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...
Monday, September 24, 2007
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Raging PMS Monster
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives
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 ?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Now also available in Pink!
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!!!
Other than that there's really nothing else new in my world. Oh tonight is the Biggest Loser premiere!! I can't WAIT!!!
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Is Frumpy In ?
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 ?
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 ?
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Do I look good in this?
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.
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.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
I <3 New York!
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....
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....
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Pinch me
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 anoffice 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!!
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
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!!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Everybody in the audience gets one of these :
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.
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
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Flowers for Moi?!
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 :)
Thank you so much again!! You totally made my day :)
Monday, August 13, 2007
A Great Birthday Weekend Story
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!!!
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!!!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Excuse me while I brag some more
I'm sorry. I'm just ecstatic that I've reached the 70lbs loss mark this morning!!
And some of 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 :)
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 :) Thursday, August 09, 2007
Wednesday Blog Challenge # 19
Woot! Blog challenges are back!
"You don't know me unless you know that...."
"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.
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Books I've read in 2007
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
Friday, August 03, 2007
Before & During Pictures
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)
(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!!
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 ~~~~~
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 ~~~~~
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Too Fat To Adopt
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.
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.
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
These are supposed to be funny.
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 !
PS - Read the entry, I love that blogger she's hilarious !
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