The shape of things to come

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Christmas Party Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Star Wars kind of day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's snowing again!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

To buy or not to buy...

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

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

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

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

Boxing Day!

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.

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.

Merry Christmas to ME!

I just ordered myself a Christmas present! I've been wanting to get one of these for a while and I just couldn't wait until my birthday (feb) to get it!



I am VERY excited!!! It should get here by the end of the week and though it was paid for by visa, as soon as I see the transaction go through I'm going to transfer the funds to pay it off immediately. I love that I have savings on hand for semi-impulsive purchases such as this! Now I feel as though I need some new running outfits!

I was going to post my weekly menu plan today but it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. I actually got my plan done for the next 2 weeks but I forgot all my papers at work.. whoops!

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.