Crazymrsnancy's Crazies

Reminder

2008-03-05T09:58:00.003-04:00

We moved to : http://crazymrsnancy.wordpress.com

I still have my statcounter on here and I see that I still get quite a few unique hits on a weekly basis. I was sooo sick and tired of seing that brown template that I decided to switch to a simple non-annoying template. :)

I miss Blogger

2007-11-05T14:43:00.000-04:00

Sigh. I love Wordpress and all that it has to offer me. It's all new and shiny. But it's not 'broken in' yet. I miss blogger. I've been with blogger for so long... like a comfy pair of old shoes. It has its drawbacks... but I miss it. Plus I kinda don't like the way my paragraphs are all smooshed together. I don't like the font that I'm displaying in. And I don't see an option to change that with the free wordpress package. So please vote and make up my mind for me. 3 options :

1 - Quit whining and deal with it. Stay with Wordpress.

2 - Go back to Blogger and have only mostly private blogs on here (password protected). I don't blog private stuff that often so I'd just post about the secret post on blogger.

3 - Go back to Blogger and forget about Wordpress. Well now that I think about this option it sounds like no fun because then I'm back to not being able to blog about stuff that I don't want specific people to read...

Please vote! :D

Don't forget...

2007-10-19T10:01:00.000-03:00

Don't forget to update your blodlines/google readers with my new address @ crazymrsnancy.wordpress.com !

:)

TGIF!

I'm moving!

2007-10-14T22:17:00.000-03:00

So I finally decided to make the switch over to Wordpress. So far I'm loving it :)

So add my new address to your feed reeders! : http://crazymrsnancy.wordpress.com/

PS I merged my 2 blogs in one (crazymrsnancyskeepers) so that's why you might see unfamiliar posts and a whole bunch of categories for that blog but none for my 'regular' blog. Anyways, you'll see :)

Some days are harder...

2007-10-11T14:03:00.000-03:00

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life. The facts of life! I've had this song stuck in my head since yesterday. I've been humming it at the office and then I don't remember if it went away or not but Mindy wrote 'facts of life' (not in reference to the tv show though) on her blog and that darn song is back full force!!

Some days it's really really REALLY hard to stay motivated to lose weight and get fit. Right now, all I want is a nice big non-measured, non-calculated plate of shepperd's pie. Mmm. That would be SO good. But I know by now that even a 1 cup serving of shepperd's pie makes me bloat like 10lbs. I'm not kidding. Potatoes are like my nemesis. But they're sooo good. Cream corn the same thing. GAH why must everything good in life be fattening or illegal?

The day started really great when I stepped on the scale and saw that I had finally got past that darn 270! This morning I was 268, bringing me to a total of -79.6. I felt really cute this morning with my new top. I'm all set for tops for fall/winter. But my pants are falling off me. Even my shoes are big. Well. They have a pant sale at Pennington's till Saturday. I went over there on my lunch hour, and NOTHING fit right. nothing. Not even sale price worthy. My size 22 pants that I have on are literally falling off me. I tried 3-4 pairs of size 22 pants and they were too tight. WTH!! Then I tried on a pair of size 24, and it was really way too big. way way like bigger than that pants I'm wearing right now. I had to pull them up to my boobs. Then I tried a pair of size 20 in non-petites (because the petites come in just the right lenght for me), and they fit better than the size 22 petites. But still not enough to buy them. I always have problems finding nice dress pants that don't make me look like I'm 40. UGH!

So... what the fuck ever man. I've been starving and eating yucky food for almost a year and I've lost almost 80lbs and I force myself to do some painful exercise and I still haven't gone down a pant size ? What the fuck is up with that? When I got measured for new compression socks last month, she said that my ankle & calf measurements haven't really changed either. So where am I losing weight exactly? Besides my fingers because I can't wear my wedding rings anymore. Am I only losing in the boobs and between my toes and behind my ears? between my ears maybe...

Was it just Murphy's law that I didn't find a single pair of pants because there was a pant sale? I guess the store manager DID come talk to me and raved about my weight loss and how much it showed in my face etc. I mean.. I don't even care about the stupid number on the tag. I just want 3 nice pairs of dress pants that fit around the middle AND that doesn't sag down to my knees. A black pair, a brown pair, and a grey pair. Is that too much to ask, universe? Pant Gods? anyone ? Maybe I should be praying to the sewing machine Gods instead so that my sewing machine which I don't know how to use whatsoever takes it upon itself to take my pants in magically.

Does anyone else have a way harder time finding dress pants that fit vs casual pants and jeans ?

It's been a while...

2007-10-09T13:32:00.000-03:00

I haven't blogged in a while... I keep forgetting to change the spelling mistake in my banner on the left, so I'm embarrassed to blog and let the mistake be seen more... but statcounter says that 500 of you came around last week so you must have noticed it anyway hehe.

When I haven't blogged in a while I never know where to even start. So be warned that this post will most likely be all over the place. First of all, I got my hair cut! look :

I really like it, but of course I can't seem to style it the way the hairdresser did.

In the spring, my coworker G gave dahlia bulbs to everyone in the office. I didn't even want any but I didn't want to be the only ungrateful one so I took 4-5 bulbs. I left them in the back of my car for like 3 weeks. Then I *think* that I finally gave them to mom when she begged me for them. NOW G is freaking out because he got all red dahlias and he thinks that I might have other colours so could I please split the bulbs in two to give him some back? Ugh... I was honnest when I told him that I haven't planted them, but I haven't told him that I think mom has them. I should call her tonight to see if she planted them already. If she did what do I do? Tell him that mine are rotted and still appear ungrateful ?

My eating is completely out of control especially during weekends. I am constantly hungry and I crave foods that I don't even like like Pizza. I made Steph order Di Angelo's twice in the past 2 weeks. I think that there might be some truth to the 'winter is coming, insulate thy self' theory. That's my excuse. I'm back on track today though I have to lose the 6lbs that I've gained and lose some new pounds.

I've got my first skin care class tonight. Although it doesn't count as a class because there's only 2 people and it takes 3 to call it a class. So it's a facial. Then I have a real skin care class booked for Oct. 19th. That's it... I was really hoping to teach 5 classes in 2 weeks to accomplish my director's challenge.... Does anyone want to help me out?? If you're in the US and you want to shop on my website, we can arrange something even though they only ship to Canada. I'll be GLAD to arrange alternate shipping :)

I feel so blah. I don't want winter to come yet. The snowblower needs to be fixed, the driveway needs to be sealed, the front step needs to be fixed, and momma needs some money. If I could just win the lottery just this once! It's all I want, just to win once!! :P

We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. We never do. I think Steph's family used to have a Thanksgiving feast, but in my family we've never celebrated it. When I was young mom used to worry about affording a turkey for Christmas, nevermind two turkeys a year hehe. But when people started talking about their delicious turkey feast on MSN and Facebook I started to regret not having bought a turkey. Today for lunch I ate a turkey frozen meal but it wasn't the same lol. But even if I buy a turkey, we're only 2.. and Steph would most likely beg me to let him eat his turkey in front of his computer... so yeah. It wouldn't be very Thanksgivingy anyway.

I was looking on kijiji this morning and found Salsa dancing classes for beginners, in Moncton!! I've always wanted to do that!! I begged Steph to come with me and he said 'Maybe once I lose another 130lbs'. So I guess we're not starting this month :/

So that's pretty much it. Life's been pretty blah. I've got the 'winter is coming, FCK FCK FCK I don't want it to' blues.

Premiere Week!!

2007-09-24T09:41:00.000-03:00

It's Premiere Week!! Yay! Pretty sad that this is the highlight of my week huh? I'm so exited for the Heroes premiere tonight :) We had a pretty good weekend, although it was too short as always. Saturday we lounged around the house and I watched some HGTV and did spurts of cleaning. Sunday Tim & Sophie came over to watch some Weeds episodes and make-your-own fajitas & tacos night! Yum, it was good. Gained-2lbs-good. The burned DVD ended up not cooperating so we decided to keep the episodes for our next get together which we decided would be a sushi night. Yay!

I'm sad that Heather dropped out of the blogosphere and even cyberspace. I'm worried about her. Heather if you're reading, I hope you're okay.

Have you noticed the marykay banner on the side there ? <---------- Sorry about that, but if someone needs anything.. you know where to find me :)

I was trying to avoid doing a bullet style post, because I always feel like doing bullets when I haven't blogged in a while because my thoughts are all jumbled... but really this is a bullet post without the bullets. So I might as well just add the bullets. Why did I need to tell you about my bullet dilemma this morning? I have no idea. I told you my thoughts were jumbled.

Saturday I was looking at Katie's New York City vacation pictures, it made me want to go back sooo bad. Then I found 2 Sex and the City episodes on TBS. Then I drove Stephane absolutely nuts with NYC. Sunday I wore my I (heart) NYC t-shirt. I said that I want to either move there or visit it twice a year. I don't know what's with my infatuation with NYC. I'm in love with NYC. I love how there's always a TON of stuff going on at any point in time. I love their accents. I love the smell. I do, it kinda smells like Africa. (Although other people that were on our bus thought NYC stinks LOL) I love crossing the street with a mob of people. I LOVE the amazing architecture everywhere. I love the history. Okay okay I'll stop. I need a 12 step program or something.

I've got a knot in my back between my shoulder blades this morning. Ow. I wish I could afford to go see a massage therapist. Ah well. Hopefully I'll win the lotto wednesday night...

Raging PMS Monster

2007-09-18T10:05:00.000-03:00

I'm sore, frozen and it feels like a hundred tiny razor blades are scraping my insides. Cranky is an understatement. This morning on the way to work we had a tiff in the car and I cried. I'm sitting here at work, frozen, wearing no make up and my clothes that were too big last week are too small today I'm so bloated. I just received an invitation for a Canadian magazine celebrating women over 40. Blah. Argh. I really miss the pill and it's lovely side effects such as muted PMS and not so intense period somedays.

I hope things go smooth at work today because the last thing I need is to cry in front of someone because of a trivial matter.

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives

2007-09-12T10:36:00.000-03:00

They're going fast! Only 3.5 months left before 2008 makes it's grand entrance? Woah. Rebecca's 6 month plan challenge made me think about my 2007 resolutions.. so let's reevaluate that first. My 2007 resolutions were :

Lose weight (at least 50 pounds) ---> DONE!!! Today I am 67 pounds lighter than January 1st 2007.
Become financially wiser ---> Eh... It's getting there. We're much better off than we were January 1st 2007 at least. And we just decided to implement a new 'system' in our budget where we each now have our own savings account and each week/month we will divide our spending/leftover money equally and put that into our individual accounts, and I think that will make it less likely that we will impulsively stop at a convenience store and buy 30$ of convenience food or buy expensive snacks at the movies etc.
Visit NYC in 2007 ---> DONE!! I still can't believe it!!
Find an outdoors loving friend ---> DONE!! I've made a great friend who loves being outdoors, but she was really busy planning their wedding and then starting a new job so we haven't done much outside so far hehe.
Beat guitar hero in hard mode ---> I don't think I've even TOUCHED guitar hero since I've made that resolution. It sounds like an absurd resolution to make now. Looking at it I think that I probably wanted to put an 'easier' (not so life changing) resolution in there to not feel like a complete failure at the end of the year. But today, I don't care so much about this one.
Read more books than I did in 2006 (2006 = 35 books) ---> Hmm let's see. I've read 20 books so far in 2007. So I'd have to read 15 more and 3/4 of the year has passed... I don' tthink this one will happen. But I'm okay with that. I've read more books than a lot of other people. I've also been reading a lot of 400 pagers this year compared to last year where I had smaller books. I'm not going to read a bunch of small books just for the sake of beating last year's number hehe. I don't like to read too fast either. I like to give my imagination enough time to run wild while reading. But I'll shoot for at least 25 books in 2007 now. But 30 isn't out of the question either. Okay maybe I WILL read a handful of thinner books just because I'm competitive with myself like that hehe.

I don't even remember if we still have Guitar Hero II or if we traded it in for some game credit to buy my Nintendo DS before the trip... if we do I might give it a few tries between now and new years. I'll continue to read that's for sure. Maybe I can even bug Sophie to come to 2-3 outdoor activities with me so that I can have that resolution achieved too hehe. And with my new Mary Kay business and our new savings 'plan', hopefully I will be even more financially wiser in 3.5 months :)

Sorry Rebecca I guess I kinda cheated because this is now a 3.5 month plan instead of a 6 month plan, but I'm looking forward to achieving the rest of this and setting more resolutions on New Years 2008 :) Has anyone else crossed off a bunch of resolutions off their lists ?

Now also available in Pink!

2007-09-11T16:07:00.000-03:00

I've been pinkified. Wait! Don't run away. If there was a Guiness world record for 'Least pushy Mary Kay Lady" I'd probably win it. So how about that... I'm now officially became a lady; a pink one. If someone would have told me 5 years ago that I would someday sell Mary Kay I would have probably peed my pants laughing hehe. The best part will be getting my products, which I've fallen madly in love with, at cost. I'm hoping that some of my friends and maybe my mom will offer to host a party to get me started, and I'll be able to sell some online too once that's set up. But besides that, I'm not about to walk up to some random stranger in a mall and talk to her about Mary Kay. So we'll see how that goes. Think positive. Think pink! If I can sell enough to pay for a gym membership and new clothes as I lose weight I'll be happy :)

Other than that there's really nothing else new in my world. Oh tonight is the Biggest Loser premiere!! I can't WAIT!!!

What could be cuter than a puppy ?

2007-09-06T10:42:00.000-03:00

How about a puppy with a heart shaped marking on his coat ?

Is Frumpy In ?

2007-09-06T09:50:00.000-03:00

I don't feel cute today. Yes I'm wearing my new knock off Tiffany necklace, but I couldn't put my wedding rings and promise ring today because it's getting risky to wear them as they slide right off my fingers especially if I get my hands wet. Which I do many times at work as I make coffee etc. My pants are so big that they would fall if I jumped. My crotch is hanging between my thighs. I'm wearing a black shirt that hangs past my butt. I just feel frumpy. Especially since I'm proud of my weight loss and feel better in something that show my newly found curves.

But this morning ever since I stepped in the office my coworkers have been bugging me about how great I look.

J : Wow you look nice, are you going somewhere today?

Me : No, why?

J : You should!

Me : uh. ok.. well no I'm not going anywhere *polite laughter*
(Maybe I should schedule something just because apparently frumpy is what it's all about now?)

Then I go in the kitchenette to grab a cup of coffee...

J : Doesn't Nancy look nice today?

G : OOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOOOooohhh

J : She must have a new man in her life

G : Yeaaaaah. Wow. You look 25.

J & G : HAHAHAHahahhahaAHHAHAHAHAHahahahha *loud laughter that lasts way too long*

They thought it was incredibly funny that he said that I look 25 because they think I'm 25 hehe. I started to work here when I was 23, and 2 years later they were still saying how I was still 23 and I finally convinced them that I was 25. But now that I'm 28 they're still stuck on 25. Ah well, it's a nice age to be stuck at.

But this is not the first time that this happens, it seems like every time that I wear clothes that are hanging off me and that I feel like I'm wearing a mumu they fall over themselves with compliments. So now I'm getting even more paranoid. Do I normally look like a pirate that dresses too tight ?

Do I look good in this?

2007-09-05T21:39:00.000-03:00

Frost warning for tonight? WTH! Where did summer go? I'm soo not ready for winter! So tonight I was trying on fall/warmer clothes to put aside a pile that still fits... I tried on a dark red shirt that I haven't been able to wear in years, and I walked into the kitchen where Steph was and I asked him :

Me : Do I look good in this?

Steph : Yeah, it looks nice.

Me : Are you sure it's not too frou-frou?

Steph : Nah. You don't look like a pirate.

LOL! What!!? If he thought it, that thought must have originated from somewhere! Now I'm paranoid to wear the red pirate shirt although I kinda like it. Maybe I should post a picture of it here for some serious opinions hehe.

I <3 New York!

2007-08-30T18:02:00.000-03:00

I really, really do! We're back from New York City and we're exhausted and our feet are so blistered that we can barely walk. But it was soo worth it. It was amazing. I took over a thousand pictures and finally managed to chose 120 for 2 Facebook picture albums. They're on there now if you want to see them :) Here is the trip report :

Disclaimer : This post will most likely be very very long ;)

August 24th - Day 1

I left work at noon and came home to pack and get ready for the trip. I stopped at Walmart and Shoppers before coming home to buy a few things for the trip and I'm sooo glad that I decided to buy 2 inflatable travel pillows for the trip; they were so worth the 6$ each. I came home and packed, Dad got here around supper to take Loki to Bathurst until after Labor Day since we're going to Fredericton Saturday and going to Saint John on Sunday to see Cirque du Soleil. At 5pm I went to pick Steph up from work and we stopped at Subway on the way home. Dad drove us to U de M and we got there at 7h15pm which I thought would be plenty of time to pick good seats on the bus since it was only departing at 8pm. Wrong! We parked and met Pat & Chantal near the bus (Steph's brother and his wife) and we were basically the last ones on the bus. They got on the bus in front of us and decided to each sit in a window seat, leaving us 2 aisle seats. During the rest of the trip while trying different seats, I realized that that initial seat I had had the least leg room on the bus for some reason. You'd think they'd have equal leg room? But my knees were firmly squished probably between the person in front's spine. When we made our first rest stop we told Pat & Chantal that we'd prefer sitting together so that we can alternate window/aisle seats and we took Pat's seats and phew, a lot more leg room. (Like a foot more!) It's pretty hard to sleep on a bus. At 3am we were all sleeping when they switched bus drivers (We were 2 busses going to NYC) and the new bus driver decided to give a loud welcome speech and crank up country music on the radio. Thank goodness for my new mp3 player.

August 25th - Day 2

After 17 hours on the bus we finally arrived to our hotel in North Bergen, New Jersey. It was only a 10-15 minutes ride in traffic to get to the middle of Times Square so that was good, but when I saw our hotel and especially when we entered our room, I realized that you really do get what you pay for. The trip wasn't that cheap for no reason hehe. HOT room, no hairdryer, no alarm clock radio, no coffee maker etc etc But you could get any one of these items at the front desk for 10$ each. The only thing we decided to shell out cash for was a second room key for 10$ which they did reimburse us for at the end when we showed the receipt. In the end it didn't matter, we were out of our room every morning at 8am and we only back in the room at 11pm. But the next time we go to NYC (Yes, we can't wait to go back!!) we're definitely willing to pay more for a hotel right in Times Square and not have to bother with all the little mexican busses and city busses and metros to get to the city.

It was sooo hot that first day!! We all showered and changed. I was trying to do my hair but it was frizzing up and sweating up as fast as I was doing it and my make up was melting as I was putting it on. But I was trying to look pretty to meet Heather! We had been text messaging back and forth and had decided to meet in our hotel's lobby at 5h30pm. We were all lying on our beds trying to not fall asleep and trying to not sweat too much when my phone beeped to let me know Heather was down in the lobby. I was sooo nervous I was shaking and my throat was so dry.. but all that nervousness went away as soon as I hugged Heather. She's so nice and smiley and... I don't know.. normal. It felt weird to meet an online friend of 5 years. It felt like meeting a celebrity lol!

We asked the front desk how to get to the bus stop and they told us to go up the street, behind the Toys R Us. It wasn't far away, but it was all uphill and with the heat, we were all drenched by the time we got to the bus stop. We missed the bus by about 2 seconds lol! None of us had the energy or strenght to try to run up to it. I could have touched it I think. But a little mexican shuttle bus arrived not 10 seconds later and we all got in. Filled with mexicans and mexican music playing on the radio, we felt like we were on vacation in Mexico not NYC! hehe.

We got off the bus, took a metro, and we were in Times Square. Wow! wow. amazing. I think that Heather was waiting for me to jump up and down and scream in exitement, but I don't really react that way. Beautiful and amazing things make me want to cry tears of joy instead. I'm weird I know hehe. We finally found Little Italy and quickly chose a restaurant because we were all super starving. We went to Amicci's and Steph said that he had never eaten better italian food before. Mine was good but I don't like pasta that much. But I didn't mind going to eat in Little Italy for our first meal because Steph and Pat love Italian.

After more walking in Times Square (wow!) and taking some subways we were looking for a bus to take us back to our hotel. We walked to a little mexican bus and asked the driver if he was going to North Bergen. He said yes yes! Are you sure? North Bergen, New Jersey? Yes yes. We all got in and we were too busy enjoying the air conditionning to notice that we weren't going in the right direction hehe. Well we did go to North Bergen but on the totally opposite side of town. The driver kicked us off at the last bus stop and we started to walk towards our hotel (according to our map), trying to find something that looked familiar. We were walking and walking and we stopped at a White Castle to get something to drink and washroom stop. We didn't call a cab because at that point we were still mistakenly thinking that our hotel wasn't that far. Wrong! It was Sunday night and everything looked dark, every business closed. There were mexican people here and there. We crossed the street instead of walking in front of a big gang of mexican guys... We were all pretty scared and cranky at that point. Heather never seemed cranky or scared though. We had cell phones but no cab number, no hotel number, and of course every phone booth along the way didn't have any phone books or cab numbers graffittied on. We were so happy when we finally found a little mexican restaurant (Is NJ filled with Mexicans??) to go in to call two cabs. Once we were sitting in our cab we could finally laugh about it hehe. Our feet were already really sore from all that walking and being lost hehe.

August 26th - Day 3

We were out of our room at 8am to go eat breakfast downstairs and take the shuttle into town at 9am. So our feet were already sore but so what, we had a 4 hour NYC bus tour in the morning, then we would rush to get to our 2pm Blue Man Group show, then we would go to our 4 hour New York by night bus tour. Little did we know that 'bus tour' only means that they're walking tours but the bus does bring you to different parts of the city for more walking. Our first stop that morning was Central Park. Wow. It's really beautiful. We walked about 5km of winding, uphill and downhill paths and going up and down many steps. It was so hot, Steph was drenched and I was buying bottles and bottles of water to keep him hydrated I thought he was going to collapse once or twice. Then we visited Rockefeller Center, Saint Peter's Cathedral, Grand Central Terminal.. etc etc. Then we rushed to get to our 2pm Blue Man Group Show.

We got there with 20 minutes to spare so we found a McDonalds close to Astor Place and the food was different than at the McD's around here. I had a Deluxe third pounder combo and it really did look like the picture on the wall. Then I flipped the container over and realized that they had the nutritional information printed on the bottom. I saw that my sandwich was 750 calories and threw the box in the air in horror. Oh well, with all that walking I broke even on the scale when we were back hehe. Then we went for our NY by night tour. We visited The World Financial District, Ground Zero, we took the free ferry to Staten Island to see the Statue of Liberty and we ran through the terminal to get on the ferry to come back right away, we visited SoHo, the meat packing district, Greenich, Chelsea, etc etc etc. I can't even remember we did soooo much.

We were finally back in our hotel room at 10h45pm, and by the time we had our order ready for the only restaurant we could find that was open and delivered that late, they said that they didn't deliver after 11pm. GAH! We were sooo hungry that we decided to order food anyway and that the guys would go pick it up by cab. They said that it would be ready in 15 mins. When they got there, they had to wait 45 mins. With our huge order because we were starving and the 40$ cab ride, Steph and I's meal cost 100$ lol! We ate about 1/4 of it before we were too stuffed to continue. What a shame. I sent my mom and dad a text message to say Happy Wedding Anniversary, then we all went to sleep with full bellies.

August 27th - Day 4

We decided that Steph and I would do our own thing and Pat & Chantal would do their own thing also that day because Steph was so sore he didn't want to slow them down, and besides, we didn't want to do all the same things anyway. We were out of the room by 8 to grab breakfast and take the shuttle in town while Pat & Chantal decided to sleep in. We started by going to the Manhattan Mall to buy me a new memory card because my other one was already full! But on the way there we decided to go in the huge Old Navy to buy me more tank tops because it was way too hot to wear the t-shirts I had brought. Wow! It was huge and it had 4 floors! I quickly found the "plus size" sign, but couldn't find the plus size section so I asked an employee and they said that they have to get rid of the sign because they no longer have a plus size section. GAH!! The horror! BUT then I realized that their sizes went up to 22 and xx large, and *insert heavenly music here* I fit into them! And some of them were even too big! Oh Joy!! Steph sat on a bench and I occasionally waived to him from the escalators as I was going from floor to floor trying on different things. I didn't intend on buying clothes in NYC but I couldn't resist. I can't believe the amount of stuff I bought for 192$ !

Then we went to the Manhattan Mall, and we went to Radio Shack to get a 2 Gig memory card for me and a new pair of headphones for Steph because his weren't comfortable. Then we grabbed a drink and I sat in the food court with the shopping bags while Steph went to the restroom. While I was sitting there I saw 2 women walk by with Bitten bags! (You know, the Sarah Jessica Parker line) So when Steph came back I told him that he could wait there while I went to see the Bitten line at Steve & Barry's. I was soo exited! There were screens with loops of SJP interviews playing all over the place. I thought : maybe Mindy was wrong, maybe the Bitten clothes don't fit her well but maybe they'll fit me great! They're so pretty and so cheap! I grabbed a few tops and a pair of jeans and went to try them on... Mindy, you were right. The jeans fit horribly. They were too big in the waist and yet my thighs were stuffed in there like sausages. The 'boot leg' cut fit my ankles like skinny jeans almost. My small boobs were too big(!!) for all the top exept one. It was surreal. My small boobs wouldn't fit at all in the space allowed for boobs in the tops, I was spilling out of them and looked like a hoochie. ONE top fit nicely and I bought it of course, just to have something Bitten. I got Steph a few t-shirts there too.

Then we were on our way to Chinatown to have lunch. It took us a while to figure out that it's just street vendors and shops ON Canal St. but the side streets are where the food is. The food was delicious. Then I went wild on Canal Street. I got designer knock off bags : Hermes, Prada, Gucci, Chanel and Coach, a Prada wallet, Chanel sunglasses, and a Tiffany necklace and bracelet set. I was in paradise!! At some point we actually found Pat & Chantal in a tiny Canal St. store. What are the chances! hehe Then we went to 5th Avenue where they have horse carriage rides at a corner of Central Park and we took a carriage ride. So much fun! Then we visited some street vendors and bought souvenirs. Then we took a break on a bench and I got a sketch of me done from a street artist. Pretty neat, but what am I going to do with that now? It's not like I want a portrait of me hanging in my house.. Then we took a Rickshaw ride (a bicycle taxi) to Rockefeller Center to go up to the Top of the Rock (Top of the Rockefeller Center) in time to photograph the sunset over NYC. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G !!! The lines weren't that long going in because we had already bought our tickets from a street booth, the security points went rather quickly too... but after taking about 400 pictures of the city lights and sunset, the lines for the exit were horrid. Our feet were soo sore by that time we could barely walk. We got back to our hotel at 11pm and ordered food and went to sleep with full bellies again.

August 28th - Day 5

Our busses were going to open their doors at 9am for us to load our luggage onboard and chose our seats for the trip back to Moncton. So we were out of our room by 8am, go our 10$ refund for the 2nd room key, and Steph went to eat breakfast while I went to be the first person in line to chose our seats on the bus because I did NOT want to be stuck in a seat with no leg room again for the trip back. There were already people waiting in line!! By 8h30 am everyone was in line hehe. But I was early in the line and I got great seats with about a foot and a half of space between our knees and the seats!!! Hurrah!! We put stuff on our seats to hold them and we were off to town for the day. Our bus was picking us up near Times Square at 8pm. We decided to do our own thing that day again. Steph and I spent the day walking in Times Square and visiting shops like the Hershey Store, M&M World, Souvenir shops..

Then I found Sephora!! *squeal!!* I was in paradise again. I got some Philosophy's "Hope in a jar" which I already am in LOVE with, philosophy's 'falling in love' perfume spray which I adore, philosophy lemon seat salt body scrub and philosophy coconut body butter. Okay I already adore philosophy. Seriously. Love love the stuff. Then I found Lush! I got 2 bath bombs and "Big" shampoo, "Rehab" shampoo, and "Veganese" Conditionner. OMG it is true what they say. The Big shampoo has some sea salt in it and it feels heavenly. The girl at the counter told me to just use a tiny amount and I thought 'yeah right, they all say that and I always need a big goop of shampoo and a bigger goop of conditionner to feel like my hair is covered' She was right! A tiny amount of Big shampoo had my hair full of lather.

At 7h30pm we walked to the Pensylvania hotel to where the bus was picking us up. We found the group and half of us was sitting right on the dirty sidewalks we were just too dead and sore to stand. Then we found out that the bus was actually on the other side of the block. ACK! We waddled over to the other side of the Pensylvania hotel and finally got on the bus. The drive TO NYC felt soooo long. The drive back to NYC seemed like nothing hehe. We were all so exhausted that we only stopped 3 times and we all slept the rest of the time.

August 29th - Day 6

We were at the US/Canada border around 10am I think, and they had told the 2 busses that they should arrive 30 minutes apart. They forgot. The two busses got there at the same time, and the border people were pissed. They quickly processed the first bust and let them go, but the tour organizer was on our bus, and they wanted him to remember to arrive 30 mins apart the next time. I'm sure he will. They searched us. They fired up their dusty x-ray machine and x-rayed all our bags. They brought a drug sniffing dog on the bus to sniff all of us and they made the poor thing smell the bus's toilet thingy. The poor dog must have probably weakened his sense of smell that day. ew.

They wanted to use their wand thingy to go over all our overhead stuff, but it was full of spiders and they hadn't used it in too long. We were all looking through the bus windows looking at our bags go through the x-ray machine. Some people were pretty nervous about undeclared alcohol. Only one got busted and had to pay tax. I sighed with relief when I saw that my smaller suitcase made it through and was put back on the bus. That's the one filled with all the knock offs and souvenirs. All of that undeclared. We were only allowed 200$ of merchandise each (WTF is that all about?) so we could mostly only declare what we had overhead on the bus hehe. (Just my Sephora and Lush stuff was 200$ hehe).

I was praying and hoping that my bigger suitcase would go through the x-ray and be put back on the bus and not put on the table for further searching. Not because I had anything undeclared in it. Well it did have all of my Old Navy clothes and other stuff but all the tags were removed and theres no way that they could know that I didn't just bring waaaaay too many clothes for a 5 day trip hehe. But it was packed so well, everything was all rolled up and I had to actually sit on it to close it up. I was saying "pleasedontpickmine, pleasedontpickmine, pleasedontpickmine". People on the bus were giggling and watching my suitcase with me and rooting for it to not be picked for further searching.

Of course my suitcase got picked for further searching. ugh. They all thought it was hilarious hehe. I was affraid that when the border lady would open it up that underwear and bras would fly out everywhere. So we were called outside and everyone was still watching in the bus while she put all of my bras, underwear, steph's underwear, etc on the table. *blush* She drooled a little bit over my Prada wallet and my Chanel purse that was in there. She asked if most of the clothes were bought from street vendors ? Yep. (yeah right hehe.) But she didn't find what she was looking for. We had zero alcohol. We're boring hehe.

At noon we were finally back in Moncton and Chantal's parents picked us up in 2 vans and we went to eat at Arby's. Steph and I could barely walk I kid you not. I was trying to look normal but every step was agony!! We got home after that and I immediately unpacked everything because I was still on the adrenaline rush. I knew that as soon as I put my feet up they wouldn't cooperate anymore. After unpacking everything I lined up all of my new wonderful lush and philosophy products along the tub and got in for a luxurious 1.5 hour bath. MMmmm! That Lush bath bomb was pure heaven in a fizzing bomb. I must keep a supply of that. Of course I haven't told Steph how amazing it is because I don't want him to be tempted to use it LOL. Unless he reads this.. I'll hide it :P hehe. There was a jasmine flower in the middle and it smelled amazing. The whole bathroom and my bedroom smelled like jasmine. Mmm. Then I had bought some Body Shop foot products also and I slathered my feet and wondered how I would ever get out of bed hehe. I was trying to think of a way to make someone go buy me isotoner slippers to cushion my feet and bring them to me. I spent the night narrowing down my 1000+ pictures to 372 hehe. (I wanted to have 120 for facebook). And then I went to sleep for a 13 hour night hehehe. This morning my feet are feeling much better but I'm still waddling. Hopefully they'll be alright in time for this weekend's Cirque du Soleil and birthday party!

So there you have it. I'm grinning from ear to ear as I'm writing this and we can't wait to go back. We had an amazing time! We're having crazy ideas of going back for New Years Eve and to see the tree at Rockefeller....

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

2007-08-24T17:39:00.001-03:00

I'm leaving for New York City in an hour and a half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinch me

2007-08-22T09:33:00.000-03:00

I can't believe that we're leaving for New York in 2 days!! We leave Friday night! Eeeeeeeeeee! I'm so exited that I can't seem to put my thoughts in order. I've been wanting to blog but I just don't know where to start. So this post will most probably be all over the place.

Last night after we came home, we had taken a bite out of supper when the doorbell rang. We went to answer and it was a whole bunch of our neighbors standing there with torches in their hands. Okay not really. It was a bunch of our neighbors standing there with various styles of garden solar lights in their hands. Yes really. They are expanding our neighborhood and while they were making new roads in the woods yesterday they found a pile of solar lamps in there. Apparently our front solar lights had been missing for like a week and neither of us had noticed oops. Ours were in the pile, minus lamps.

Apparently neighbor X's 2 teenage girls have been stealing all kinds of lawn stuff from the neighboring houses and stashed them in the woods and in their basement. They've broken in neighbor y's car. They broke into houses being built and partied in there. They stole neighbor z's sentimental lawn plaque made by her father. etc etc. Neighbor X put a "For Sale" sign on his house yesterday. Apparently he thinks that it's funny how his girls steal all our stuff, and we're kind of annoying him with our wanting our stuff back from his basement and shit. I'm not a mean person, and the garden lights weren't that expensive, but our feeling of safety and security and peacefulness in our neighborhood is priceless. So I kind of hope they move. This morning on the way to work I slowed down in front of their house and saw 3 of our solar lamp stakes leaning against their house. I have to talk my husband into putting his shyness aside and go confront them. I want my lights back. Yes they're just garden lights, but we're definitely not rich and we work for what we have. (Okay, notice how I definitely can't say that I work 'hard', but I think that Steph does, so that counts for something hehe)

I only have 4 more pounds of last week's bloat-fest to lose. Zipadeedooda!

I've emailed the tour organizer yesterday to ask him the exact location and time to meet for the bus departure Friday night, and he hasn't replied back yet. Why wouldn't he have sent that information already. The paranoid Nancy in me is thinking : What if we all show up at U de M Friday night and no bus comes and that we've just all been scammed. Okay I'm just paranoid right? right.

Where the hell did summer go ? It left us without warning. One morning I woke up and I could almost see my breath forming condensation. almost. I've been frozen ever since. It's cold in the mornings and then I come to work in an ~~office~~ icebox. At the end of the day I look forward to getting in my black car that's been sitting in the sun all day, and I just sit in it for 2-3 minutes without rolling the windows down, just enjoying the heat warming my bones. I'm frozen right now, but I think I'm pretty cute today. Judy complimented me on my new top that I got for like 15$ at WalMart. I love me some George! If you're reading this from the Greater Moncton area, and that you always shop at the Dieppe Walmart, do check out the Trinity Walmart, I think the clothes are way way better there for some reason. The plus-sizes section at least. I swear I can still find some white sweatshirts with kittens in flowers on the front at the Dieppe Walmart.

Almost all the parents I know have kids that are crazy about Webkinz. A lot of those parents admit to playing Webkinz during their lunch hours or what not, to make webkinz cash for their kid's game so that they can decorate their room in the game etc. I wanted to play too. For my birthday Jill bought me a Webkinz! She's a panda and her name is Crazymrsnancy. And I'm embarrassed to say that I play a little almost every lunch hour. LOL I enjoy the 'Quizzy Corner' thingy. You get 5$ in the game for every question you answer correctly. I swear I've learned some stuff. lol! My kinz has 2-3 cute outfits and a pretty flower in her head fur.

In other news, I decided last night to start downloading my music legally. That's right. At least all the songs are good quality now. I bought an MP3 player on sale at Future Shop and I've got to fill it up with tunes before leaving for the trip. I also got a sexy crimson DS with Brain Age 2, Mario & Luigi : Partners in Time, and I'll bring one we already had : Super Mario. Steph has his own DS although it's not as sexy as mine. He's bringing his own games which aren't as cute as mine :P I so rarely buy toys for myself, I feel illegal. I mean, my computer & digital camera can be toys, but they're necessary (IMHO) and I couldn't live without them. I could live without an mp3 player and a DS, therefore they're purely 100% toys. Yes, I think I'm going out of my tiny mind. But I have trouble reading unless I'm surrounded by silence and that's not very likely on a full bus exited to go to NYC. 17 hours to drive there, and 17 hours to drive back. I hate long drives. Despise them. But it's the only way that I could afford to finally see New York anytime soon. So I hope these will help.

TWO DAYS!!!!

I'm hopefully supposed to meet heather (and possibly Anthony) for dinner on Saturday in little Italy!! WEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Everybody in the audience gets one of these :

2007-08-16T09:55:00.000-03:00

Hah, not really. Who do you think I am? Oprah? I WISH I could give you all one of every favorite thing of mine, but a link to go buy it yourself, if I can find it, is the best that I can do :) (Were there too many commas in that sentence?) So as you might have guessed, this is a Wednesday Blog Challenge, and I really love this one :)

Here are a few of my favorite things, in no particular order.

Lady Mitchum clear roll-on deodorant. LOVE this stuff. I've been using it for years. I've tried all kinds of other deodorants that other people have raved about but I always come back to this one.
Sunsilk Hydra TLC Shampoo & Conditionner. I had been using salon products for years and once I decided to try this stuff after reading everyone rave about it on ivillage, and I've never gone back. LOVE love love it. OH Free Sample on their website!
Bragg's sauce. This is the best stuff ever. If you try it, you'll never go back to vh soya sauce. Everyone that I've introduced to this stuff quickly become converts!
Burt's Bees. Anything Burt's Bees. I can't live without their original lip balm and orange facial cleanser. I love the smell of their products. I love their Citrus Facial Scrub and LOVE the smell of their Almond Milk Hand Creme.
Adidas Body Wash. Not for me of course, but I love to smell it on Stephane :)
Stouffer's Flatbread Pizzas. I eat these for lunch at work all the time. I LOVE them. They fit in my calorie budget. I love the BBQ Chicken, Grilled Chicken Pesto and gourmet ham & cheese. wow I just read this : Over 10,000 Canadians voted to make STOUFFER'S BISTRO Flatbread one of the best new products of 2006.
Stouffer's Turkey & Stuffing. Another workday lunch favorite. That's weird, my boxes here say 250 calories per box, and on the website it says 260... Ah well. what's 10.
Lipton iced tea to go! I looove those. I keep 3-4 different flavors at work and always use one in my bottled water. My favorite flavor is the White tea with apple cranberry. Closely followed by the Green tea with mandarin & mango.
My Personal Video Recorder (PVR) <3>
Mary Kay eyesicles. Amazing. Everyone who tries them on buys them. They feel and look awesome. I'm totally addicted to them.
Old Dutch Sea Salt & Hint of Lime tortilla chips. For cheat days :)
Luna Bars!! This is what I eat for breakfast Mon-Fri. It's fast and easy and tasty. Love em.
Cambell's Healthy Request New England Clam Chowder. MMMMMMMm Chowd-air
Payless ShoeSource. I love BOGO weekends!
Addition-Elle. Clothes for sizes 12-26. Best plus size store around here.
Q-tips. Seriously... I can't live without Q-tips. If I forget to pack some when traveling it drives me completely nuts!
Tampax Pearl Multipax. I love that there's 8 Super, 20 Regular, and 8 light tampons in the multipax box. That's perfect for me.
Always Ultra Thin pads.
Blistex Lip Medex - Awesome for chapped, dry, hurting lips. Fixes them up in no time. I buy it in stick format though... couldn't find it on there.
Regis Salons. They're my favorite salon around here. I prefer the one at the mall I find them more experienced and professional than the salon at Trinity.
Crest Whitening Expressions Cinnamon Rush. We also like the Lemon Ice flavor. This might sound completely weird to you, but for two dieting fatties, brushing your teeth with something that tastes like lemon pie filling is pretty awesome LOL.
Tide to go stain remover pens. Always carry one in my purse.
Kleenex Pocket Packs. Must have for me.
Dentyne Tango gum. Great flavor, diet friendly :) Also love Dentyne Fire.
Dove soap bars.
Canon Rebel. Okay I don't have one, but I really want one :)

Well, these are my favorite products. I could have posted more gadgets/electronics/toys but then we'd have been here all day! hehe

Flowers for Moi?!

2007-08-15T08:25:00.000-03:00

Thank you SO MUCH Lori and Rebecca for the beautiful birthday bouquet!!! Wow! I'm shocked! They're beautiful! Here is a picture that doesn't do them justice at all. You can't even see the nice yellow lilly in it. (Lillies are my favorites!!) My brother took the picture :

Thank you so much again!! You totally made my day :)

A Great Birthday Weekend Story

2007-08-13T09:56:00.000-03:00

I had declared that the weekend was going to be my 'Birthday Weekend'. In my mind it justified everything I did and ate. "Well, it's a birthday poutine". "It's a birthday ice cream cone". "It's a birthday glass of wine.. or two". Hehe. I had a great weekend!!

Friday after work I went grocery shopping at Sobeys and they had great deals! Score!! Like a big basket of peaches for 2.99$, and fresh mushroom packages 2 for the price of 1 :) Then I picked up Steph and we went home and I ate like 3 peaches at once hehe. We spent the night relaxing; Steph was playing World of Warcraft and I watching "Shut up and Sing" (Dixie Chicks documentary), thenI watched some What Not To Wear. We went to bed fairly early for a Friday night. Well early for us at 1am.

Saturday morning we got up bright and earlyish (9am) to get ready for Infiknowledge's Magic Mountain day! Why do women have sooo much hairy body parts to take care of before being acceptable in public? So not fair! We had a great time at Magic Mountain. We're not big sliders, but we went for like 10 rounds in the Wave Pool, and we went down the Lazy River once. Guess what.. Last year Steph couldn't even fit properly on a tube to go down the Lazy River, he quickly fell off his tube last year and had to walk down the river with the tube around his neck :-s But this year? He fit in the tube and could be lazy in the lazy river! And I fit much better in the tube. (I fit like I should fit, but butt goes in the tube hole instead of resting on top of the hole hehe.) So that was really fun and exiting for us hehe. Around 2pm, after some drama with the people that had rented our pavillion before us, we finally fired up the BBQ's and had good food :) We also ate the food that the previous guys left when they left rather fast after Austin and Amy scared them away LOL. We left Magic Mountain around 5pm when Steph couldn't take any more Wave Pool rounds because both his legs were cramping up..wicked charlie horses. Poor guy needs to exercise his poor muscles more ;) We stopped for a 'birthday dipped ice cream cone' on the way home then we relaxed at home and I played Scrabble on Facebook hehe.

Sunday morning Steph woke me up at 10h30, and I got ready and we went to see 'The Bourne Ultimatum'. It was pretty good, I liked it better than the 2nd Bourne movie. I had a 'birthday poutine, a birthday popcorn and a birthday big ass diet coke' at the movies lol. After the movie we got on the Highway and some big Camper in front of us had pieces of metal flapping in the wind, detaching themselves and flying on the road at us and Steph was swirving them like we were playing Grand Theft Auto or something. WTH. Didn't camper guy notice that his Camper was literrally disintegrating in the wind and being dangerous? Anyway, we got to Sophie & Tim's and Sophie's brother and his girlfriend were there so we were greeted by the Shnauzer army : Bruce, Daisy and Jasper hehe. Too cute. I want a Shnauzer now. I think Loki would love a sister.

Lots of chatter, wine, awesome food, and Big Brother :) Tim is a freaking GREAT cook. He wouldn't believe me when I told him that his was the best bruschetta I had ever had. But I swear, it was. I don't know if it was the baguette that was a day older than he thought it was, but it was deliciously crispy and tasty. Then Tim went outside in his garden to harvest a plate of fresh carrots, green beans and a cherry tomato for us. He came back with a pretty plate arranged all fancy, and he had picked 2 beautiful bright orange flowers from his garden, one for Sophie and one for me. How sweet is THAT? Sophie, you married a great guy!! Oh by the way :

Congratulations Sophie & Tim!!
They had their private wedding ceremony on Saturday and Friday it's the reception!

After more chatter and more drinks, Tim BBQ'd some burgers and pork loins. When he said "there's a pork loin for everyone' I thought : blah, I'm not that big on pork meat because people always overcook it and it's always tasteless and dry...but Oh-My-God.. it was deliciously seasoned with fresh herbs from his garden, and sooo tender. I have never had such a great free meal before hehe. Sophie and I decided that the next time we get together we should all make a recipe together and chip in for the ingredients. We could make something fancier. I've wanted to try a saffron recipe for a while now, so that's one idea. We'll see I guess :) I also made out really good on birthday gifts!! hehe Tim gave us a big jar of freshly made (Before Steph's eyes hehe) pesto. YUM! And Sophie gave me a very cute little jar with some fresh herbs! Thanks guys!!!

It wasn't planned, all of Sunday sort of just happened, but this was one of the best birthday weekends ever! Now.. I've got to lose those 6 birthday pounds I gained over the weekend LOL But I'm not worried at all. I ate a lot of salty popcorn, I feel bloated and my period started yesterday. I'm glad that it waited after Magic Mountain to come hehe.

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes!!!

Excuse me while I brag some more

2007-08-11T00:05:00.000-03:00

I'm sorry. I'm just ecstatic that I've reached the 70lbs loss mark this morning!!

Eat this :

And some of this :

And you might go from this :

To this! *Snoopy Dance*

And yes, that's a full double chin shot! Just to prove it :

Mrs. Vienneau's double chin in ALL it's glory :)

Wednesday Blog Challenge # 19

2007-08-09T09:49:00.000-03:00

Woot! Blog challenges are back!

"You don't know me unless you know that...."

I am constantly singing. Well okay maybe not while I'm at work, unless I have the office to myself hehe. I have a radio/cdplayer/alarm clock thingy in the bathroom and as soon as I wake up in the morning I turn it on and sing in the shower, and while doing other things that you don't want to know about :P Then I sing in the car on the way to work, I sing in the car on the way back to pick up Steph and go home. At home I randombly start singing random lyrics and often Steph joins me and we change the lyrics and sing to the dog. Like : "They tried to get Pitou to rehab he said No no no!". We're total dorks lol
Poor Steph.. I also randomly start dancing all the time. For example while we're cooking in the kitchen and he's standing in front of the fridge I'll grab him and start dancing and he just rolls his eyes and refuses to dance so it looks like a scene from "Weekend at Bernie's"
I'm not so good in the patience department. If I decide that I want a haircut I'll call for an appointment to go right then and there. If I decide that some furniture needs to be moved around just for a change, I harrass Steph for help. Regardless of the time.
I worry too much about what other people think/do.
Potatoes are my nemesis. They go with everything and they're so delicious and they can be made up in any fashion... but they make me bloat insane amounts. (Like I'll eat a potato and bloat 5lbs). I loooove sheppards pie.
I am way too attached to my kitchen gadgets. Last month my brother put 2 attachments for my mandolyn slicer in the dishwasher and they warped and melted and I nearly cried. PS- My birthday is Monday, and it's a "Borner" slicer. If anyone reading this blog needs a gift idea. *cough* Steph *cough*
I'm at -68lbs lost!!! WOoot WOot!! I can't believe it.

Books I've read in 2007

2007-08-08T16:23:00.000-03:00

I'm copying Heather and posting my list of books read in 2007 so far hehe. One of these years I'll read more than Heather in a year hah ;) I have a backpackit account, and everytime I start a new book I add it to my books list on there. It's nice because you can access it from everywhere. They are in the order in which I read them :

1. Ann Brashares – Forever in Blue
2. Danielle Steel – Journey
3. Mehmet C. Oz and Michael F. – You: On a Diet
4. John Grogan – Marley & Me
5. Jodi Picoult – Songs of the Humpback Whale
6. Mathyas Lefebure – D’ou viens-tu berger?
7. Jodi Picoult – Salem Falls
8. Yann Martel – Life of Pi
9. Douglas Coupland – JPod
10. Aldous Huxley – The Doors of Perception & Heaven and Hell
11. Wally Lamb – She’s Come Undone
12. Bill Phillips – Body for Life
13. James Redfield – The Celestine Prophecy
14. John Gray – Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
15. Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus – The Nanny Diaries
16. Leah McLaren – The Continuity Girl
17. Jodi Picoult – Harvesting The Heart
18. Julie A. Hyzy – Artistic License
19. Jane Green - Swapping Lives
20. John Grisham - The Client

Before & During Pictures

2007-08-03T12:48:00.000-03:00

Courtney asked to see some before & after pictures, well I'm not nearly done so here are some before & during pictures. But I've decided to only put 'bad' pictures. Aka pictures that other people shot that I didn't have a say in. (Because I only normally keep 'good' self-shots aka hidden fat/double chin as most as I can, or if it's Steph I can annoy the hell out of him by making him shoot the picture like 10 times before I'm satisfied.) And it's weird normally everytime I try to lose weight I take pictures to try and see progress, but this time I don't know why (the only time that I've lost the most weight I"ve ever lost.. figures) I didn't take any pictures. The pics I'm posting here are pretty much the only recent pics of me hehe.

(Click on them to enlarge)

I have NO idea where or when this was... It has to be an IK event...

and it was in 2006 for sure.

This was in October 2006 at Kate's wedding

Christmas 2006 - Theriault Family.

January 2007 - Party at Tina's

(The next few pics are from that night and I think I looked so horrible in those pictures that I gave up on pics of myself after that LOL. I had lost like 10 lbs at that point I Think.)

January 2007

January 2007. Sophie you look like you've toned up at lot since then eh?

January 2007. Ew. ew ew.

End of January 2007 - Snoop Dogg night!

First week of July 2007 - Me and a big nut. Flabbolicious.

My most recent picture! This was taken last week at Kate's Mary Kay party. This is a -63 lbs picture. And it's a very pro-double-chin angle. I swear. No hiding fat there. That's my double chin in all it's glory. I'm glad I posted these I can definitely see a difference between this double chin and the horrid January double chin. What do you think?

Long Weekend Here I Come!!

2007-08-03T10:50:00.000-03:00

What do I have planned for this glorious long weekend ? Cleaning, weeding, and more cleaning. I feel like I haven't blogged in so long.. I don't even know if I'll make sense. Whenever I don't blog for a while I want to say too many things (of value or not...mostly not) at the same time and start to sound bipolar. Are you watching 'So you think you can dance' ? Man I'm loving Lacey. I didn't want to like her since she's Benji's sister and how can 2 siblings possibly win the show one after the other? But she's so good she can't be penalized because she happens to be Benji's sister. Plus she's better :) Check her out!

So the Reality Bites bloggers have been slacking so much that they're shutting er down. I am kind of scared of what will happen now that I won't be accountable to that handful of readers. It was a pretty good motivator to have to blog about your weight loss weekly. Oh by the way I'm down 2 more lbs for a total of 65lbs even! woot! Can I shoot for another 10lbs loss before NYC?? (Aug 24) IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcan. Plus, when I lose another 10lbs, I won't be the fattest person in my family for the first time since I was like... 12 heh. (My father weighs like 275, my brother 240 and my mom 200. I'm going to beat them all mwahaha.)

Speaking of my brother, he's gone back with his girlfriend. That's all I'll say about that.

Okay I need a break. Chat amongst yourselves I'll be back after the intermission :)

~~~~This is the Intermission, imagine there is elevator music playing ~~~~~

Too Fat To Adopt

2007-08-02T13:20:00.000-03:00

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21956966-2862,00.html

She measures 5'6 and weighs 277lbs
I measure 5'7 and currently weigh 284.5 lbs
I WAS 347.6 on January 1st 2007 so I am going in the right direction. But still.

These are supposed to be funny.

2007-08-01T13:01:00.000-03:00

These pictures are from a Brazilian yogurt ad. They're supposed to be funny because apparently if we eat full fat yogurt we become gorgeous fat women :P But I'd LOVE to look like them; especially the first one hehe.

PS - Read the entry, I love that blogger she's hilarious !

Freaky Fridays

2007-07-27T13:48:00.000-03:00

So Sophie, this is the dress I was thinking of wearing to your wedding reception! LOL (Without the half basketballs for each boob... or maybe I should... hehe)

Yep, another themed Friday at InfiKnowledge - Dress & Tie day. Taken quite literally by half the participating males hehe.

2 Links

2007-07-26T14:19:00.000-03:00

The Boy With The Incredible Brain - This video is quite fascinating. I wish I had this man's amazing brain abilities. The "real Rainmaker" [OOPS DH just emailed me to say that it's not rainmaker it's rainman!! my bad!] is also featured in this video. (The man who inspired the Rainmaker movie.) It's really interresting to learn about the link between those savants and autism.

Cooking Light Done Right - I love recipes. I love recipes with good pictures even more. So light recipes with good pictures and free is great :)

Me want!!

2007-07-21T23:54:00.001-03:00

I haven't read a single Harry Potter book yet can you believe it? I've seen all the movies though. Whenever I read a book and see the movie after, I'm always dissapointed in the movie. So hopefully by reading the books after I've seen the movies I'll love the books hehe. Isn't this box set cute ? Coming out September 18, 2007!

This is what I want to do when I grow up

2007-07-21T16:58:00.000-03:00

Last Sunday and Monday nights I couldn't sleep for different reasons. (Going back to work after vacay, Guylaine losing all her stuff in the fire, etc.) I guess I did a lot of thinking in bed. One of the biggest things is that I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up. First of all, I've decided to stop feeling ashamed of being an administrative assistant aka Secretary. I'm going to stop saying that I'm 'just' a secretary. Because I've finally admitted to myself that I love doing it. Maybe not the job I have right now, solely because of the lack of work and wishing I was busier and felt more productive. But I love working for my provincial government and I love my department.

Yeah there are some funny people at work, but there are funny people everywhere. Plus sometimes I think the more I complain about some people at work's odd behaviors, the more I secretly love making people laugh with those stories lol. Does that make sense? I love an office environment, I love business, I love anticipating other's needs, and honnestly my job really fits my personality. Think about the stereotypical secretary: very friendly, in a good mood most of the time, shy, great at analyzing behaviors, etc. That's me.

While I was lying in bed wide awake and thinking about all this, suddenly I remembered something. Back in college when I was taking my multimedia design & project management course, I was secretly wishing I had the guts to transfer to the administrative assistants course. I'm not shitting you. I remember thinking how I'd get to work in an office, work on computers, and then leave it all at the office at 5pm until the next morning. I mean, I loved multimedia design. I'm a very creative and artsy person, but I'm so sensitive that I always take it personally when someone doesn't love my work. And from the 3 web design jobs I've had since starting that course, the client often want really crappy looking things and you end up having to attach your name to something you don't even like. (As long as the client is happy right?). So yeah, I secretly wanted to be a secretary, but I wouldn't even have considered it because of the fear of what others would think of me for being 'just' a secretary.

I know I still have a lot of weight to lose, but already at -62lbs the difference in my self-esteem is amazing. I really think that now I could start being okay with my title. I mean, this isn't my DREAM job, but it'll do for now. I can still work on my dreams while paying my bills hehe. But here's something that's going to sound completely ludicrous : Since I was young, I've always wanted to help people learn about nutrition!! hah! I'm finally starting to believe that I might possibly one day look the part and look like somoene who applies their knowledge to their nutritional habits. I mean, even if I can help one person through my Reality Blog that would be something.

I feel like I haven't rambled long enough for it to make as much sense for you as it does for me.. but I'm sure you've got better things to do right now than listen to me rambling hehe. So here's my plan: I want to take preferably an online secretary course, or if that's not possible evening classes. I want to finally be qualified on paper for this job so that the day that they don't renew my contract I could get another administrative assistant's job anywhere else. Right now no matter where I apply there will always be someone qualified or this job while I only have experience and no certificate. I've looked a little and CCNB Dieppe offers an online course and it's really not that expensive. THEN if I ever reach my goal weight maybe I can look into ways to share my experience and knowledge with others who need to lose weight. But for now, I'm just going to focus on my self-esteem and stop thinking that a more prestigious job would make me appear like a better person.

Reality Bites

2007-07-21T16:50:00.000-03:00

If you're interrested, I just posted an update (weight loss) on my Reality Bites blog on ivillage :)

He wears his sunglasses at night..

2007-07-20T12:20:00.000-03:00

It's 80's theme day at Steph's work! (They have fun theme days every Friday this summer that they get dressed up for and they have prizes for best costumes etc. Fun!)

Look at my 80's husband!! He looks like he's lost weight eh? (He's down 50lbs since January!! Well actually it's a little more than that but it's 50 recorded lbs because our scale only goes up to a certain number so he weighed 'error' for a week hehe)

I'm so proud of him!! <3>

How do you like my permanent marker home made Vuarnet t-shirt? hehe

Squirt me!

2007-07-19T15:12:00.001-03:00

A nasal spray to relieve shyness ?? Awesome in theory, for someone as shy as me. But could I squirt too much up my nose and overdose on it and lose all my inhibitions and strip naked and talk without censoring my thoughts? hehe

Heather's Wednesday Blog Challenge # 18

2007-07-19T10:06:00.000-03:00

HWBC # 18 - Confess away. It could be anything. You don't pay your bills on time. You haven't eaten a vegetable in three years. You don't know your times tables. You wear the same underwear two days in a row. You haven't yet washed the pot that's been in your sink for the past two months. Your neighbors complain because you mow your lawn too infrequently. You kiss your pet on the mouth. You talk to yourself out loud - and answer yourself. You're wearing your old e-rings and wedding band just because they look pretty and happened to be right next to the computer (*blush*).

*****These are my confessions (sing it like Usher! :P)

I am secretly a yeti. I don't shave my legs nearly as often as I should. I can even go for like 2 months in the winter. I have to wear my knee high compression socks and everything so... yeah. Poor Steph. :P
Back in the 6th grade when Hypercolor t-shirts were in (I had the purple one that turned pink when someone touched it hehe.) I used to lock myself in the bathroom and grab my boobs and watch the two pink boobie handprints fade LOL!
When I go to the grocery store to buy strawberries, most of the time I'll lift the top pallet just to have my pick from the untouched full pallet of strawberries under. Even if theres a perfectly good pack of strawberries on the first level. In my mind they're 'fresher' on the bottom layers and less people have touched them. For the fruits and veggies displays, I always reach for the fruit or veggie on the very top of the display where it looks like less people have touched them, even though I wash them at home.
I have a wool cardigan sweater here at work that I've had since I was in the 9th grade lol!
I secretly LOVED watching Victoria Beckam in "Coming to America" earlier this week!
Okay these are becoming less and less interresting, but I love seing Jen stuck in that red unitard all week on BB8!! But I would have loved even more to see Dick be stuck in the red unitard that would have been hilarious!! hehe
That's it for now... check for updates though I'll update if I can think of more confessions (that I don't mind 50 people reading hehe).

Back to real life...

2007-07-16T09:43:00.000-03:00

I'm back at work this morning. *cries*. I'm thankful for the great weather we had this past weekend, but man my vacation weather sucked hehe. But there are worst things in life than crappy weather.... My best friend's appartment burned down yesterday afternoon :( She's okay, she had called in sick from work that day and was taking a nap in her pyjamas when it happened. She said that she thought she wouldn't be able to get out.

It's an old victorian style house divided into appartment and she lives.. lived alone in an upstairs appartment. When she woke up the fire had already spread to the back of her appartment. scary!! I'm sooo glad that she's okay, but I couldn't sleep all night, thinking about how she's lost every single thing she owns. Everything she's worked since college for. Not only the new furniture, new computer, new kitchen things, new clothes etc that she bought in the last few months, but the saddest thing to me is the irreplaceable things : family pictures, Africa souvenirs, a vase she inherited from her grandfather, the letters exchanged between her and her biological mother, etc etc. The worst thing is that she didn't even have renter's insurance. I know I didn't think about getting that until I rented a house with Steph.

They don't even know yet what caused the fire, they're investigating. I'm trying to think of a way to help... the only thing I've come up so far is trying to scrounge up some money for a Wal-mart gift certificate so that she can at least buy the basics... toothbrush, underwear, shoes.... Does anyone have better suggestions ?

About Self-Esteem

2007-07-11T16:38:00.000-03:00

Am I the only one who's embarrassed to talk about self-esteem ? Does that mean I need more self-esteem ?

Anyway, I just saw this in my igoogle feeds : 10 Quick tips to improve self-esteem.

The ones I struggle the most with are # 4, 5 and 7.... For those of you who don't struggle with 4,5 and 7, do you have additional tips ? hehe. 4 and 5 are just sooo hard for me. And it all comes down to not wanting anyone to think I'm not a nice person/caring too much about what other people think.. but how when someone says that they don't care what others think of them, are they lying? How can they not care? If someone wouldnt care what others think, why would they pluck their eyebrows, shave their legs and get any body part waxed ? Okay these are all hair themed for some reason. That's what I hate doing the most that's why hehe.

Back on track !

2007-07-11T14:21:00.000-03:00

FYI - I'm back at -55lbs lost! I lost all my weekend bloat. Now it is imperative that I do not put anything stupid in my mouth tomorrow at IK's Keg party at Doc Dylans! I wonder if I eat very lightly during the day if 1 or 2 beers would make me bloat.... It's SO rare that I drink beer... I could buy my usual summer G&T, but the kegs are free hehe. So does anyone know how high beer rates on the bloat scale ?

When I lose another 10lbs, I will weigh what I weighed when I came back from Africa! Yipee!!

When I lose another 20lbs, for the first time in my adult life I will no longer be the fattest person in my family. Dad will be a couple of pounds fatter than me. (I know he's a guy and taller than me, but let's pretend that only the numbers matter.) :P

I'm motivated to stay on the wagon and keep losing, I hope I look better in my NYC vacation pictures than on my last vacay pictures (Toronto/Niagara Falls). I am so ashamed of how bad I look on those pics that I never look at them.

HWBC # 16

2007-07-11T13:53:00.000-03:00

HWBC # 16 - I'd like you to write about how you met your significant other. Try to include as many details as possible, including your original impressions. Who asked whom out? What was the first date like? Instant chemistry, or did you want to run for the hills?

BTW, when I tell the story of how Steph and I met, if I'm telling it to people from my generation I tell the truth (we met online). When I tell older people I say "we met at a party" (which we did, after we met online hehe. We met at the party in person for the first time.) Because if I tell them I met Steph online they're all shocked and "You met on the internet? How could you trust anyone from the internet? etc." I'm sure that many of you would agree that when you spend a lot of time writing/emailing/chatting with someone online, sometimes you get to know them really really fast and well. I don't mean when you meet a person online and spend 2 hours chatting with them. I mean when you meet someone online and you talk daily for months/years.

In 1999 : I was going out with Sean, and a group of us (irc nerds) always went out for breakfast at Doc Dylan's followed by either Pool at Dooly's or a movie, every Sunday around noon. That 'Sunday Ritual' went on for a long time, with different people in the ritual group depending on who was in town etc. Well Steph used to be part of the ritual for a while, but it was before my time. So we had friends in common, I had heard about him, seen pics of him etc, but I had never met him. Then when S and I stopped dating is when Steph returned from college and resumed the ritual. weird huh hehe.

S and I used to chat online while we were both at work, or maybe he was on vacay, I don't remember. Anyway he says : Hey did you know that Ironwall also works for the Summit? (That's when all of us were spending all our free time chatting on #moncton on efnet - irc.) So later that day Ironwall messages me and he says "So apparently you also work for the Francophonie Summit? I say : well I actually work on a different site at the "Village de la Francophonie" I think we chatted 5 minutes and that was it. We both had bf/gf's then.

In 2000 : PJ_GIRL is lonely in Africa and Ironwall is lonely in NB because things were going downhill with his ex gf. We started talking on irc again. It turned into an everyday thing. I was going with J and he was with L but soon after they broke up.

In 2001 : We were chatting on irc every day, for at least 2 hours a day. I always looked forward to chatting with him, he was one of my best 'internet friends'. I was living in Bathurst with J, he was living in Fredericton with his parents (between college and his first real job.) One day he said that he got a job in Moncton and that he was moving, didn't know when he would have internet set up again, etc. Not long after I convinced J that it was time for us to move to Moncton too. When I got the internet I immediately went online, on irc and wrote in the channel : Has anyone seen Ironwall lately? and Megz (I wonder what he's up to now hehe) said : Yeah he was online last night. I said : OMG, do you know where abouts Moncton he moved to? Megz said : Yeah, on McLaughlin Dr. I say : Me too! So we had moved literally accross the street from each other hehe.

That week we were chatting on irc and CJCW was having an "irc party" at his place, and that's where I met Stephane AND Tina (Scatterbrain) for the first time hehe.

The rest is history, you all know the rest. We've been together for 6 years next month, and steph's ex L and my ex J have been together for a year now. Wow time flies eh?

HWBC # 15.5

2007-07-11T13:13:00.000-03:00

Well, the current HWBC is #16th... and my food quirks I wrote that it was #15... I think I'm mixed up in the HWBC #'s so anyway I'll call the backstory challenge # 15.5 hehe.

Heather's Wednesday Blog Challenge # 15.5 - Your challenge is to write a backstory. Something that you've never told the blog world about - even though you may have mentioned it on a messageboard or something like that. If you can't think of anything that *needs* to be explained, just write a story from your past that we've never heard before.

Well, I think that most of the time I don't hold back any details. In fact I'm kind of the Queen of TMI. So here's a brand new story that I've never told the blogging world. I think ? *thinks* Okay I've been staring at my screen for 15 mins, occasionally distracted by Regis Philbin on tv wearing bright red pants with a black & red stripped tie and a black jacket. He looks like a circus guy or something. So it'll have to be a boring one :

When I was in university, my roomate Melanie and I moved in a week before class started so that we could explore the (tiny) city, etc. The first day, Mel went down to her friend's car to get some music and as she got in the car, 2 guys began fighting in the parking lot and one pulled a knife and got got scared so she locked herself in the car and the guys ended up fighting on the hood of the car for a few minutes. The next day, I went to the old dirty only laundromat in town, and while I was doing laundry this little guy no older than 8 years old comes in and tries to sell me a variety of pills and drugs. Then the next day Mel and I walk downstairs to go walk around town, and 2 guys from an appartment on the ground floor are sitting on their deck and invite us over for a beer (we had said hello to them a few times in passing) so we said sure. They're nice and everything, after a while we go inside to use their bathroom and lo and behold there's this ginormous like 6 feet tall Virgin Mary statue sitting in the middle of their kitchen. They finally admitted that they stole it from somewhere. As we were trying to find an excuse to leave, they said " wait we have to show you this trick... " after the lame trick (I don't remember exactly what it was but it had to do with one of the guys writing a date on his forearm with soap so that when he rubbed ashes on it the date magically appeard. Then I ask them : where did you learn this trick ? Oh in prison... We left immediately. So that was the first impression we had of our University town (UMCS). The rest of the year was a blur of partying, my dating a guy whom I immediately dumped after learning that he had a wife and baby and was cheating on them with me. *puke*, one of the prison/virgin mary guys coming up to my appartment, forcing the door open and tried to force himself on me, and then me finally quitting university when the year ended.

I think that I thought about that story because after the mary/prison/rapist dude tried his stunt one of our guy friends brought a couple of his friends to have a good 'talk' with prison dude who never bothered us ever again, in fact they would go inside their appartment if they happened to be outside when we walked outside.... well anyway that 'guy' that 'saved' us, I saw him on Facebook last week hehe. So weird. He used to be a guitarist in a popular local band. He was 'THE shit'. Not that he's not anymore, but it's funny how people grow up and change. He's now a nurse in a hospital and looks so... grown up hehe. He told me : woah, I would have NEVER recognized you! (In university I had long pitch black hair hehe)

Anyway, that's my long rambly boring weird story of the day :)

Hah! It works! Thanks Kelsie!

2007-07-10T12:57:00.000-03:00

Yay for titles! Thanks Kelsie for showing me the 'trick'.

I just realized that I haven't blogged about our new 'roomate'. On June... hah I just had to ask Steph.. I totally couldn't remember if it was June 28th or 29th :

PJ_GIRL (01:05 PM) :
when did Brian move here ? do you remember ?
PJ_GIRL (01:05 PM) :
was it ON our wedding anniversary ? I can't remember..
IronWall (01:06 PM) :
Yes, he brought in the flowers.
PJ_GIRL (01:07 PM) :
aah yeah, It's funny how I didnt have a fit that he was moving in on our anniversary. it must have been the roses hehe

Anyway. So yeah Brian finally *Hallelujah* got fed up with his (ex) gf and decided to leave and get back on his feet. So he's living with us now, basically until one of the three of us can't take it anymore hehe. He came with nothing but the clothes on his back, literally. We're adjusting pretty well, the worst thing is that there are 3 of us adults with full time jobs and different work schedules. Steph and I's schedules' mesh pretty well (I work 8h15-4h30 and he works 9-5... but I do more like 9-4h30 through lunch. Exept when I take a long lunch. Anyway, it all works out I promise :P) But Brian works 12h45pm-10h45pm. Hopefully he can buy a clunker soon.

~~~~~~~~INTERMISSION~~~~~~~~

I will now answer my fan mail (or blog comments) during the intermission.
*feel free to imagine elevator music playing softly in the background*

Rebecca asked : Didn't you go to New York though?

Dear Rebecca : My NYC vacation is at the end of August and I can't WAIT!! I want kick up the weight loss again to look my best for the big apple, but I keep giving in to the vacation temptations! Eating hot-dogs and skittles while watching Days of our lives in my sweat pants is such a vacationy thing to do!! On Friday (the 6th), I was down 55 lbs. Then I gained 10lbs over the weekend. GAH! Bloat is my nemesis. Thankfully I'm already back down to - 51lbs this morning. But I can't wait to get back to -55. It has such a nice ring to it. Sorry for rambling in my answer lol.

K8 asked : Did the coffee make the headache go away?

Dear K8 : I am glad to report that the headache went away almost instantly. Although Steph bought this chocolats flavored coffee and it's nasty. I'd rather have my beloved President's Choice Dark Roast. Mm. But now we're out of nasty coffee and we only have instant left which only my parents and Steph drink. I don't understand why people drink instant coffee. It's almost coffee but not really. It's cacaffee. It's coffee with an inferiority complex. I should harrass Steph to pick up some good coffee on the way home.

~~~~Please Return to Your Seats~~~~

OMG I can't stop rambling. Gah! I was going to blog about how wonderful and great my husband is with the whole roomate in law situation and all that crap, but I think I've rambled on long enough. This household needs another car so bad!! I'm on vacation and I'm stuck home with no car and the highlight of my day is going for a walk with my coat and umbrella because the weather can't decide what it wants to be this summer. It's cold and gray and wet and nasty. When it's hot (rarely, if you blink you miss it) it's super muggy then a super bad thunder storm ensues, if it's sunny and warm it's raining at the same time... At least it's a great summer for rainbows. Trying to find the silver lining....

PS - Are yall watching Big Brother? OMG I LOVE the house!!! I love the tiny beds with the cute big boys in them and the big huge tall beds with tiny gay men in them. All the drama might get old fast, but for now I love it. And I love their decor again. It's always one of my favorite things about watching big brother : the decor. I wonder if the designers ever get praise for the show.
OH I think the sun came out a little, I'm off to catch the ray before it dissappears!

2007-07-09T12:32:00.000-03:00

Um, blogger won't let me add a title! For the record, it was going to be a lame one : Where is the July weather?

One week of vacation down, one to go. It's going way too fast. Steph only had one week in July so he's back at work today. I have a killer headache. I wonder if it's a caffeine headache since when I'm at work I drink minimum 2 big mugs of coffee per day, and when I'm on vacation I don't even drink coffee. Coffee at home isn't as good as coffee at work, I don't know why. (Even when we buy the same brand that we buy at work and prepare it like I do at work.) I think after this post I'll go make a cup anyway just to see if it'll make my headache go away.

So we're relaxing and being mellow for this vacation, saving up for a fun vacation in August. Last week we went to see Ratatouille, Transformers, Live Free or Die Hard, saw my mom one day, went out with the girls Friday, played and finished the latest Nancy Drew game which is also my least favorite "White Wolf of Icicle Creek".

Oh yeah the title... where the frig are the normal July temperatures ? It's not cold, but it's not hot either. And what's up with all the raining while it's sunny thing? This post might win an award for the most boring blog entry ever, and I guess typing isnt helping my headache, so I'll be back with another boring update when my head cooperates :)

HWBC # 15 - Food Quirks

2007-07-05T01:19:00.000-03:00

Well I've been procrastinating with this one, because I can't think of many food quirks that I have, besides my monthly food cravings which you all know about. (This month : Hot Dogs with ketchup and onions)

I love special K cereal over chocolate ice cream. It tastes like an upside down ice cream cone I find.
Milk has to be really cold, and fresh out of the fridge. It grosses me out to drink milk that has been out of the fridge for more than 1 or 2 minutes. And If I'm going to drink a glass of it, It has to be a plastic cup or I'll drink it all in one shot because milk residue on glasses are gross.
I love to eat weinners by biting off all the skin first (like you would eat a corn on the cob), then eat just the middle. (But I find it gross that steph loves to squeeze his hot rod beef jerky meat out of it's skin first, then eats the skin. lol)
I always prefer fountain pop to bottle or can pop. No idea why.

I think that's it... I started writing this post hours ago then soemone sent me a link for Misheard lyrics on youtube and I've been listening and laughing my butt off to those for way too long now!! hehe

I've been tagged by Kelsie!

2007-07-04T01:36:00.000-03:00

For this meme, you go to Wikipedia and check your birthday - then post 3 events, 2 births, and a holiday. And, of course, tag 5 people.

August 13th :

1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain begins
1942 - Walt Disney's fifth animated feature, Bambi, premieres.
1997 - South Park debuts on Comedy Central.

2 Births :

1926 - Fidel Castro, Cuban revolutionary and politician
1966 - Shayne Corson, Canadian ice hockey player

A Holiday :

In Brasil, Friday 13 August (agosto) is considered to be especially filled with sorrow (desgosto).

Wow.. what a great day to be born in Brasil! :-S hehe

And now I shall tag : Sophie, Tina, Chantal, Lori & Rebecca.

This commercial totally cracks me up!!

2007-06-30T13:56:00.000-03:00

Our 4th Wedding Anniversary in pictures

2007-06-28T22:40:00.000-03:00

Well not really.. but they're random pictures that I took today and the bird was earlier in the week hehe.

Messy Bird ;)

Does anyone know which kind of bird this is? (I don't)

Stephane in his natural element. Making a mess in the living room.

Loki and his big bone.

His tag says that he was carefully handcrafter by a skilled artisan, and that his name is Scraggles. Then you flip the tag over and it says 'made in China'. But it's cute, thanks Steph :) It was attached to :

A beautiful rose!

And 12 of her friends! They're huge!!!

I'm so touched that he actually remembered! I told him that I would have been happy with one. Even a dandelion hehe. Just him remembering is what means a lot :)

Totally random...

2007-06-28T11:25:00.000-03:00

Work. Sucks. I don't even want to talk about it. I thought it was smooth sailing until tomorrow 4h31. There's only one other person in the office this week. And they just asked me to pull 2 miracles out of my ass. So I was trying to think of something funny/nice to cheer myself up and did you know that one of the funniest things in the world, I think... is when someone is walking on the street in the rain, with an umbrella, and the wind blows it/breaks it and inverts it. Okay I don't know how to say it I'll google for a picture. I can look at it when the coworker talks about the miracles again : (Hah! found a good one too!)

Selling Mary Kay?

2007-06-28T10:52:00.000-03:00

Have you or someone you know ever sold Mary Kay products? I'm thinking about it... yeah yeah, I know. I only started wearing make up again on a daily basis not even two weeks ago. I'm not in a make up sect or anything. It's just a coincidence that a friend asked me if I'd be interested. I spent last night googling about it and found a bunch of women who love it on yahoo answers (love that site btw.) and a bunch of women who despise MK on pinktruth.com. I'd link but I'm crampy, cranky is not the word, and my left elbow is killing me. It started 2-3 days ago and it makes my whole arm hurt. I dont even know what happened to it. Why is it that I have all my mother's diseases but that she only started having them in her mid forties ? I'm not even 28 yet give me a break.

Happy Wedding Anniversary to Me!!

2007-06-27T14:45:00.000-03:00

Well it's only technically tomorrow, but I've taken matters into my own hands and bought myself (us) a wedding anniversary present - A tent!!! Well it's actually a 'starter kit' that comes with : a 5-6 person tent, 2 camping chairs, 1 cooler, 1 flashlight, 4 can coolers and 2 sleeping bags. I bought an extra sleeping bag because we're fat and I didnt want to sleep like a sausage. So we'll just zip the 3 together.

I'M SO EXITED!!!!!!!!!

I <3 Bullets

2007-06-26T21:24:00.000-03:00

I'm completely off track diet-wise since Friday and I feel like a cow. Must stop this immediately. Well after this last handful of Sour Skittles.
Is anyone else pissed that they seem to have discontinued the regular Sour Skittles and they replaced them with "Double Sour Skittles", which might I point out, are most certainly NOT doubly sour. Hmph.
My legs are shaved. My hair is straightened. I've been wearing make-up everyday for like 2 weeks. My fingernails are painted. My.toenails.are.painted. What the hell is happening to me???
Since I've eaten like a pigglet since Friday, I've gained 10 pounds. Probably most of it is salty bloat. At least I got all of my cravings out of me. I ate hot-dogs, nachos and Thai food. Yum. Oh and ice cream. lots of sour skittles. Blech I'm actually craving veggies. At lunch I was almost ready to go back to eating healthily. Almost. I ordered a slice of veggie pizza. It was good.
I just finished reading The Celestine Prophecy and it was really interresting.
I think I might start the Anne of Green Gables serie.
It's my wedding anniversary in 2 days!!! 4 years already ! Isn't that completely insane? I'm convinced that time actually picks up speed as it passes.
At Simcha's Friday night, they had a gorgeous bouquet of flowers that he had bought for Lisa, and he went on and on about how good a price they were at Danielle's flowershop. I HOPE Steph got the hint!! I hope I at least get a card. It's not that I'm demanding to be spoiled, I just want something else than the same old same old you know? I want him to thank me for picking up his socks off the floors for 4 years now! hehe kidding.
I can't WAIT for big brother to start this year!
Oh yeah, I also started occasionally wearing dangly earrings.
And I bought high heeled pointy shoes. pointy shoes. me. Maybe it's the time of year.
My dog is looking at me with big sad puppy eyes. He's trying to push my hands off the keyboard with his wet nose. haha! I guess it's doggy playtime hehe.

June 30 - July 15 : Vacation Relaxation to-do list

2007-06-26T21:03:00.000-03:00

My 1st 2007 vacation starts Friday at 4h31pm !!! You're all aware of my slight obession with making lists, so do I really need to justify my vacation relaxation to-do list ?

******** Sunny Days
* Go to Hopewell Rocks
* Go walk in Centennial Park
* Go walk in Mapleton Park
* Go walk in Irishtown nature park
* Go to the beach
* Go to Le Pays de la Sagouine
* Go see Canada day fireworks
* Have July 1st BBQ/firepit
* Work around the yard

******** Rainy Days
* Go see "License to Wed"
* See "Harry Potter"
* Organize photographs
* Bead necklaces
* Learn to use sewing machine
* Read

Weekend Update

2007-06-25T11:14:00.001-03:00

You know you don't blog often enough when it takes you about 7 tries to enter your correct password!

Friday night we went to S&L's and hung out there for a while, then watched What Not To Wear and vegged. Saturday morning we made plans to hang out with S&T that night, but when night came, all 4 of us decided that we were too tired and decided to vege instead. Steph played a ps2 game and I played (and cleared) Nancy Drew - Creature of Kapu Cave. Sunday my parents were in town but they hadn't seen each other in 2 weeks, so Steph and I went to have dinner at Vien Dong and to see Evan Almighty so that they could have the house to themselves. I am blocking out of my mind what they could have possibly done alone in the house. (ew, they're my parents.)

I can't believe that I'll be on vacation next week!!!!!!!!!

I can't believe that Christmas is exactly 6 months away!

This is me :

2007-06-25T11:05:00.000-03:00

You are a Creator

Your imagination, confidence, willingness to explore, and appreciation of beauty make you a CREATOR.

You are independent, and you enjoy your self-sufficiency.

Defying convention, you are very innovative, and you have a vivid imagination.

The look of things is important to you, and you have a keen eye for aesthetic beauty in multiple arenas.

You have a strong interest in what is new and exciting—and that includes forging ahead with new ideas, not simply discovering what is already out there.

Your eagerness to seek new and varied experiences leads you into many different situations.

You're not set on one way of doing things, and you are creative when it comes to finding novel solutions to complex problems.

You trust yourself to be innovative and resourceful.

Your confidence allows you to take your general awareness and channel it into creativity.

You're not afraid to let your emotions guide you, and you're generally considerate of others' feelings as well.

You prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute.

You are a fashion maven, up on trends, but distinct in your own style. You don't follow trends, you set them.

If you want to be different:

Appreciate the earthly, practical elements of things—there is beauty in form as well.

While you are good at thinking abstractly, focusing on details a bit more may help you discover things about the world.

how you relate to others
You are Considerate

You trust others, care about them, and are slow to judge them, making you CONSIDERATE.

You value your close relationships very much, and are more likely to spend time in small, tightly-knit groups of friends than in large crowds.

You enjoy exploring the world through observation, quietly watching others.

Relating to others so well, and understanding their emotions, leads you to trust people in general, even though you're somewhat shy and reserved at times.

Your belief that people are generally well-intentioned contributes to your sympathy regarding their problems.

Although you may not vocalize it often, you have an awareness of how society affects individuals, and you understand complex causes of people's behavior.

You like to look at all sides of a situation before making a judgment, particularly when that situation involves important things in other people's lives.

Your close friends know you as a good listener.

If you want to be different:

Because other people would benefit immensely from your understanding and insight, you should try to be more outgoing in social situations, even when they make you uncomfortable. Others will want to hear what you have to say!

Take the quiz here

Weird Stuff

2007-06-22T09:06:00.000-03:00

I thought that my aversion of cotton ball squeaks was silly.... (as in, if I see someone picking up a cotton ball with their nails.. or ugh, bites into a cotton ball, my skin crawls and it hurts my teeth..) But I'm glad I'm not this woman who's scared shitless of cotton balls!

And, as if that wasn't silly enough :

Man gets disability pay because of addiction to Heavy Metal music. For eff's sake.

Source : bobsroom.com :)

Start Spreading The News!!

2007-06-18T12:57:00.000-03:00

I'm leaving at the end of August!! I want to be a part of it, New York New York!!!

I can't believe it. I'm actually going to visit New York City!! It's been my dream for soo long! Our seats were just confirmed at noon. I'm so exited it's insane. You don't want to know how exited I am hehe. I can't believe how cheap this is costing too! This is the tour bus we're going on. My BIL & SIL are also coming! The guys are stoked that we got front row center trickets for The Blue Man Group.. in the "poncho section" lol. [The Poncho Section is the first five rows of the Orchestra Level. Patrons are given a rain poncho to protect clothing from materials that may come off the stage.]

I'm going to be able to meet Heather!!!!!!! OMG!! Can you believe it? We met on the board in what.... 2002? 5 year old cyberfriends finally meet! How much dorkier can this sound? I'm so exited!! Actually it does get dorkier.. I've dreamed of visiting NYC for sooo long, that when our seats were confirmed during lunch, I started shaking and crying like an idiot!! Haha. When we were finally approved for our mortgage in 2004 and I received the news at work I was deliriously happy but managed to hold back the tears then. I'm nuts. Is anyone else going to be in NYC during that time by any chance? :)

Weekend Update

2007-06-18T12:40:00.000-03:00

We had an absolutely gorgeous weekend!! Sooo nice that Steph had to install the air conditionning unit! hehe. I left work right after lunch on Friday and went home and spent the afternoong gardenning in the sun. I dug dead bushes and moved others, carried dirt and shoveled and had a wheelbarrow spill on the lawn hehe. I found 2 spider nests ew.

Saturday Steph went out on the deck to do the stain touch ups. He came back in after 20 mins and announced that he was done. I went to look, and I couldn't even tell that he did anything. It was already very dry. Upon further investigation I discovered that Mr. Steph mistakenly "stained" the deck with turpentine... LOL! (FIL had left a brush in a paint can with turpentine in it and it had turned the colour of our stain. (Dragon Red. Steph loved the name hehe.) So I got the real stain and decided to redo the whole deck floor surface. It looks pretty good now! I can finally bring my patio furniture on the deck as soon as it's sunny hehe. Saturday night we went to Simcha's birthday party, that was fun! We crossed paths with no less than 12 police cars on the way home. I don't know if it's always like this on Saturday night or what, we wouldn't know we're always home on Sat nights normally hehe. Or not out that late at least.

Sunday I had lunch at Mexicali Rosa's with Guylaine. We shared a veggie nacho, YUM. Then I had ordered a Quesedilla dinner... well I've never seen a quesedilla that looked so much like a taco in a pita in my whole life. I even asked the server if 'that' was really a quesedilla. They assured me that it was. A thick pita type wrap, with 5 cubes of steak in it, a pinch of lettuce and some sour cream. No salsa. No cheese. it was folded like a taco but wouldn't stay folded. Right. Then when I had my bill, it said "Taco Dinner". Whatever! Sunday night we relaxed. We are both sooo sore in the back of the thighs, last night we were trying to massage each other but it tickled like hell so that didn't work out too well LOL

This morning I'm up 7.5lbs. FAWK!! I hope some of that is bloating.

I don't know if these are all true..

2007-06-15T12:19:00.001-03:00

But I know that some of them are. In any case, these are quite fun to read :)

for example :

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.

Weird dreams

2007-06-14T11:09:00.000-03:00

I've been having such weird dreams lately for the past month or so! I always remember them so vividly in the morning, but then when I sit down at the computer later to blog about them, the dreams become fuzzy in my memory. So this is last night's weird dream before I forget hehe.

There is this girl on the 20 Something board on iVillage, her name is S., she's indian, I think that she's incredibly beautiful. I 'know' who she is from the board and myspace (although I very rarely use it.) but I've never had any conversations with her or anything. So it's really weird that I dreamed about her hehe. I was at a DMV type of place with my best friend and my husband.. but they have fuzzy faces and they weren't my actual best friend and husband in real life I don't think. S. was working there, sitting behind the glass window. For some reason, she said to my husband that he had won two tickets to an event, we were exited! But when she handed him the tickets, she kept one for herself and gave him one. She said that the deal was that he had to take her to the event LOL. I was so upset about that.... so I went to S.'s house (she lived in my (dead) grandmother's house, in Tracadie, NB hehehe and I went in there with my best (fuzzy) friend... S. was talking on the phone... so I decided to get my revenge.. by unmounting the light fixture that was hanging over her dining room table, put it down on her table, and then ran away. hah! What a weird revenge. weird dream...

And then when I visited the board this morning, I saw that she had just posted that her and her 5 year boyfriend had just broken up :-s Weird huh? I wonder if other ivillage people dream of other ivillage strangers when they are in times of sadness.

Weekend Update - Had a great weekend!

2007-06-10T22:00:00.000-03:00

I had a really great weekend!

Friday :

Tim and Sophie came over for a BBQ and a bonfire. We had so much fun! I'm talking to Sophie on MSN almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day, so although we've only hung out in real life 3-4 times, I feel like we know each other like good old friends hehe. So I'm glad that our hubands (well, her soon to be husband, in 2 months) are getting along great! Loki tried to rape their dog Jasper for the first hour, then he finally calmed down. Thankfully. We don't rape our guests. We chatted and chatted until 12 am and by the time they left, Loki was totally exhausted hehe. You can see the pictures of the evening here on Facebook.

Saturday :

I slept in until 10 am *bliss* (had gone to bed at 3am the night before..) then I vegged around until I had to leave for my hair appointment at 3pm. I was going for a hair cut and then it would conveniently looked great for the party. It's weird how I was telling Tina on MSN that I'm going to Regis and not Mastercuts, which is less expensive, because I didn't mind paying extra to be sure that I'm happy with my hair. Well I'm not. blah. Thankfully I've noticed that short hair grows faster than long hair. So I'll wait until it's long again to go to Regis at the Mall where I usually go. (I had gone to Trinity.) Came home, got the gift ready, Steph helped me prepare the cheese & sausage platters with crackers... They were a big hit at the party! I had Brie, cheddar, marbled, havarti and vegetable havarti Yum. Then when it was time to put some plastic wrap to cover them, I realized that I only had 6 inches of it left. GAH! Didn't have time to go to the store, so I walked outside on my deck with my fingers crossed and coincidentally, my neighbors were also on their deck and graciously offered their roll of plastic wrap hehe. We were supposed to be at Kate's house before 6h30pm, because it was a surprise birthday party... and the actual surprise part of it was going to be at 6h30. We got there at 6h31. Kate and Collin weren't there yet, there were no cars in the driveway. Allt he cars were parked further on the other street, so we went to park, and ran like hell inside the house witht he cheese trays LOL! We were all hiding in the basement so that we couldn't be seen in the windows, and Holly would yell at us to come up when they were in the driveway. It went great! The party was super fun, Kate was genuinely surprised! I love their house, I can't wait to have a finished basement. We left at midnight and went to bed at 3am again. Click here for pics of the evening on Facebook.

Sunday :

Slept in until noon *blush*. Ate some more cheese & crackers, then my best husband in the world took me to see Ocean's 13 instead of what he really wanted to see, Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I've tried to like the Pirate movies and I just don't. I hate them. The second movie couldn't end fast enough. But I loooove the Ocean's movies :) George Clooney and Brad Pitt, need I say more? No seriously, I love everything about them, the ideas, the tricks, the music... when I walk out of seing an Oceans movie I feel like walking with a spring in my step and with jazz music in my head LOL. After the movie we stopped at my work for an hour because I had forgotten to print documents for my meeting tomorrow in Sackville. Now we're juste vedging and trying to will the clock to stop moving so fast during weekends. hehe.

Since I'm taking pictures of pictures..

2007-06-05T00:27:00.000-03:00

Me in Paris, 1997

"Scar" from The Lion King that I drew on my bedroom wall in high school hehe

My brother Brian and I in my little play house!

Little me

Me in my snowsuit

A little gothy? hehe Me and Guylaine in College

Guylaine, Mylene and Me in College

Stephane... the Mickey Ears won me over. LMAO

HAHAHA! Didn't I look mean ? Caroline and me in high school hehe.

Wednesday Challenge # 13 : Your Prom !

2007-06-05T00:12:00.000-03:00

HBC#13 : Write about your high school prom. Pictures get you bonus points ;-). Where was it? What did you wear? Was it everything you thought it would be and more?

I took pictures of my pictures, Mindy style! Here I am with Phillip on Prom night 1997 hehe.

Yes, I went to the Prom with Jesus :

My prom night was absolutely amazing. I couldn't find a cute prom dress my size (Plus Sized clothes have improved a LOT in the past 10 years.) so I designed my dress and my mom made it for me. I really loved it. I went to the prom with my friend Phillip, and we went our separate ways after the proms, at 2 different after partys. Well I was just going to go home after the Prom, but while at the Prom my crush asked me to go to the after party with him !!! This was the magical part hehe I was always 'one of the guys', I still remember my prom night as my "Cinderella Night" hehe. There was the awkward bit where we had to drive his date home LOL I was sitting in the back, she was sitting in the front, crying. Then we went to the after party on the beach, neither of us had brought any alcohol but our friends took care of that and we became too drunk to drive anywhere, so we slept in the car. I made out for hours with my crush on prom night, in his car at the beach. Prom couldn't have been any more perfect. Exept maybe for the part where he ditched his date and drove her home with me sitting in the back hehe.

I got home at 7am the next day... I had every intention of sneaking in the house to avoid my mother's wrath, but unfortunately she was outside getting the newspaper when we rolled in. I got out of the car, walked up to her with my toes clenched and my breath held...ready for the screaming... and instead she just burst laughing and to this day I don't know why my mom didn't freak out like she always does hehe. I have a picture of my 'prom crush/prince' too, but I don't want to post it on here.. just in case someone would forward this to him and that would be weird hehe. You can email me if you wanna see it though :)

Weekend Update

2007-06-04T22:17:00.001-03:00

Another great weekend! We had gorgeous weather, and we were quite productive! Friday night we relaxed; we watched "The US vs John Lennon", and "What Not to Wear". Saturday morning at 9am my in laws called to say that they were coming to help us stain our deck. Thankfully they live 2 hours away, so that gave me that much time to wake up, get ready and clean the house hehe. While father in law and Steph stained the deck (and everything around it, which they thankfully washed later with paint remover hehe), my mother in law and I worked in the yard and flowers. The yard is pretty close to being all 'set up'! I installed the fountain and everything.

At 5h30pm we were done and Steph and I had to rush to get ready to go visit our friends Jill & Jason, so the in laws left and I took Jill up on her suggestion to not dress up or anything hehe. So I went with my greasy ponytail and all. Jason works with Steph at IK, and once Jill read and commented on my "Reality Bites" blog, and her and I quickly became email buddies. And Facebook stalkers. We have so much in common! And we instantly got along. It was fun! We invited them to come over to our house some nice weekend in the near future :)

Sunday we went to Wal-Mart and bought a new tv stand. I finally convinced Steph to let me take the darn tv off the wall. The wires were getting on my nerves soo bad; they've been dangling there for a year! Enough! Now the tv stands on it's leg on the tv stand. But I couldn't find a tv stand like I wanted. (Dark wood, 4 shelfves, corner, in my price range.) So I don' t totally love the new living room layout, but meh. I'll have to do with what I have for now. I'm not sure that I'm lovin' the open concept as much right now. There just isn't enough walls in my living room to arrange my furniture right I find. Then we went to see "Knocked Up" which was pretty darn cute and funny. I just loved seing Katherine Heigl on the big screen! I recommend it, but I think my expectations were too high... It wasn't as funny as I had been led to believe.

I'll blog about the Prom challenge soon, I just wanted to find a picture first. I don't have a scanner but I could take a picture of the picture, Mindy style hehe.

Bored at work, I think they blocked Facebook. NOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! No no no!

2007-05-30T15:49:00.000-03:00

Your Interpersonal Intelligence Score: 92%

Your Interpersonal Intelligence is Very High

You go beyond being a "people person." Connecting with people is the most important thing in your life.
You're empathetic, friendly, and outgoing. You are the kind of friend people dream of having.
Your interpersonal intelligence is a gift. And you use it well.

How Does Your Interpersonal Intelligence Rate?

You Are 32% Obsessive

You tend to have a few obsessive thoughts, but you generally have them under control.
Sometimes your worries keep you up at night, though they usually don't interfere with your life.

How Obsessive Are You?

You Are 45% Bitchy

Generally, you're an average woman, with average moods. But sometimes... well, watch out!
Sometimes, you let your mean side get the better of you. And you enjoy every minute of it.

How Bitchy Are You?

You Are 68% Thankful

You are a very thankful person - for both the big and little things in life.
Your optimism is powerful. Getting through hard times is fairly easy for you.

How Thankful Are You?

Your Social Anxiety Level: 80%

You have high social anxiety.
You have a pretty serious social phobia, and it effects your life more than you may realize.
It's possible that you've made yourself comfortable by avoiding situations you dread.
But don't be fooled - you still probably need professional help.

Are You Socially Anxious?

You Are Agnostic

God? Religion? Maybe... you're just not sure.
You're still figuring out your spiritual path... or figuring out you really don't care.
You believe that no one really can know the true story about religion or God.
So you might as well relax a little. You'll go crazy trying make sense of it all.

Are You an Atheist, Agnostic or a Believer?

You Are Not Messy

You're so clean, people have accused you of being a clean freak!
You like things tidy, organized, and smelling fresh.
Messes drive you crazy, especially when you didn't make them.
It's hard for you to live with a slob - or someone who leaves their dishes in the sink.

Are You Messy?

You Are 12% Spoiled

You are definitely not spoiled. You've worked hard for what you have.
Down to earth and grounded, you don't need a lot to make you happy.

Are You Spoiled?

The True You

You want your girlfriend or boyfriend to be together with you always, no matter when or where.

With respect to money, you spend carefully and save your pennies.

You think good luck doesn't exist - reality is built on practicalities.

The hidden side of your personality tends to be satisfied to care for things with a minimal amount of effort.

You are tend to think about others' feelings a lot, perhaps because you are so eager to be liked.

When it comes to finding a romantic partner, you will search and search until you find your perfect match.

Who's The True You?

You Are 88% Happy

It's unlikely that you know anyone happier than you.
You know how to be happy, no matter what life throws at you.

How Happy Are You?

Your Waist to Hip Ratio is 0.9

You are quite curvy. Most clothes look great on you.

How Curvy Are You?

Your Slanguage Profile

Canadian Slang: 75%

Victorian Slang: 50%

British Slang: 25%

New England Slang: 25%

Prison Slang: 25%

Southern Slang: 25%

What Slanguage Do You Speak?

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 80%
Spelling: 80%
Punctuation: 60%
Vocabulary: 60%

Does Your English Cut the Mustard?

You Sometimes Don't Get Enough Sleep

You're often more tired than you'd like, and you're probably not getting enough quality sleep.
Sleeping a little more could make you a lot more energetic and happy.
Try having a bedtime, keep your bedroom cool, and only eat fruit before bed.

Do You Get Enough Sleep?

Weekend Update

2007-05-29T21:50:00.000-03:00

Hey! I'm slacking off with the blogging aren't I? Ah well, I vowed to enjoy every minute of our short summer this year, and I'm doing it! hehe I had a fantastic weekend! I spent all day Saturday working in the yard/flowers with my brother, almost-sister in law and mother in law. Sunday we cleaned the patio because we're going to stain it next weekend, and we hadn't stained it in 3 years so the wood had turned all grey. We tried 2 kinds of deck cleaner : Thompson's and Olympic, and let me tell you, the Olympic deck cleaner is awesome! You drop a drop of the stuff on your greyed wood and it instantly returns to it's natural wood colour. (If anyone from Olympic is reading this, please contact me so that I can provide my address for all the free products :P)

Monday I was so pooped that it didn't take a lot of convincing to get me to stay home since Steph had the afternoon off for Memorial day. Well they were getting the afternoon off if they could raise 1000$ for charity with a bake sale, and they raised 1700$ go IK! So Steph brought a sugar pie from the bake sale.. and a lasagna. We split the lasagna for lunch.. that's okay. (The lasagna was delicious Kate!! Steph didn't even pick the peppers out! hehe) But then I dove mouth first into the delicious sugar pie that tasted just like my grandmother used to make. It didn't have the same consistence (Does anyone remember fudgy-textured sugar pies our grandmother used to make? I'm beginning to think that they're a myth. They're unfindable.) but it tasted just like it. I ate like 3/4 of it. And gained. four. pouds. Blech. But don't worry, I'm back on track this morning. I even exercised tonight go me! Well, that's it. I'm trying to blog as I'm eating my supper (a salad, yes at 10h15pm) and my salad is getting warm and I have this thing about eating warm salad. blech. Hope you're all doing well! RoseAnn, I'm keeping your brother and his family in my thoughts and prayers!

Heather's Challenge # 12 : Songs

2007-05-25T12:00:00.000-03:00

What are the songs that have particular meaning in your life? AND - what is that meaning? What's the story behind the song?

My list will not be in chronological order, because my memories are scrambled like that hehe.

He Wasn't Man Enough - Toni Braxton : When we were in Africa, Annick had brought her Toni Braxton CD.. One night a bunch of us were sitting outside, having a nice 'refreshment', when Annick put "He wasn't man enough for me" on. Well, our camerounese friends just went nuts over this song!! We all started dancing, they taught us to dance like Africans, and we showed them how to 'dance' like Canadians. They thought that the way we dance is completely hilarious lol! For the rest of our stay there, we played that song over and over and over because they kept coming to visit us to ask us to play it. Every time I hear it on the radio now I get teary eyed, sing loud and remember one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The other song that we had on 'repeat' for our entire stay there was from a group that THEY introduced to us that we fell in love with Napesi - Makoma. (OMG I'm thrilled to bits that the video is finally on youtube! *dance*) And of course Premier gaou - Magic System.

Butterfly Kisses - Bob Carlisle : Yep, you guessed it, this was my father-daughter dance song at our wedding. I think that this was the one and only times in my life that I've dance with my father. You know how incredibly shy I am right ? Well I get that from dad hehe. We love each other but we're too shy to say it. We know it, but we can't say it. The only time we can hug is when mom harrasses us to do it. You might think that it's a shame that we're this shy with one another, but I think that we totally get each other, we're so alike. During the whole song we danced and looked in each other's eyes. We were both teary eyed and red faced. We didn't have to say a thing, we just enjoyed the moment.

Turn me on - Kevin Lyttle : You'd think that I'd chose our wedding's first dance song as my "Stephane" song, but I chose this one. When I think about our first dance, I think about how he was dreading dancing in front of a crowd. Our first dance song isn't that special to us to be honnest. Of course it was amazing with all of our friends and family standing in a circle around us and blowing bubbles... okay that sounds corny, but it really is fun to be bombarded with bubbles I swear. LOL! Anyway, one night we were having a party at our house, and this song was playing, we were all drunk as hell and I went to get another drink in the kitchen and Steph followed me and he grabbed me the way most women dream to be grabbed, kissed me, when I opened my eyes we were on the bathroom floor doing it. No one at the party noticed. This is soooo uncharacteristic of Steph to do that, that it's one of my favorite song-memories hehe.

I have some great ex boyfriends song-memories that I don't think I should elaborate on hehe My top 3 : Paranoid Android - Radiohead (Keven), Kiss me - Sixpence None The Richer (Denis), Black Jesus - Everlast (Jake : the bird, bird, bird, yes the bird is the word LOL!) Since Lauri is probably reading this (Steph's ex, Jake's girlfriend, my internet friend, yes we're all a bunch of weirdos lol. I'll elaborate on that one. It was when we were living in Boring Bathurst, in my parents garage.. me, Jake and Brian in the freezing garage singing that song over and over. And we'd roll on the floor laughing at the "bird bird bird is the word" part. LOL I still crack up when I hear that song hehe.)

Songs from great times with great friends in high school : Basket Case - Green Day, Come Out and Play - The Offspring, Evenflow - Pearl Jam, Nirvana's entire In Utero Album, and many more, but I have to cut this short, I've already taken like 2 hours to write this because I keep listening to the whole songs and reminiscing lol. As you can see I'm a big music lover, and the way that I described the stories behind the songs don't do justice to what I feel when I hear them, kwim? So anyway, that was a glimpse into my song-memories hehe.

HBC # 11

2007-05-23T10:17:00.001-03:00

Challenge # 11 : Describe a typical day in your life. I was going to do this one in pictures, then I realized that I couldn't really bring my camera at work, and I don't think my coworkers and clients would like their pictures on my blog, so that meant 3/4 of my day would be censored hehe. Here is a description instead.

6h00am - alarm clock goes off, mumble at Steph to set it for 6h30am

6h30am - alarm clock goes off, beg Steph to set it for 7h00am.

7h00am - alarm clock goes off, try to ignore Steph harrassing me to wake up.

7h06am - Give up and go to the bathroom. Rush to get ready. PS am I the only one who prefers to do my hair before doing my make up?

8h00am - Breakfast served by Chef Steph

8h01am - Loki begs and whines and cries for a measly little single piece of bacon. Steph usually caves and gives him a few pieces of turkey bacon and that keeps him begging every time.

8h15am - brush teeth, grab lunches, head out to work

8h30am - Drop off Steph at Infiknowledge, drive to my work

8h50am - arrive at my work (it would take 5 minutes without the traffic)

8h51am - Grab a cup of hot coffee. Grumble if the coffee pot is empty.

8h52am - Say good morning to everyone and engage in mindless small talk. Pretend that I enjoy that.

8h55am - Read blogs and various RSS feeds, check boards, emails, chat on msn, all the fun stuff. Insert some random interruptions at various times from coworkers, mail people, clients, phones, people that are looking for the lawyers, denturologists, etc etc around my building. I might put all the 'fun' stuff aside to focus on a project, but most of the time I just chat, read a blog, etc while I'm working.

12h00pm - Phew, now I don't actually have to try to look busy for an hour. So I eat my lunch while reading the newspaper, do the sudoku in the paper. Sometimes I go out to run errands, shopping etc during my lunch hour.

1h00pm - Do the same thing I was doing at 8h55am, until 4h30pm. At some point around 3 I have a yogurt, and then around 4 I wash my dishes from lunch.

4h30pm - Leave to go home and pick up Steph and run various errands on the way.

5h00pm - Steph gets in the car

6h00pm - We're home, if we didn't run any errands besidesp icking up the mail on the way, maybe just stopping for a 2L of diet pop. Bad, I know.

7h00pm - In the evenings we : make supper, eat supper, clean up after supper, work out if we're good, watch tv shows and spend too much time online. The order of these things depend on our moods hehe

11hpm-12ham - Get ready for bed and read for 45 minutes.

12ham-1ham - In bed

*Revels in her averageness*

HWBC # 10

2007-05-23T09:56:00.000-03:00

Yeah I'm 2 HWBC challenges behind!! Wednesdays keep creeping up on me!

Challenge # 10 consisted in writing about the newly noticed things that we noticed. (yeah yeah, I don't care how that sounds hehe) Well I've honnestly been trying to notice something new ever since the challenge was posted. But I notice everything. I am not a big talker. I'm a big observer hehe. But I did notice something that I had NEVER noticed in the 5 years that I've worked here for some reason. The toilet in the ladies washroom is installed crooked :

And here's another picture of the ladies washroom while I'm at it, I'll give you the grand tour LOL!

And last but not least, a picture of me taken by me, in my usual "bag lady" office look. lol.

Ready for the long weekend!

2007-05-18T09:53:00.000-03:00

Yesterday afternoon at work it was only me and J and she said : aah why don't you bugger off for the rest of the day? I have to tell you that I love to joke around and make fun of the funny things my coworkers do, I just find it so funny. We're from different generations, what I do must be funny to them too hehe. But I love them all like a 2nd family. My coworkers in this office I mean, I definitely don't love all my head office coworkers this much hehe. Only some of them. I actually spend more awake time with those people than my family when you think about it hehe.

So I spent the afternoon cleaning, cleaning and cleaning. I vacuumed the split entry stairs, washed the little floor at the entrance, vacuumed the carpets, even washed under the carpets, washed some baseboards, the inside part of hte front door, vacuumed the whole house, washed my floors, and even vacuumed and cleaned our 2 wind fans which had gotten disgustingly coated in dust. Oh and I did tons of laundry. Where the hell did I find all that motivation? I have no idea. But at least now I only have my toilet, shower and sink (bath has been cleaned) to clean and I can *just* relax for the long weekend!!! (It's Victoria Day Monday for us Canucks.) Woot! THEN after I picked up Steph, we worked out. I'm sore this morning. Ow. My back. I'll take it easy tonight I think. Anyway I think I used up all of my stored energy reserves hehe. The only thing that sucks is the weather forecast for the long weekend : Rain, rain and more rain :/

So I think I'll watch copious amounts of HGTV, clear some of the DVR, finish The Life of Pi, work out sometime this weekend, My parents are/were? supposed to come at some point but now I don't know if they'll come because we can't work in the garden in the rain so much. Monday is my nephew Jean-Luc's birthday at Crystal Palace and then he wants us all to go see Shrek 3. Fun! Although Steph doesn't have the day off so if I go see Shrek without him he'll be upset. hehe.

Confession of the week

2007-05-18T09:50:00.000-03:00

Not that long ago, I couldn't stand Fergie. At all. I didn't like her music. (Of course it was catchy and my ass couldn't stop groovin' to her tunes anyway hehe) But I honnest to goodnes adore her new song "Big Girls Don't Cry". <3

Still got the hots for Uncle Jessie...

2007-05-18T09:45:00.000-03:00

But man his belly button IS weird. What, he doesn't make enough money to fix it? Honestly it wasn't THAT bad until they gave it a mustache... LOL

Does anyone know...

2007-05-17T10:38:00.000-03:00

If a debit & credit card which have gone through a laundry wash cycle would get demagnetized ? I'm thinking/hoping no.... but it'd be embarrassing to go make a purchase and having my cards not cooperating hehe. I guess I'll try to wait until Steph is with me to buy something, just in case.

Mother's Day

2007-05-17T10:14:00.000-03:00

I've been procrastinating, but here's my Mother's Day weekend : My parents came down Sunday and brought their dog Belle (aka my sister), my brother, his gf and her 2 kids and their dog Rocky (aka my nephew) also came. The dogs had a blast and so did we. We had a lobster feast! I had made a delicious potato salad and an equally delicious macaroni salad the night before. Since you all know I'm a procrastinator, it will come as no surprise that I was up until 2AM the night before making those darn salads hehe. They were perfect though :)

Mom insisted on visiting nearly all the garden centers and nurseries in the Greater Moncton area. To me a Home Depot weeping pussy willow is the same as a Kent weeping pussy willow. I'm definitely getting one of those this summer, I love weeping trees. I'm also contemplating planting a corkscrew hazel. We had fun! My mom bought me some nice bulbs for "Doggy Mother's Day" hehe. After the feast we searched and searched for those bulbs a good hour before we declared a search party had to be formed. My brother paused Guitar Hero II and found the bulbs 1.4 minutes later. Because he had brough them in the basement. Apparently mom had told him to bring them in the basement for some reason hehe. It would have been nice to find the bulbs before I looked in the trash bag and searched the kids potato salad waste. AND before my mom searched the trash again in case I had missed them. LOL!

Monday morning before going to work, as we were eating breakfast I noticed some traces of our Mothers day feast : lobster juice squirts dried on the wall. ew ! hehe Cleaned that up and that was Mother's Day 2007 :)

Oh and if you know me, you know that it's not unusual for me to spend about 1.5 hours in the Hallmark store trying to find just the perfect card for any occasion. Well I was at Walmart and Steph was grumpy so I had to be quick and there was a mob in the card section, I saw a cute one and I reached between 2 people for it and I read it it said something like "I used to be mortified when people told me that I'd grow up to be just like you mom" and then when you open it it says "Now I can't imagine being any other way". If you know me and my mom you know that we're constantly being mistaken for sisters hehe. Well not so much in the last few years because the years are catching up to her a little... (me too, but I'm not greying or wrinkling just yet). When I was a kid I used to be mortified when people pointed out that we looked terribly alike. Now it doesnt bother me anymore.. anyway it's funny that I picked this card in 30 seconds, it was perfect, and when my mom read it she teared up hehe.

Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

Holy Season Finales Batman!

2007-05-17T10:06:00.000-03:00

Tonight is going to be such an awesome tv night that I might have an optical nerve orgasm!

The Office Finale
Scrubs Finale (Oh wait, zap2it was misleading it's NOT the finale tonight!)
Ugly Betty Finale
Grey's Anatomy Finale

Whatever am I going to do next thursday with none of these shows? I'll have to beat boredom by doing something useful and productive ? sheesh!

A TV Junkie's Thursday Night TV Schedule :

7pm - Lost Special (8)
8pm - Grey's Anatomy (8)
9pm - The Office (23)
10pm - Scrubs (23)
**record below**
11pm - L'epicerie (4)
12 am - Ugly Betty (135)

Shoot me now

2007-05-16T15:30:00.000-03:00

May 16th. Are you freakin' kidding me ? Seriously?

TGIF!!

2007-05-11T09:40:00.000-03:00

Wow, I hadn't realized that it had been a whole week since I last blogged! What a slacker eh? Monday and Tuesday I was in Fredericton for staff meetings, it went really really well. The first night, they had organized a nice dinner and then we were promised a "surprise entertainment". During a break in the afternoon a bunch of us were outside the hotel enjoying the first awesome hot spring/summer day (26C!!) when we saw the surprise entertainment arrive : an elvis impersonator. At first I was like : aww man, that's going to suck. But I actually ended up being really impressed by the guy, he really was entertaining hehe. He would sing and move across the room and swing his hips and give flower leis to the ladies and say "You've just be lei'd by Elvis" lol. Okay it sounds tacky when I'm writing it, but you had to be there, it was absolutely hilarious hehe. And he was a great singer. He's actually competing in Memphis this month, and we also learned that he was a baptist minister! Kinda reminds me of the minister dad in 7th heaven who impersonated Elvis for a whole episode last season hehe.

That Monday night we partied as hard and loud as ever. Have you ever partied with a bunch of people who are at least 2 or 3 times your age and that you're not related too? It feels very weird at first hehe. But fortunately I grew up with parents that were music lovers (like I grew up to be) and I remember the four of us putting on vinyl records and dancing in the living room like maniacs etc. Two of the guys were playing accoustic guitars and we were all singing oldies : CCR, The Beatles, House of the rising sun, acadian songs, etc It was a blast. At some point the front desk called and gave us a warning to tone it down. oops. but we got drunker and louder. oops. At 9h58pm, the guy in the next room banged on the door, barged in, and yelled "Can you stop the effin noise, I'm trying to effin sleep!". Woah. major oops. I never saw 2 guitars be packed so fast in my life. We all felt so bad hehe. Ah well, it was only 10pm, not like it was 1am.

At some time during the party, I got a chance to talk to my boss about my dilemma, and the reasons why I was thinking of taking another position in the first place : I want something permanent (no more contracts) and I want to have more responsibilities. The first half of the fiscal year, right after the budgets is fine, I have enough work to keep me busy with the program me and J process, but for the other half of the year, when we're out of money (vent for another day..) is really boring most of the time. Normally they let me know if they're renewing my contract about a week after my contract is due..... And I needed to make a decision about the other job before that. So anyway, yesterday I was emailing back and forth with Kate, she works at IK with Steph, and she brought up some good points. Combined with other things that had been happening, I told kate that my mind was made up, that if they were going to renew my contract I'd sign and stay at least for another year. I click send, and the phone immediately rings, and it's my boss telling me that they're renewing my contract for a year and that I should get it next week, and that they're going to work towards making me permanent and giving me more responsibilities. WOOHOO!

You know...

2007-05-03T16:44:00.000-03:00

I don't have to do this often, but when I have to prepare coffee for a whole boardroom, and especially when I have to interrupt their meeting to bring coffee and cups, sugar, etc etc etc to them in the boardroom, and then when I have to clean up and wash all the cups by hand... I feel like a waitress not a secretary.

I don't know why but I have a really really hard time with the fact that I *have* to bring them the coffee in the boardroom on a tray and everything like a waitress. I don't think that waitressing is a crappier job than any other job, I just somehow personally hate being expected to serve people. I think that part of it is because I'm so overly shy and self conscious, that interrupting a meeting and walking in while everyone stares at me in silence is just a really shitty thing that comes with this job.

My contract will be up in 1.5 month, and I should really look at my options before signing on the dotted line again. Blarg.

Open mouth, insert foot

2007-05-03T16:37:00.000-03:00

shit shit shit. Why do things like that happen to me?

There were a bunch of people in the boardroom and one of my colleges from another office, everytime he comes here he opens our little fridge and he brings water bottles for everyone in the meeting. We take turns buying the coffee and the cream and sugar etc here, so that I dont mind as much but I'm the only one who drinks water. I buy a case of water for myself, but then when people ask for water of course I give one of my bottles, but when it's like 10 bottles that dissappears at once it's more annoying kwim ? We should have water bottles just to give to clients but they won't pay for that, we tried. They wont' get us a water cooler either.

Anyway.. all that rambling to say that the collegue left, then I was in the kitchen washing all their cups and stuff and as my coworker J was saynig bye I started to go off about how I can't afford to pay water for everyone on my little salary. (They all make like 4 times my salary.) I was telling her how next time I'll plan to say a little something to the collegue etc. Well she leaves and as I'm walking back towards my desk he comes out of the ladies washroom (??) that's situated RIGHT next to the little kitchenette.

O.M.G. He definitely knows now. I nearly fainted when he came out. I'm sooo embarrassed. I'd give a whole case of water to turn back time and take it back. Shit. shit shit. His face was beet red because 1 - he was in the ladies bathroom ? 2 - he was there a long time so since I obviously didnt know that he was in tehre and that that he was there a long time, we both knew that he was doing something smelly in there 3- he obviously heard my little frustrated poor secretary rant.

Ugh I feel horrible. He's the nicest guy too. I think that he truly doesnt know that I pay those things myself..... Ah well, nothing I can do about it now...

Wednesday Blog Challenge #9

2007-05-03T15:39:00.000-03:00

Heather's WBC#9 : Make a list, alternating between "I am..." and "I am not..." statements.

I AM a 27 year old french canadian

I AM NOT a girl, but don't feel like a "woman"

I AM thinking about joining a gym. It was actually Steph that brough it up.

I AM NOT getting enough sleep on a nightly basis

I AM an arms dealer, fitting you with weapons in the form of words. No not really... but the "I AM"s got the song in my head hehe. (Fall Out Boy - This ain't a scene, it's an arms race)

I AM NOT so much mechanically inclined

I AM fascinated by quantum physics. (Not to be confused by educated on the subject hehe)

I AM NOT a secretary. I work as a secretary, but I'm not.. in my heart...

I AM a recovering binge eater

I AM NOT very secure financially and :

I AM constantly worrying/paranoying about it

I AM NOT an overly confident person

I AM or can be extremely shy and self-conscious

I AM NOT very punctual. This is something that I've always strived to achieve (punctuality), but for some reason I cannot get this down. I was even late for my own wedding.

I AM (still) NOT pregnant :(

I AM broken-hearted every mother's day. Everyone gets to celebrate motherhood and I get sad.

I AM a very loyal and trustworthy person.

I AM NOT a confrontational person. In fact I'll go out of my way to avoid a confrontation.

I AM incredibly fortunate to have found such an amazing person to spend the rest of my life with. Everyday I realize how alike we are, and how we complement each other.

I AM NOT going to Toronto with Tina because it's too expensive and complicated and I'm sad. I wanted to meet Lisa.

I AM going to implode if I don't get to take a least a little trip in 2007. I don't think that people understand how strong this urge to travel of mine is.

I AM NOT accomplishing much at work right now.... Oops. I should get back to work.

Cool websites of the day

2007-05-03T13:50:00.000-03:00

Instructables.com : I LOVE this site, sooo cool. I just learned about it today.

MIT OpenCourseWare : "OpenCourseWare expresses in an immediate and far-reaching way MIT's goal of advancing education around the world. Through MIT OCW, educators and students everywhere can benefit from the academic activities of our faculty and join a global learning community in which knowledge and ideas are shared openly and freely for the benefit of all." - Susan Hockfield, President of MIT

101Cookbooks.com : A phenomenal cooking blog, with great pictures and step by step instructions. I found a whole wheat pizza dough I definitely want to try. I tend to only attempt recipes with pictures in my cookbooks lol

It looks like the theme of the day is : Learning. hehe

Nobody puts Baby in a corner

2007-05-02T15:11:00.000-03:00

Dirty Dancing rocked!!! It was sold out, the place was jam packed with estrogen. Whenever Johnny Castle was shirtless women howled. I jumped when the woman next to me screamed in exitement when Johnny said "Nobody puts Baby in a corner". When the movie started, it was playing in widescreen, and it appeared waaaaay too stretched out, the actors all looked like fat midgets it was absolutely hilarious! The girl sitting next to me (Not Sophie, the stranger on the other side) said "I have a feeling it won't be as sexy, Dirty Dancing the midget version". Hah! Thankfully after 5 minutes of this nonsense they fixed it. We got there an hour and a half before the show started because we knew it was sold out.. you know me, always stressing about 'what am I going to say? I'm not a chatter, I hate small talk, I can't make conversation when I HAVE to etc etc etc". Well the movie was starting and I still couldn't shut up! lol I even interrupted what Sophie was saying a few times and I'm so sorry Sophie, it is my BIGGEST pet peeve when someone interrupts me (and keeps doing it) when I'm talking.

Did you watch The Gilmore Girls last night ? OMG was it ever good eh? (OMG do I ever sound like a Maritimer eh? lol) I cried when Lorelei sang "I will always love you" looking at Luke straight in the eyes (while trying to forget that she was sounding like a sheep in pain. Although Steph thinks that she didn't sing that bad.) And I cried when Logan asked Lorelei's permission to ask Rory's hand in marriage!!!! I can't believe that they would end the show like that!!

Okay, I need something mildly dressy to attend this summer. I bought the cutest dress ever yesterday, at Walmart of all places. I have to say, I really think George clothes rock. I mean yeah the quality is not great, but for the price, you know ? Especially for someones who buys clothes as often as I do *blush*.

Dental hygiene overenthusiasm

2007-05-01T09:47:00.000-03:00

The first time it couldn't have happened at a worst time; We had just driven 3 hours to Bathurst when Steph's grandfather died a few years ago. I was tired, my emotions were on the fritz... we had just arrived at his aunt and uncles house in the middle of the night. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth and somehow I break my toothbrush in two pieces. The important end, the one with the actual brush on it, was only big enough for the bristles and I the other piece was the handle. I was standing in front of the mirror with the little 1 inch brush in my mouth and the toothbrush handle in my hand. I got the giggles. Most inapropriate time ever! Isn't there anything more hilarious then a plain inapropriate time to laugh? I don't know if it's my nerves, but when I'm not 'allowed' to laugh, I find it incredibly hard to stop laughing! The worst time ever for that was in church! At the front, laughing into the microphone, a LOT of echo... and a loud snort. Thank God it was only a practice!!

The second time was not that memorable, because I don't remember the details exept from yelling "Not AGAIN? Steph, I snapped my toothbrush again!" And now... it's happening again. In slow motion this time. For the past 3-4 times that I've brushed my teeth, I hear little snapping sounds coming from the toothbrush. It's ready to break. This is even a new brand of toothbrushes that I tried because I thought that there was something wrong with pink Oral-B's for some reason. I bought a pink GUM this time. Maybe pink toothbrushes are just not made as strong ? That doesn't sound too probable.. but I'm NOT strong, not in shape, not by any means. Why do I keep breaking my toothbrush? Yes I change it every 2 months, I don't think that I'm brushing hard... unless it's one of those unconscious things like when I'm at work and I suddenly realize that I'm clenching my jaw so hard that it hurts.

Maybe the pink toothbrushes are just cursed ? Maybe I should go out and buy a pink one for Steph and a blue one for me to see if he would break his? We've been using pink or red for mine and blue or purple for his for like 6 years, we'd probably get mixed up when we're groggy in the morning. Well when I'm groggy. Steph is always Mr. fucking sunshine in the mornings, exept since yesterday. Yesterday he got snippy because I had left the vacuum at the door entrance. Dude, what the hell. Yes it's not like me to leave a vacuum in the entrance, but I was planning to vacuum the stairs before the nasty cold hit, and since then it's just been sitting there. I hate vacuuming the stairs. It's so hard on the back. Last night I even cleaned the guest bedroom and re-arranged the furniture in there and ignored the vacuum. And tonight is Dirty Dancing *squeal* so I can't possibly ruin a Dirty Dancing night by vacuuming when I get home.

Instead, I will probably come home from Dirty Dancing all happy and giddy and beg Steph to dance with me, and he'll refuse as always, and I'll take his hands and start dancing like a maniac anyway, and if anyone is watching through the windows, they won't think that I'm recreating a dance scene from Dirty Dancing, but they'll think that I'm recreating a scene from "Weekend at Bernie's".

Yay! Girls Night Out!

2007-04-29T19:35:00.000-03:00

Dirty Dancing was my favorite film when I was growing up. Since I've seen it about 42 zillion times, I think it qualifies as my favorite movie of all time. I've never seen it on the big screen, because there were no big screens where I grew up hehe. So you can imagine how exited I was when I saw a commercial for this on tv! :

I posted a note on Facebook and tagged all the Moncton girls I know, hopeing that surely one of them would share my enthusiam! Apparently, not so much. Thank God for Miss Sophie, the newly engaged, who maybe said yes because she was still in her euphoric newly engaged state hehe. I can't wait!!

Blog Challenge # 8

2007-04-25T10:19:00.000-03:00

Wow, I'm actually doing Heather's Wednesday Blog Challenge on time for once. I should start calling it HWBC for short. This week's challenge is : Write about one of (or some of!) the things you did wrong when you were a kid. Wow.. where to begin? hehe

Well first of all, I've done the SAME thing that Heather did LOL! I went snooping under the bathroom sink and found mom's sanitary pads, and decided to try one on. Like Heather, I was sure that they were to be worn sticky side up. Uncomfortable!! hehe

One time, at band camp... er I mean, at home, when I was about 12 years old, I was snooping (yes again) in my mother's nigthstand and found some novelty condoms. (Like glow in the dark, with plastic french tickler attached etc hah) I was so very curious, I had to open the package to see and touch a condom. For the full 'effect', I stuck it on the handle of my mom's tennis racket that I grabbed from her closet. Holy frig, that condom-covered tennis racket handle looked huge! I decided that I was never going to have sex, and put the racket away but forgot the condom and it's wrapper on my moms bed. Well when she came home, I had some explaining to do!! ACK!! Thankfully she believed me that it was just curiosity and that no boy had been used for the discovery hehe.

When I was about 10 and my brother was about 6, for about a month I made him do anything I wanted him to do just by saying "Well when Hulk Hogan was your age, he did that for his sister." LOL!!

I'm trying to think of the other 'bad' things I did as a child, and I think that I was pretty darn angelic. At least until I moved out of my parents home to go to University. That's when all my 'bad' stories occur I think...

I think that all my 'bad' things revolved around sneaking food.... like how my mother would give me 2$ to buy a complete meal at the school cafeteria. (Remember when a small bag of chips was a quarter and a pop was a quarter? hehe Good ole days.) Anyways, it cost 2$ exactly for the full meal.. but if you took something like pizza, or a plate of fries (which were offered about once a week) it only cost 1$. My mom didn't want me eating those things because I had been trying to lose weight ever since I was a fetus I think.. So some days I'd secretly take a pizza slice or a plate of fries, and throw away the remaining 1$ bill in the trash can so that my mother wouldnt know! hehe

Uncomfortable

2007-04-25T10:05:00.000-03:00

Do you ever feel completely uncomfortable sometimes? I do. Like today. My socks both have holes near the big toes, my pants are full of static and rising up and clinging to my legs, and my sweater is too short. And today is Administrative Assistands Day, and no one has remembered or mentionned anything. Now I hope that they don't remember because then they'll say "Why haven't you mentionned it?" I just hate doing that "Hey look at me! Buy me lunch or something". It's weird though, normally at least the Deputy Minister or the Minister will at least send us a nice little email... And they usually do something nice for all the Admin. Assistants there in Fredericton. But year-end is this month and everybody is going nucking futs. I don't know why, year end will happen every freaking year so... what's the point in getting their knickers in a knot ? It's not very comfortable and it makes you walk funny.

Happy Administrative Assistants day to all of you other admin asses out there!

When I'm dead

2007-04-24T11:57:00.000-03:00

I now know exactly what I'll look like when I'm dead. I saw it this morning in the mirror. I'm catching Steph's dang cold, and this morning I was in the bathroom and a mega wave of nausea hit me. I was trying to breathe it out.. I was on the throne, the trash bin next to me was overflowing with Steph's used kleenexes piled a foot high (it's in a corner)... as I was trying to decide wether I should throw the trash bin's contents all over the floor to have it empty and ready 'just in case'... I was having cold sweats and shaking and finally it passed. But then I got up and looked at myself in the mirror and I almost puked then. OMG I looked scary! I was literally green/yellow. I swear! I thought it was just an expression. I looked like a dead person. Ah well, now my head is pounding, my throat hurts and tickles... And I'm eating echinacea and vitamin C like they're going out of style, and hoping for the best. Ugh not exactly what I wanted for the first real beautiful days of the year :-s

I wanna work at Cranium!

2007-04-24T11:49:00.000-03:00

I *LOVE* playing Cranium. I think that game is such a hoot! But I have a problem. I cannot find people who are willing to play. Why? They're too embarrassed to do the humming and the acting games. PFFT!!! I'm the shyest person that I know and I don't care, first of all no one ever plays that sober... do they ? Anyways, I'm embarking on a quest to find cranium players. There must be a secret underground society or something. Even Stephane refuses to play the humming and acting games, which is great because then he can be on my team and they're my favorite games to play hehe.

Why would anyone not love this game? Why would anyone not WANT to try humming a song they don't know, or to sculpt a clay lawn mower for the others to guess. It's so much fun!! Hmmm maybe I should post this on facebook, there are more chances of local people seeing it. But then again what if someone I can't stand wants to play? Ugh I am avoiding my gmail because I saw that someone has requested to be friends on facebook (you know the standard greeting thingy when they invite you with your wrong email?) How long can I avoid him? What do you do when there's someoen who wants to be your friend on Facebook that you would rather they not be ? Or am I just a little bit mean ?

Kelsie started it - My weekend in bullets :

2007-04-23T22:17:00.000-03:00

The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous. It made me sooo happy. I spent the weekend outside :
Saturday Steph's parents came to help us fix the deck, and we had a BBQ for lunch
Sunday I washed the car inside out
Apparently this list will not be in chronological order
Friday we were in the Subway drive-thru when we saw a lady walking 2 ferrets just beside our car. That was freaky.
Then the Subway lady at the drive thru window started fah-reaking out because she's apparently been attacked by a ferret as a child. Even freakier.
When I couldn't control my laughter any longer, the 2 ferrets began mating, and the lady was just standing there holding the leashes, staring. The Subway lady was still freaking out.
I had a really really good friday. A bunch of us went for a little walk in the enchanted forest aka the forest next to IK hehe.
Sunday, when I was washing the car, I left the shed doors wide open, and my bird feeder was still stored in the shed for the winter.... well I walked back in the shed and there was a bird flying around in there! Steph asked me later if I shooed it away, it was more like I ducked and covered my head and screamed like a girl and the bird got scared and flew away lol.
When I was washing the car I must have picked up like 42$ in loose change.
Steph was sick as a dog all weekend, and had to still work on the deck with us because the plans were already made, and he got a major burn on his bald head and face and so now his face is red as a beet and his nose too because he's so sick with the cold. Poor Steph. His red head almost lights up in the dark.
Saturday everyone was so in shock that it was this nice out, every single person on my street and their dogs were outside I swear. The dogs were having a barking symphony. It was cute for the first hour.
I cheated on my diet and ordered the most delicious garlic finger from DiAngleo pizza which you can just order online and someone shows up at your door 45 mins later with yummification. Way.too.convenient. The guy left us not 1, not 2, but 19 menus to give to our friends. Do we look that popular ? Or like all our friends are fatsos too ?
I'm still loving my haircut it's the best haircut I've ever had in my life.
Well I Think that's it. Now I have Justin's "Sexy Back" song in my head only it's "I'm bringing bullets baaaack" yeah.

Quirky Nancy

2007-04-18T18:18:00.000-03:00

Heather's Wednesday blog challenge is about our quirks. I love reading about everyone elses! hehe We have a lot in common so far!

I can't go grocery shopping unless I have planned my meals for the week, made a list of the ingredients needed and arranged my list in order of their location in the store. That way I don't really need to cross stuff off my list, I just fold my list over the things I already have in my cart as I go along.
At home I only check if the door is locked once before leaving. At work I check it about 3-4 times everytime. My coworker J does the same. So when we leave at the same time the front door gets rattled and checked about 6 to 8 times in the span of 5 minutes hehe. If I see J rattle the door and even if she declares that it's locked, I can't leave until I rattle it too.
When I go to the bathroom at work, I check to make sure the door is locked 3 times. Once, I told myself that this was silly and midly OCD so I'd just lock it and move on from now on... and I sat down and my coworker B walked in on me! LOL The ONE time that I didn't check 3 times! Now I'm back to checking 3 times hehe.
I hate drinking out of a glass without ice in my drink. Unless I drink straight from the bottle. We go through about 3 trays of ice per night at home hehe.
When I go to bed, the only way I can fall asleep "hard", is to lie on my back and pray and think about my day and my future until I feel relaxed enough, then I imagine myself lying on one side, then the other, and pick the side that feels best at that time. It changes nightly. But then I never wake up facing the same side that I fell asleep on hehe.
When I buy milk, I HAVE to reach back and take the one with the furthest expiration date. I hate chosing a product with a shorter expiration life even if I know I'm going to consume it right away anyway. (Milk, yogurt.. I guess I only do this with dairy hehe)
When I try on clothes, I squat and hold, pretending that I'm sitting and look at myself in the mirror to see how I would look with this outfit on while sitting. (I'm jiggly. When I sit, I "puddle up")
I can't sleep without freshly brushed teeth and freshly applied chapstick (burts bees original) and a freshly moisturized face (Pond's)
I hate to sleep with anything on. Exept in hotels... ever since the hotel fire incident, I go to bed in hotels wearing underwear and a t-shirt hehe.
I won't drink milk that has been out of the fridge for longer than 5 minutes. I drink it fairly fast too because the white milk residue on a glass grosses me out.
I prefer my meals to be separate things.. I don't care that much for meals that taste the same thing for every bite.. for example : a lasagna or a macaroni etc. The exeption to this is sheppards pie. Mmmm.
I can't fart in my pants. (I have to go to the bathroom.) It happens like 3 times a year and surprises the shit out of Steph
I have to have the radio on in the car (or music), and sing to it. If I hear a good song and can't sing (because I'm with a coworker or something), I turn it off. But driving long distances with coworkers that dont put any music on at all drives me batty. But I suppose it also drives me batty when they finally decide to put music on and it's crap. Like G putting on the burned cd that he had found in his rental car and made a copy of because it sounded good. They were all covers of the original artists, and he would not believe me that they werent the real artists!

Well that's it for now.... I may sound pretty darn quirky LOL But I don't inconvenience others with my quirkyness, well I try to anyway :)

Oooh this is going to be good!

2007-04-17T13:31:00.001-03:00

'Grey's' Spinoff Not All About Addison
Two-hour episode also keeps foot in Seattle
ABC has released a few more details about the "Grey's Anatomy" spinoff, including the fact that even more familiar faces will be present during the two-hour sweeps episode.

http://www.zap2it.com/tv/news/zap-moregreysspinoffdetails,0,5512395.story?track=rss

Yep that's my new haircut.

2007-04-17T13:18:00.000-03:00

And this is Rocky, my brother's 9 week old pup. Look at the huge paws!! He's already way bigger and heavier than Loki!

Did anyone forget to send Mother Nature the memo?

2007-04-17T10:20:00.000-03:00

What horrible Spring weather! Holy crap it's depressing. First of all, my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and everyone affected by the Virginia Tech shooting. Katie, I'm so glad that you and your family are safe.

Yesterday I decided to get my hair cut. When I decided I want my hair cut, it's right now! Guylaine met me at work and we drove down to Regis at the mall and walked right in and didn't even have time to sit in the waiting area. Awesome. I *LOVE* my new haircut. It's the best haircut I've had in a long time. Okay, I haven't actually had my hair cut in like 2 years lol. Although today with the weather that we're having (Freezing rain/slush etc.) it's not looking as good as it was yesterday. I knew the weather was going to be crappy, I should have just put my hair up in a little ponytail, but an old college classmate is actually coming here for a meeting in the boardroom this afternoon. I want to hide under my desk. No offence to other secretaries reading this, it's just not what I had planned for myself you know? I don't know why I'm so freakin' ashamed of being seen sitting here at the reception, but I am.

So I put on a cute outfit, I did my hair and I even wore makeup today. Hell, I even wore my wedding rings LOL. Lame I know, but if not to impress others, why would anyone spend so much money on overpriced clothes and on all the other beauty rituals that we do? If I was on the island with the "Lost" gang, I'd definitely not shave my legs. (Did anyone notice if the women on Lost have shaved legs ? hehehe)

On that pleasant thought, I have to run. I'm so nervous about seeing my classmate for the first time in 7 years, my IBS is flaring up. My insides are on fiyah.

I <3 Lists.

2007-04-13T15:52:00.000-03:00

So here's a pro/con list of applying for a 'real job'. Yes, I have one in mind that I'm thinking of applying for... It's terrifying. I've been at this one for 5 years.... But I think after having written this list I'm pretty sure that I should apply.

Pros :
* Have no dress code. Could go work in jeans everyday.
* Keep regular office hours Mon-Fri 9-5
* Coworkers would be my age, the ones I've met are SUPER nice.
* It would be more in my field. Not quite there but possible room to grow.
* It would be permanent, not contract based.
* I wouldn't be ashamed to state my occupation like I am now. hehe
* I would feel more useful there than here
* Would save on gas
* The people there are actually computer literate. Very much so. It's kinda required heh.
* I would probably fit in a lot better there. Here my sarcastic sense of humour is mistaken for sassyness. (But their sense of humour is mistaken for stupidity, in my opinion :P)
* No more traveling around the province for ridiculously long and boring and pointless meetings. * No one would act as if they were my parent there. (Because no one would be old enough to be.) Or grandparent.
* No political crap whatsoever

Cons :
* Probably take a little pay cut BUT paid benefits and being paid for 40 hours instead of 36.25 would counter that a little.
* I would probably start with less vacation time than I have now
* They have very little sick days a year (compared to 15 here, that accumulate)
* No more 2+ hour lunches/shopping (I do that occasionally, but MOST of my lunch hours are spent at my desk being 'available'so I really don't 'gyp' them.) and no more coming and going as I please and leaving for appointments whenever.
* No traveling and no expense account

Wednesday's Blog Challenge : Embarrassing Stories

2007-04-13T15:01:00.000-03:00

So Heather's blog challenge this week is to tell your most embarrassing stories. Well I've been trying to think of one since the challenge post, as I have already shared with you my top 3 embarrassing stories : The Cayenne Pepper Incident and the Rolling down Old Quebec & Not being able to stop walking backwards incidents . But Tina's embarrassing call center story reminded me of my own embarrassing call center story!

Sometime in 2001, I was working at the Xwave call center, doing technical customer service for Sympatico internet. It was working for the dial up internet division... When a member wanted to get Sympatico, they could either show up at a store or I could have a "Starter Kit" sent to them in the mail. Well as you all know my first language is french. I write much better english than I speak; in english I often fumble for my words, stutter, etc. Well the customer was getting pretty irrate, because there were no Bell Sympatico stores near him so I had to ship him the Starter Kit but it was going to take a few days. I wanted to tell him "Sir, your kit should arrive soon!" And instead.... I said "Sir, your SHIT COULD arrive soon!" (kit should / shit could... LOL) OH.MY.GOD!!! First he was really offended that I said that... AND then I started to giggle uncontrollably... until the girl I shared the cube with started to giggle too, we went from 0 to hysterical laughter in 20 seconds. She had the chance to put her customer on hold, but I was laughing too hysterically to ask my customer if I could put him on hold! Holy crap I would have sooo been fired if Quality Assurance had been listening in!!!

Oh... I just thought of another one... one time, in Africa, we were driving somewhere and I suddenly had to go to the bathroom VERY very badly. One of the guys in the truck said : Well, I have a business contact close to here, let's go see them and you can use their facilities. We get there, and I'm ecstatic that they have a real toilet that you can sit on and everything. While sitting on it, I noticed that there was a pipe on the wall next to me with a little knob on it, and it was sprinkling a little water in the air. *sigh* I HAD to try to turn it, I wanted to turn that little leak off.... BIG huge gigantic mistake. The water started GUSHING, it wouldnt stop, no matter which way I turned the knob!!! I couldnt get off the damn throne, I wasn't done... By the time I was finished and could go get help there was water in that bathroom almost to my ankles!! It was like a cement room with a cement floor and there are lizzards everywhere, so I had lizzards floating near my ankles... Holy crap I thought I was going to faint I was so embarrassed. Finally they came and said : oh it's broken it happens all the time! Ack! LOL But of course the 3 other Canadians made fun of me for flooding the bathroom hehe.

Oh and there was the time here at the office when I referred to 50+ year old people as 'older people'...... and realized only after I said it that all my coworkers are 50+.... Holy crap they took it well and joked about it but I was crimson!

Well, it seems like I still have quite the embarrassing story reserve LOL

I <3 her hair!

2007-04-12T22:45:00.000-03:00

I wish my hair was thick enough to have that hairstyle!

source : www.louloumagazine.com/english/plus14

CrazyMrsNancy : Easily Peeved

2007-04-05T10:07:00.000-03:00

Here is a compilation of my pet peeves, in no particular order (This week's Wednesday Challenge) :

People who think that they are better than everyone else. Or act that way.
Management on power trips/micro-management
Computer illiterate people. It should be required that people take a computer course and get a "computer license" (like a driving license) before manipulating any important data.
"Keeping up with the Jones"
Unsollicited diet & fitness advice. (Especially from people who have never had a weight problem.)
People who print every single email they receive before reading them. What a waste.
Sore losers
Empty food packages in the pantry or fridge
Ice trays with just 1 or 2 cubes in them, which have been left there and a new tray has been used, just so that the person (don't want to name names :P) doesn't have to refill the first tray. Then you're left with 6 ice trays with just 1-2 cubes in them. Yeah we're ice cube freaks at my house. We consume on average 2 ice trays a night. About 4 ice trays on a weekend day.
Self Check-outs. OMG those things sucks. They would rock if they worked well. Yesterday when I went to Home Depot to buy my 8 feet long closet poles, NO cash registers were open. None. Only those stupid self checkouts. argh. I scan my first pole. "Please put your item in the bag". "Please put your item in the bag". I try to put my pole in the bag, standing up, so that the machine registers it's weight but if I let go it falls so I can't let go and the machine starts freaking out at me "Please put your item in the bag" -- "I'm TRYING to you numb fuck!" argh. When the attendant finally rescued me, I still had another pole to do ugh. But what would I have done if I had bought like... I don't know... a freaking patio set? How could have have lifted that to scan it and put my item in the bag? bah, anyway.
People who impose their choices and values on others
People with closed-tight minds
Myspace-Facebook-Blogs-Hi5-etc Comment whores. (People who harrass you to comment. It makes it less meaningful if you know you have to shit comments all the time you know?) If you're reading this, then no I don't mean you :P
People who tell *Me* "Ugh I'm so fat" Just so that you'll reassure them that they're not.
People who don't have the same decorating tastes as you so therefore their decor is much better than yours.
People with fake accents. OMG this drives me nuts.
People who pretend that they're listening to you/heard what you said, when they havent. Especially when you ask them a question and they answer "oh".
People who won't validate our marriage because we can't seem to reproduce / People who think that you can only be declared a 'real adult' once you have children.
People who assume that since you have no children and you're shy when interacting with their kid in front of them, that you're not that motherly.
Cheap people. (Not to be confused with frugal people.)

Can you tell that I'm PMSing? I could go on and on it seems. But I'll stop here or I'll start sounding like a bitter jaded cynical person. :P

CrazyMrsNancy : Challenge challenged

2007-04-05T09:47:00.000-03:00

I think that Heather's Wednesday challenge idea is Awesome! And I truly enjoy reading everyone's ideas. I'm enjoying reading all of yours so much that I keep procrastinating on doing mine LOL. So I'll do it Justine-style : 2 for 1 challenge deal today!

Last Wednesdays challenge : A list of my favorite books. (In no particular order)

The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (Thanks Justine hehe)
The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown
Digital Fortress - Dan Brown
Deception Point - Dan Brown
Angels & Demons - Dan Brown
Marley & Me - John Grogan
Little Earthquakes - Jennifer Weiner
The Traveling Pants series - Anne Brashares
The Garden Trilogy - Norah Roberts
Shut Up, Stop Whining & Get a Life - Larry Winget
The Thorn Birds - Collen McCullough
Not Without My Daughter - Betty Mahmoody
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
Songs of the Humpback Whale - Jodi Picoult
The Pact - Jodi Picoult
Vanishing Acts - Jodi Picoult
The Tenth Circle - Jodi Picoult
1984 - George Orwell

Well I guess those would be my "Favorite recently read books.. (read in the past 1-2 years.. besides The Thorn Birds and Not Without My Daughter... my brain/memory just does not want to cooperate this morning hehe)

I'll start a new entry for My Pet Peeves list :)

CrazyMrsNancy : Reno Hero

2007-04-04T21:42:00.000-03:00

Tonight, I decided to Pimp My Closet! I'm going to pick up some support brackets tomorrow; my clothes are heavy hehe. Here is the before & after : (PS Keep in mind, this is Closet Pimping on a severely restricted budget LOL)

CrazyMrsNancy : Guitar Hero

2007-04-03T09:21:00.000-03:00

Sunday I played wrist-numbing hours of Guitar Hero II hehe. I cleared the easy mode and I only have 3 more songs to play to clear the medium level. They're getting pretty hard, I failed twice! (If you miss so many notes the crowd starts to BOO you offstage and you fail the song hehe.)

Steph sent me the link for this yesterday, which is going to ROCK!! (literally!) I can't wait! I'm definitely going to ditch the guitar and take the Microphone though hehe.

"Guitar Hero was just the opening act. MTV and the developers of that video game have a headliner in the works called Rock Band, which lets four music lovers gig together in person or online."

Seriously, if you thought DDR was addictive, try Guitar Hero. It doesn't burn as many calories as DDR, but it's even more fun :)

Our Grow-op

2007-04-03T07:39:00.000-03:00

So Steph goes to the hardware store the other day to get the necessary supplies to hang my fluorescent lighting from the ceiling to start my seeds.... and as he's crossing things off his list the young hardware store employee asks him : Is this to grow pot? Hah. Either that employee smokes pot and had it on the brain, or Steph looks like a dealer?

Here are some pics :

And here are some blurry pics of my gym in the basement :

The Birthday Boy

2007-04-02T21:47:00.000-03:00

Thanks to Tina for the fabulous B-day cake idea! It's an angel food cake, and the "icing" is made out of ultra low fat cool whip & fat free jell-o chocolate pudding mixed together... yeah very processed, but it wasn't as bad as other store cakes and he loved his b-day cake :)

Happy Birthday Stephane!

2007-04-02T10:47:00.000-03:00

Today my wonderful husband turns 28 years old! He's older than me for a few months yay! I'm so proud of him, he lost about 40lbs so far!!

Birthday celebrations include : working all day and a possible trip to the grocery store after work. Woooo. Livin' large. He's only getting his gift on April 10th because that's when it comes out hehe (Mario Paper 2 for the wii.) I gave him a card this morning though :)