Tuesday, December 23

Christmas traditions =)

Making a Gingerbread House!!!




Making cookies!!!


YUM!



MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!


Wednesday, December 17

Tuesday, December 16

Excited and busy!

I'm sooooo excited!! JD gets home in t-minus 4 sleeps!! We haven't seen him in 2 months!! Brooklyn is talking about "daddy" everyday really lots now. I can tell she really misses him.
He gets home very late Friday evening (early Saturday morning) after driving 14 or so hours to get home. And Saturday evening, we've got a babysitter lined up so we can go to his work's Christmas party. It should be a fun night. We rarely go out like that =)

And then my girls are taking me out on the town next week (most of us have that week off) for my 30th birthday to go DANCING!! I haven't been out dancing in awhile! Phew! It's gonna be a blast =)

And THEN! The day or two after Christmas we are making a trip to Vancouver to visit my sister nda her little family for New Years!!! Can't WAIT to see them and watch Brooklyn play with her little cousin Dariusz!!

On another note regarding busy. I've been trying to get to doing some reading and research to nail down my thesis topic...so far I know who I'll be working with (a Bison Ecologist here in town) and I know that I'll be doing some kind of mapping and ecological work with regards to Wood Bison (buffalo) that we have up here. Maybe something dealing with transmission of disease between herds (turbucolosis/brucellosis) as those issues are big up here. So needless to say, I'll be reading lots before Friday when I go meet with the Bison Ecologist. I want to have my thesis proposal in to my University supervisor before January. Wish me luck! I feel like I know nothing! ack!

Oh! And I am staying home for a third week with JD and my lil' Buddha!!! I decided that I'll take another block-week condensed course in the Spring. After reading up some more about it, I just didn't think that the course I signed up for in January was very much in line with my degree, so I opted out. But I'm really happy with that decision!! I get to be with my family for an extra week!!! =D

YAYYYY!!!

Saturday, December 13

Money, Money!

I love you Mony mo-mo-mony
I love you Mony mo-mo-mony sure I do

Cause you make me feel
So good, so good
Well I feel all right
You're so fine, you're so fine
You're, and I feel all right
I said yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah



(Mony, Mony lyrics by Billy Idol)



Okayyy. 
So I don't think money should make you feel that good...
(plus, I know he's not quite singing about money but that's my personal interpretation of the day...)
But money does come in handy when I am on a shopping spree, teehee!

Although, lately, I must admit that I am not pleased with money. 

The reason? 
The drop of the Canadian dollar.
It's always basically been at a lower value than the US dollar. 
But this year, it was up to par (practically equal) to the US dollar for months and months and months and I LOVED it! 
I was able to buy stuff online at basically the same exchange rate which is practically unheard of (to me anyways, since I've been old enough to buy stuff)

But since oil prices have gone back down (which is also a good thing but in this case, a catch-22) the CAD dollar goes down too. Oh well, it's one or the other...and I suppose gas prices win hands down, understandably so.



Here are the:

3 STAGES OF EMOTIONS 
As The Value of Money 
Goes Down In The Dumpers (Again)



First there was DISGUST.



Then ANGER.



Now it's just plain SADNESS.

(yeah, I know...boohoo, Vita. Go away and cry! hehe)



Oh! I just realized that it looks like I'm flippin' the bird! 
No, I am not! hehe! 
If you look closely, there is a Canadian $10 bill in my hand! 
(no it's not play money! teehee)


(PS-teehee I love photobooth...my blog will never have to go a post without pics ever again!)


Thursday, December 11

GORGEOUS goodies!!!

Ohhhh, GOODY!!!!

I've been Christmas shopping!! 
*for myself*
Here are some of the recent beauties that I've received! =)


(Mind my scruffiness and sweats: 
I've been at home for 3-4 straight days with my poor fevered up girl)


A GORGEOUS turquoise ring 
along with some copper earrings (on my little ears) that I got in the mail today from:
The most awesomest jewellery shop EVER! 

Pizzazz!!!


Aaaand...some lovely, feminine earrings also from The Noisy Plume.
I'm wearing these gorgeous beauties for the family Christmas dinner, for my hubby's work Christmas party AND for our family pictures! =)


I am SOOO addicted to that shop!!


Stay tuned for more goodies from that same shop as well as some more 
gorgeous beauties from another most favourite and awesomest shop of mine!! ;)

Wednesday, December 10

Tuesday, December 9

Little girl sick.

Fever range today = 102-105  
My poor girl . . . 
='(

(don't worry, momma went to give BIG but gentle hugs right after this pic)

I'm 30 . . .

. . . and thriving!!! :D
The 30's are gonna be AWESOME!!! 


Now if I can only figure out SOMETHING with my hair! Ugh.
(The masses of grey hairs at the top are making me think I might be 60-ish!)

Hairdo day on Saturday :)

Friday, December 5

Winter = Cold.

BRRRR!!!!

It.
Is.
COLD!


The current temperature is -26C. 
With a forecasted temperature of -30C tonight! 
Not too far off...

We were starting to really get spoiled there with our very unusually mild November winter weather. But I guess all good and dreamy things must eventually come to an end.

The days are getting shorter too.
Daylight occurs from 9:10am until 3:27pm.
And that time is closing more and more each day.
Soon it will seem like I won't be seeing the light of day at all.
And that will nearly be the truth!


It's definitely a winter wonderland out there.

On my front doorstep at ~8am the other morning during a snowfall day.



At my work doorstep ~8:30am (shhh, I was late...).



Me at work. 
(I guess I don't use that sponge board on the wall back there...)



This is my art. 
Along with many 'behind the scenes' processes.
(mind the MESSY desk!)

Wednesday, December 3

On a good note.


I am turning 30 on Sunday!!!!!


(yes, it IS good!)


WHOOOOOT!!!


I have a GREAT feeling that I'm gonna LOVE my dirty 30's!!!! hehe! To be honest my 20's sucked royal ass . . . I learnt ALOT, so that I am thankful for. But I got pushed around, dismissed, neglected and was so insecure that I could just curl up and cry. And, in fact, did so on many, many occasions.


Now I realize, that that is exactly what the 20's were for. To learn.


(Not that it stops there.)


But now that I'm closer to 30's (almost there!), I feel so much more confident and ready to take on the world with my better learnt abilities to deal with the shit that crosses my path (and, yes, of course the happiness too)!! And I'm looking forward to this new phase in my life!! eeee!! I'm REALLY excited about it which is SO not how I pictured turning 30 (thank God!)! Not that I'll do everything right . . . cuz I'm sure I'll do LOTS of things wrong still. But atleast I won't feel shitty about it anymore. I'm so over that.


So bring it on, 30, full force!! =D

-
I also have this little monkey to thank! =D

Fart.

Pardon the term. But the fact that I may have to leave for school a week earlier than originally planned, really sucks big farts. This means that JD and I will only get to spend 2 weeks together, over the holidays, instead of 3.

I can't wait till this show is OVER!





5 months and counting . . .



Monday, December 1

Mundane Monday.

Ok. 

So I took a 'mental health' day today . . . aka "sick day" at work. I just needed a break. To be ALONE. Know what I mean?! 

I was pretty happy about not doing ANYTHING, but by the end of it I got kinda leery about doing absolutely nothing and having too much time to think!

Here is how my day went and what I did (or didn't do):

~ate my morning oatmeal while checking emails etc.
~fed the dogs
~watched home improvement shows
all morning
~drank coffee and ate 2 pieces of lovely Lindt mint chocolate (
yes, IN the morning!)
~did some surfing on 
Etsy et al.
~ate lunch
~watched some more tv . . . by this time, I can't even remember what
~did
NOT go to the gym  *GASP!*
~turned into a squash-like vegetable (
ok, so  this didn't REALLY happen, but it could have!)


It was super NICE until about 2pm when I started to feel like I was getting bed sores (or couch sores) and proceeded to wonder if this 'doing nothing' thing was such a good idea after all . . .

I continued to linger a little bit longer BUT by 3pm I had had enough and headed for the shower. At this point, the anxiety and regret set in and my mind went WILD . . . thinking about everything in the sun from, 'oh I should have done  the dishes/tidied up my pig-sty house' > to financials > to mommy-guilt > to sisterly evolutions > to leaving for 4 months without my baby > to only seeing JD for 3 weeks at Christmas etc., etc., etc . . . like totally random, all over the place and uncontrolled, scattered thoughts.

Soooo. I quit thinking and went off I went to grab some groceries, check the mail (yayy, more goodies) and pick up Brooklyn from the dayhome (aka mommy-guilt). And do the normal routine of cooking, eating supper with my baby girl and doing the dishes . . . 

AND well. 
I felt better!

So, I guess I've discovered that my brain turns to mush and is a breeding ground for scatter-brained bucketness after more than 5 hours of doing NOTHING

And THAT is my maximum limit. 
After that, I MUST do something!!! 


Picture taken just over a year ago on Brooklyn's 1st Bday! 
Totally tuckered out and just chillin' with her handsome daddy =)