it back to make sure they get it this time. The envelope even is already postage paid and has the address pre-printed, so I have no idea how Canada Post lost that one! Anyways, I have no idea how long it will take them to process my application from this point, but I’m thinking I could maybe hear the week after next! Or at least by the end of the month hopefully!

Busy week ahead

This week, not only am I busy at work, but I am out 3 evenings this week. Tonight, I am going to get highlights and a haircut (which I am looking forward to – I haven’t had highlights since a week before the wedding). I’m not getting much cut off, just a trim. Tomorrow night, I have my weekly WW meeting with my mom. Then Thursday, we’re going to the Petes game (OHL) since my cousin Brett is doing the ceremonial face-off thing. He got an RBC scholarship and so he is being recognized. So, a bunch of us are going in support of him. And then we get to watch a Petes game too which should be fun!

I am not looking forward to the impending snow storm. I really wish spring would come already! Although, spring means rain and right now we seem to have a water runoff problem where whenever it rains, we get water coming under the door into the basement. We definitely need to fix that somehow before spring! Our dehumidifier has been doing a good job and soaking up the water when it does come in, but we need a permanent fix. Gotta love old houses, the work never ends!

Tomorrow, I am tuning into a webinar for the morning, so I am looking forward to the break from writing reports!

I fell in love

CT and I were doing a bunch of errands on the weekend and suggested that we pop into the local pet store “just to look around”. Big mistake. We have been thinking about getting an aquarium, so I think that’s why he suggested it. Turns out they had some pretty good deals in aquariums, some were almost half price. Of course we can’t afford it right now since we’re still paying off our bathroom reno.

Anyways, while we were there, I totally fell in love with a puppy. A Chihuahua puppy. This is not normally a type of dog I would even consider, but as soon as I saw him, we had a connection. I fell in love with that little pup. I couldn’t get him out of my mind. We’re not looking at getting a dog right now, especially not a $900 Chihuahua; we would want a more ‘family’ dog. So, I had to keep telling myself that we couldn’t get the puppy, no matter how cute he is. We are thinking of getting a dog somewhere down the line, but that won’t be likely until after we have kids and have a house with a fenced in yard. And when we do get a dog, it won’t be from a pet store! I just hope somebody loving and caring buys that puppy and gives him a wonderful home.

Leap Day Post!

Well since this date only comes around once every 4 years, I thought I should register a post on this date ;)

I am looking forward to the weekend, as always I suppose. Since I’m so busy at work these days, I am definitely going to appreciate the break for 2 days! We don’t have many plans for the weekend. Have some running around to do, cleaning, and some visiting. We’re going to go visit Oma tomorrow since she’s back from Florida now.

So tomorrow is officially March. And I am so glad that February will be done with; it’s been a bad month! I have a feeling the next few months will be awesome to make up for the less than stellar February ;)

A few people have noticed I’ve lost weight, which makes me happy. I have only lost 5 pounds so far, but even I have noticed that is has made a big difference in how my clothes fit and how I feel. I will keep at it this weekend and make it 6 weeks in a row that I will have been on plan! Now that I have a ‘streak’ going, it makes me more motivated to not give up.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Various things

Yup, Canada Post lost the questionnaire. Oh well, at least I called and wasn’t just waiting endlessly! They are going to send him another questionnaire to fill out. I asked if they could send it by fax to save time, but I’m not sure if they will , they may prefer to mail it. We’ll see. Even if they mail it, hopefully it won’t take too long. I am getting quite anxious now since it’s been almost 2 months since I sent in my application. Although I knew it would likely take 2-3 months before I heard back. I just have to be patient ;)

At my weigh-in last night, I gained 0.5 pounds. Which really isn’t much. I had a big loss last week, so I wasn’t expecting to lose again this week. It seems like my weight loss goes in spurts where I have been alternating between weeks of loss and gain, but my losses are always bigger than my gains, so that’s good. And mom and I have decided that we’re going to measure success by whether we’ve stayed on program because that is something we can control. It seems like the number on the scale doesn’t always match up with our efforts. So as long as we stay on program, sooner or later we’ll lose weight. As an aside, mom lost 2.5 last night, and she was on vacation last week – amazing! She got her 2nd 5 pound star and has lost a total of 10.5 pounds in 5 weeks. Atta girl! She’s doing amazing! I’m proud of both of us actually, we have both been successful so far.

So Oma gets home today. I don’t know why she wanted to cut her vacation short, I guess she missed us. We’ll make sure we go to visit her on the weekend.

CT and I have our 6-month anniversary coming up next Saturday (the 8th). I can’t believe it will be 6 months already! It doesn’t seem like that long ago that I was getting ready to walk down the aisle. Time flies for sure! I think we’re going to go out on a date on the 8th to celebrate. Maybe we’ll go back to the pub we went to on our first date and the night he proposed. I’ll see if my hubby has any ideas.

Stupid Canada Post

Yesterday, I decided to call PEO just to check the status of my application. I know my 3 referees had received their questionnaires, filled them in, and sent them back. So, I have been checking the mail every day for the last week or so thinking that I could be receiving my P.Eng. any day now. So, I decided to call them just to see whether I could be expecting it soon or whether it would still be awhile.

Turns out, they are still waiting for one of my referees and I know that his questionnaire was mailed back on Feb. 8th. That was over 2 weeks ago, so they should have received it by now! So, it was either lost by Canada Post or PEO received it and it somehow did not make it into my file yet. I’m hoping it’s the latter. Otherwise, they will have to mail him another one and he’ll have to fill it out again and mail it back (since he didn’t take a copy of his completed questionnaire before mailing it back), which could take another couple of weeks. So, at this rate, I won’t likely hear back about whether I got my P.Eng. until mid-to late March at the earliest. Which is fine. I’ve been waiting for years to get my P.Eng., what’s another few weeks? It’s just annoying because I could have it already if that wasn’t lost in the mail!

I’m just really glad I called because I don’t know how long they would have waited for this before contacting me. Sheesh!

Okay, this is strange

The date of Saturday’s car accident: February 23, 2008.

I was a passenger in another fender-bender last year. Can you guess the date? February 23, 2007 (I knew it was in February, so I looked back in my day planner and sure enough, the 23rd).

And, to make it even stranger… they were at the exact same intersection! Needless to say, I will be not going anywhere near that intersection on February 23rd next year!

My finger is healing well

I just got back from my second appointment about my finger. He took the splint off and had me bend a bit, and said everything looks like it’s healing well. I still have to wear the splint 99% of the time, but I can start taking it off a couple minutes a day to start bending my finger a bit as long as it doesn’t hurt to do so. It if hurts, splint goes back on and I try again in a few days. I go back to see him again in a month and hopefully at that point, I won’t have to wear the splint anymore.

Oma is coming home from Florida early, she was supposed to come back on Sunday, but she’s coming back on Thursday instead. It will be good to have her back. I’ll make sure to go visit her on the weekend.

Tonight I’m going to visit family friends (my ex’s parents) to do some hair colouring, which should be interesting with a broken finger, but I’ll manage. They just got back from visiting their new grandson, so I’m sure they will have tons of pictures to show me. Needless to say, CT decided to skip this one since he doesn’t really want to sit through all the pictures and hearing all about my ex’s new son. I don’t blame him one bit. My mom is coming with me instead since she hasn’t seen them since my wedding.

CT is taking his car in this morning to get an estimate on the damage. The insurance company may pay for a rental car for him to drive while his car is being repaired if it’s going to take awhile. We should know more today.

Is February over yet?

Warning: complaining ahead!

It seems as though this has been a very bad month. I broke my finger (I guess that was actually in January), my family went on vacation without me (the reason I am upset about this goes much deeper), my hubby fell down the front steps when it was icy, hubby has had a cold (and a sore neck, not sure if it was from all the sneezing or his tumble), and then Saturday we got in a fender bender. Sheesh; what a month!

The accident was a minor one, thank goodness. We had our nephew in the car, CT’s car. It was just one of those things, totally not our fault. We were driving down a road with 4 lanes (2 in each direction). We were in the right lane, but the car in front of us was turning right into a gas station, so we went in the left lane to get around them. There was a car pulling out of the gas station turning left, they saw the car ahead of use turning right, so they figured they could go. Turned right in front of us, CT slammed on the brakes, but we just couldn’t stop in time, so we hit them. There was oncoming traffic, so we couldn’t really swerve into that lane, that could have been much worse. Not a whole lot of damage to our car, just took out the headlight and dented the bumper a bit. The car we hit wouldn’t even run though, some pulley was broken, so they needed to be towed. There were 3 people in the other car, all of them smoking. So, no wonder the guy didn’t see us, it was probably all smoky in their car! Sheesh! At least he admitted that it was his fault, so our insurance shouldn’t be affected. CT is going to the collision reporting centre this morning to report it. Just the last thing we needed after a crappy few weeks. But, we’re glad nobody was hurt.

My family arrived home from Florida last night, so I’m glad they’re back safely. I am really upset with them though. Since my Oma has been gone for 6 weeks, I offered to look after her finances and pay bills while she’s away. Well, I got her credit card bill and was shocked to find out she spent over $2,500 on my mom and 2 brothers in the week after Christmas buying them stuff. Now, normally, I would say it’s her money and she can do what she wants, but she had totally forgotten she had spent this money and of course didn’t have the money in her account to cover it. She simply does not have the mental capacity to make financial decisions anymore. It’s quite sad. That’s why I told my mom to make sure Oma doesn’t pay for too much while they’re down there visiting. I wanted my family to pay for some things. Well, my mom is totally broke and has been on the verge of bankruptcy for many years, so of course Oma paid for everything while they were there; all meals and excursions. This makes me really upset because I feel like they are all a bunch of leeches just totally sucking Oma dry when she is so vulnerable. And my brothers totally don’t deserve it since they aren’t even nice to Oma 95% of the time. Their house is attached to Oma’s and they refuse to visit her; I visit her WAY more than they do. The only reason they go to visit her is if she feeds them (since my mom doesn’t cook). And they get rewarded for their poor behavior? Makes me sick.

Okay, so this has totally been a rant-fest, but it feels good to get that off my chest. I don’t know if telling Oma how I feel would make any difference; I doubt it. I just feel like the people who don’t deserve it are getting rewarded while those of us who actually make an effort to have a relationship with her (my dad, me, CT) get nothing. And I am totally not looking for her to buy me things, that’s not what I want at all. I just want my mom and brothers to stop acting like such mooches and getting Oma to buy them all these things when Oma is losing her mind. It’s a sad situation all around. I just feel like I need to stick up for Oma because somebody has to.

Complaining finished.

Okay, onto happy things. It’s almost March which means I only have a few more weeks of report writing madness. Can’t wait ‘til April.

I am so proud of myself!

I realized at 4:40pm yesterday that I had forgotten my WW membership book at home (and it is needed to weigh in). I usually keep it in my purse all the time, but I cleaned out my purse on Saturday so I would lighten the load for carrying around the Science Centre. So that was one of the things I took out, but I didn’t realize it until yesterday. It would have been so easy to just say screw it and skip the meeting. But, I left work as soon as I realized this, rushed home to get my membership book, and got to WW just before the meeting.

And I am ever glad I went because I lost 2.5 pounds this week, bringing my total weight loss to 5 pounds! Which means I got my first 5 pound star! I am so proud of myself! I thought I would be down this week since I gained a bit last week, but I didn’t think it would be that much! I have lost 5 pounds in 4 weeks and I am so pleased!!! This finally seems to be working. And now that I am seeing success, that motivates me to keep going.

Haha, I had to laugh at myself!

I just went to the washroom and realized I had my undies on backwards. Haha. How did I not notice that?

The meeting last night went very well. Lots of people showed up, which is great. Lots of NIMBYs, which we expected. I got home around 1:00am, and I got to work this morning at 11am. So, short day today for me! I think I’m going to stay until 6pm tonight since WW doesn’t open until 6 anyways. I think I’m going to skip the meeting *gasp* because I have barely seen my hubby in the last few days and want to get home to him. Next week my mom will be back and we’ll continue going to the meetings together. I think I did really well this week, so I should see a loss tonight! I have to keep in mind that last week I gained 1 pound, so I am hoping to see a loss tonight of at least 1 pound. I will update tomorrow with my results.

It’s already Thursday – yay! CT and I are looking after our nephew for Saturday since his parents are on a cruise. He is staying with CT’s parents, so we’re going to give them a break and take him for the day on Saturday. Should be fun!

EDIT 1:09pm

I just checked the WW website, and the meeting tonight is at 5:15pm (for some reason it's at a different time on Thursdays). So, I am going to go right after work (so much for staying late tonight) and I will stay for the meeting and I can still get home by 6:30pm to spend the evening with my hubby.

What's with all the colds going around?

I had a great weekend. Until yesterday when my hubby got sick : ( Poor guy. I think it’s just a cold, but he was up half the night sneezing which also kept me up. I have never seen someone sneeze so frequently; it was strange. Finally, at about 3:00am, he left and went to the guest room so that at least I could get some sleep. This morning, he did not look so good, and he said he felt nauseous, so he decided not to go to work. He has not been very busy at work lately anyways, so it’s no problem for him to stay home. Poor guy! I hope I don’t catch whatever he has because I can’t take any time off work right now.

Tomorrow evening, I have a meeting to attend for work which is about 3 hours away. So, I likely won’t be home until between midnight and 1am. Which means I can go to work a little late on Thursday morning. I should still have lots of overtime hours though, which is always nice! I am thinking about taking a week off work in May just because. We’re not planning on going anywhere, just a week off to relax and maybe do some more work on the house. I’ve never taken time off just to hang out and not go anywhere, so that should be fun.

My family is safely in Florida now. Apparently, on their drive down, they were driving through a tornado watch area and they just missed a bunch of toronados! Scary! They also said they saw the most violent thunder storm ever and wind like they had never seen before. But, they made it to Florida safe and sound and said the weather is gorgeous there. I’m glad they’re having a good time, but of course I wish I was there with them! Stupid work got in the way, but such is life.

I’m a baby

Next week, my mom, 2 brothers, and brother al’s girlfriend are going to Florida. And I couldn’t be more jealous. I was invited to go too, but I have an important meeting to go to on Wednesday, so I can’t get time off work (well, I didn’t ask, but considering I am essential to this meeting, I already know what the answer would be). Nuts. Not to mention I have way too much work to do, getting time off in February or March would be nearly impossible for me due to the deadlines on our landfill reports (March 31st). Oma is in Florida since she rented a condo for 6 weeks, so the 4 of them are driving down to spend a week with her. So, maybe CT and I will have to plan a road trip for sometime this year. We are going to go to Niagara Falls for a weekend for our 1st anniversary. And one of our wedding presents was a night in a local B&B, so I think we’ll use that for a weekend getaway in April. I think that will likely be all we can afford for this year. That’s why I’m so darn disappointed about Florida since the trip wouldn’t have cost me much since they’re driving down and staying in Oma’s condo while down there. Oh well, such is life. I just have to get used to the idea that they are going on a family vacation and taking my brother's gf instead of me. Dad isn't going either since he doesn't have a passport. I'm just being a baby because I am jealous.

Speaking of babies, in the last week, CT and I have found out that 4 of our friends are recently expecting. There must be something in the water ;)

Tonight is ladies night!

My mom, my two brothers' girlfriends, and I are going out for dinner and then to see 27 Dresses tonight. We have been trying to plan this for awhile and tonight was the first night we could find when we are all free. So, it should be fun! I’ve already calculated the points value for what I want for supper, and it means using 4 of my 10 remaining flex points. I’m saving my last 6 flex points for tomorrow and then thank goodness they reset on Thursday!

As long as I stay within my plan, I won’t go over on points this week. Which is amazing considering all the eating out lately! I hope the scale isn’t too cruel tomorrow. I’m on TOM and sometimes that totally affects what the scale says. But, I’m going to try not to concentrate on the number this week. I know I stayed on plan and that should be considered a success. If I see a little blip in the scale, I’m sure I will be back down next week. This is a long process, after all.

I’m back!

I am back from my course. The course was over around 4:30pm on Friday, so I decided to go shopping for a bit before heading home to try to avoid some of the traffic. I went to MAC and bought myself some new makeup and I love it! I bought a face primer (to reduce the appearance of large pores), a foundation, and a bronzer. I decided to just start with that stuff and see how I like it. And so far, so good! The thing I love about the foundation is it’s nice a light (doesn’t feel like I’m wearing makeup), but it still has good coverage. And with the primer, the foundation lasts all day. Very nice. I think I may have to go back sometime and venture into their eye shadows or something.

The course was fabulous. A lot to take in, but I definitely learned a lot! The people were really nice. There were 10 of us total, and I was surprised just how far people came from. 3 people had flown in for the course (2 from the states and 1 from Halifax). The other people were from Ontario, the closest being Milton. We all got along really well, we even went out for Indian food together on the last day. Turns out the instructor is a UW geo eng grad, she graduated in 99, so we just missed each other.

This weekend, I was a lazy bum. My in-laws were supposed to come over, but they cancelled because they were sick. So, I spent the day relaxing instead.

So now it’s back in the office for me. I enjoyed my break and now it’s back to being busy busy busy. As usual, I can’t wait until April rolls around! Looking forward to the long weekend this weekend – yay!

Bah!

Since it seems that all posts of the day have that title, I thought I would follow suit ;)

I am having a great time at the course and I'm learning lots. I can't believe there's only 2 days left! I do miss my hubby though, so I wouldn't want the course to be any longer.

I have been doing really well in terms of staying on WW while I'm away. Today is the end of my week (my WW week runs Thurs to Wed), so my flex points reset tomorrow. I did end up going over my flex points this week by 2, but considering I'm eating out for all meals while I'm away, I thought that was pretty darn good!

The weather here is crazy today! It is a downright blizzard right now, I'm glad I'm all cozy in my hotel bed right now. Could be a messy commute tomorrow morning, so take care everyone!

Another successful week on the scale!

I just got back from my WW weigh-in and I lost 2 pounds! I am so happy with myself! Of course, this time I weighed in at lunch, whereas I usually weigh-in in the evening, but I’ll take it! So far, I have lost 3.5 pounds. I am getting close to my first 5-pound star!

I had a good weekend. Didn’t really do too much, just cleaned up a bit and of course, watched the Leafs beat the Sens on Saturday night and watched the Superbowl last night. Before the game started, I decided to cheer for the Giants since between the 2 teams, they were the underdogs. The last quarter was quite exciting!

So, my MIL and FIL are coming up on Saturday since my MIL wants to help me clean and she is also going to provide lunch for us as well as my parents. I decided to just let her since she really wants to help us out. And we could definitely use the help since I’m limited with the use of my finger and my hubby has been quite busy with work lately. I think it will be fun to get our parents together again, that is always a good time.

I am off to Waterloo this evening after work since my course starts tomorrow. I am looking forward to the break from the office. The hotel is supposed to have internet access, so I will still be able to keep on top of my work. So it will be a busy few days, but I think it will be fun.

As an interesing tidbit, CT and I have been together for exactly 2 years today. Wow, so much has changed in the last 2 years! We got engaged after dating for 9 months, married 10 months later, and have been married for 5 months now. Time flies!