Weekend Update

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's snowing again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boxing Day!

I am LOVING being on vacation!

A recap of the last few days:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Santa`s current location is Egypt!

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

***

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

***

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

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

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

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

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

Smiling is my favorite!

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

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

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

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

So, So Cold!

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

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

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

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

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

Our love's the only truth

The closer we get to Christmas the busier stores are going to get, this is why I've decided that tomorrow I need to get most, if not all of my Christmas shopping done.

I need to pick up a French Christmas card to mail my god child's gift card.

I need to mail god-child's gift card & also package for my little cousins.

I need to go to Baton Rouge to get gift card for the in-laws and I've decided to also get a gift card for my god father & aunt.

I need to go to the LCBO to pick up a bottle of wine for my uncle.

And finally I need to get to Costco to get some beer for the bf as we're starting to run low.

After all of this the last thing on my list will be my dogs and I've decided to just wait for the after Christmas sales to get them new toys.

Coming up tomorrow I'll have my weekly menu plan which I'm working on now.

Jumping Right In.

RBC 1 .. TD 0

I'm in the process of transferring all of my banking over to TD from RBC. In the past, my bf and I would transfer eachother money within our RBC accounts and it would always appear right away, but now that we're with TD we've discovered that it actually takes a whole business day for the transfer to occur. We called today and since he transferred me money after 6 on a weekend, I won't have access to these funds until 6pm on Monday! It's crazy! But it's also ok since I don't immediately need access to the money, it's just 'good to know' info.

Spending Report:

I spent the whole day out braving the malls today and I'm happy that I managed to end my day with my patience intact and my spending under control.

At the Signatures Craft Show I purchased a small gift for a friend at work, after tax I only spent $10.11

At Winners/Homesense I picked up a $25.00 Gift card for my bf for his Secret Santa exchange at work. He'll be paying me back for that purchase.

Besides that my only other purchase was at Walmart for 1 gift, Christmas Supplies, deoderant and a magazine, here's the breakdown:



Everything fell within budget, the only 'extra' was my magazine.

I'm almost done my Christmas Shopping after this! On Monday I have to go pick up the restaurant gift card for my in-laws, mail my 2 little cousin's presents, my god child's gift card and then find a gift for my godfather and aunt and I'm done! Actually, I also have to find something for my dogs but I think I might just wait and get them stuff during the after Christmas sales.. they won't know the difference!