Another Christmas season come and gone

It’s been a great break. I’ve really enjoyed having time off, and I’m really happy to say that it was also a really fun and generally pretty relaxed Christmas.

Once M was finally free for the holidays, we headed down to the Sarnia area. Instead of the stress of wedding planning and having to drive between Sarnia and Kitchener, we were able to celebrate with both sides of the family all in one area. (Thanks Wends for hosting). It was really good – everything seemed easier and less overwhelming. It totally helps that the nieces and nephews now know me and are comfortable around me. In fact, the nieces were even a little besotted with me, getting annoyed if I didn’t sit between them. M’s parents also finished the basement at their place so there was more room to juggle the 8 people and 2 dogs residing there. M and I even got to spend some time together, which was really nice seeing as it’s been crazy at times this year.

It was also really nice to not have to travel nearly as far to spend time with my family. It was really nice that everyone agreed to move the traditional call to Africa to a later time, seeing as this year the plans on their side of the ocean were a little different too. It was good to have a brief chat, because I have to say, I really miss that tradition when it comes to Christmas. Last year I was lucky, and I got to have my aunt and cousin here for a few weeks over the wedding, but still I missed it. Going forward, I really hope we can find a balance of getting to see my family and doing some of their regular traditions too. But we’ll work on it. Either way, dinner with Christmas pudding, mince pies and brandy butter really hit the spot.

Christmas spoils were good this year too. M splurged and got me a new camera seeing as my digital has been on the fritz for some time now. I was so surprised because I had convinced myself it was Degrassi High on DVD by the shape of the parcel. Oops! I got M an awesome Hurley shirt that he loves. Wends spoiled us with goodies from England. It was great. There were tons of other prezzies, but I won’t list them all so that people don’t get too bored!

Once we got back from Sarnia, Marty and I had some time to recover (ie spend his work bonus of gift certificatesto Yorkdale mall) before heading to Haliburton with friends to celebrate New Year’s. There ended up being 14 of us in the end, and it was pretty fun. We hooked up some prime ice skating on the lake and drank enough hot chocolate to last me for a while. We played card games and board games. It was fun and I enjoyed myself, though I do have to confess, I’m not really a New Year’s kind of gal. I don’t put that much stock in it so it doesn’t take much to for me to have at least a little bit of fun. I also have to confess I was really to get back home and spend time with M again after having so many people around all day long.

Now, I’m enjoying the last bits of my vacation. We had a nice dinner with Rachel and Nick last night. M and I hit the gym together today, which was good. It’s nice to have someone who knows what they are doing with the machines explain a few things to me. But reality also creeped in because I bought my school books today too while we were on campus. Sigh- I guess I really do have to go back to class on Monday.

At least I’ve got another book to finished before I get there.

A very busy weekend

Sheesh!  Just when I’ve been trying to get in to the swing of things when it comes to school work, I land with the first of three very busy weekends for me in September.

Friday night was the QPT AGM and BBQ.  It was really good to spend some time hanging out with that crew, especially since I haven’t seen quite a few of them since we did the show in June.  It was good – we had lots of beers (sweet beer) and lots of food.  Shout out to Amy and Peter for being our gracious hosts in their new and almost renovated house.  In the end, we also got some business done.  We collectively elected a new executive board, and I’m proud to say I will get to sit on it for another year.  It’s good because even if I don’t have too much time during school, I’m still helping plan events and I’m a part of the club!

Saturday was good – It started of easy, I slept in a little bit.  Then I got up and did some reading for tomorrow, before I had to get showered and head to KW for Roshan and Stephen’s engagement party.  It was a good road trip as Nick and Rachel came along too.  We hit up the party, which was expertly planned, but a tad overwhelming at the BBQ got moved inside due to the rain, and there was about 65 people there and kind of loud.  But it was good – the soon to be Chancellors and the Barons decided to sit and have a nice chat on the front porch while periodically making food and drink runs in to the house.  We left in the early evening, and made one other quick stop before heading home – ok, wait two.  The first was Value Village – a treat, seeing as the ones in Toronto are usually super picked over already by the hipster crews and such.  I managed to find two sweaters, a scarf, three pairs of earrings and a brooch for 25$.  Sweet!  Nick also found some duds, which was good.  After that our last stop was Dairy Queen before heading back.

The drive home was rainy, but good.  We were glad to be back, we Wii-ed it up a little then settled on watching Vantage Point on Rogers on Demand.  Very good movie.  It’s a little stressful at first, and a little overwhelming to constantly be changing perspectives, but I enjoyed how it played out in the end.  And really, it’s a pretty clever concept.  I recommend it.

Today was even crazier.  I got up at 7:30 to start my reading.  I managed to get quite a bit done.  Then it was showering, hitting up the bulk barn and heading to Rachel’s sis’ place where were hosted a bridal shower for her.  We had a great showing, not too many cheesy games and lots of great food.  We had girl time and Rachel got spoiled with some great gifts that I’m positive Nick will appreciate too! 

Tonight was also a busy one.  David did his last sermon as senior pastor of FT.  It’s sad to see him go, but he’s got some new adventures to pursue.  Plus we’ll definitely see him and Jen around town.  They’re not moving to Siberia or anything.  It was a good celebration, and a good close to a chapter in the life of FT.

Baby steps from here.

WOAH! Seriously behind.

Ok, ok – my blog writing has been in a serious funk lately – but I am on vacation, that’s gotta count for something. Right?

Either way, sorry dudes.

I tried to write last week, but wordpress was down for a little while, and then I got to do other stuff, so I didn’t come back to it.

So, what’s new with me?

I’ve been enjoying my vacation, but finding it really hard to be on the diet. M is being a trooper and doing it too, though sometimes it’s makes us a little tense because it’s so limiting. We can’t eat out and have to plan ahead all the time. For instance, today we really wanted to get a fruit smoothie when we were checking out Vaughn Mills, but we couldn’t even have the non-dairy option of the smoothie because it contained soy products. Ugh. (I think we kind of annoyed the salesperson). And last week, we went out with a few people for drinks. M and I drank water – but that wasn’t the hard part – everyone ordered food and we had to get out of there. Can imagine being tempted by nachos, jalapeno poppers, cheesy bread, etc when you can’t eat any of it! Ugh.  Raw nuts and fruit just aren’t the same.

We have, however, discovered a few fun new things.  Like making sweet potato frites – you chop up sweet potatoes very thinly and coat them in olive oil and spices and bake them.  Yum.  And just a few days ago I made a really kick ass curry with chicken, sweet potato, zucchini and celery.  Yum.

Truthfully, you should all the kind of glad that I haven’t been posting every day.  This diet is basically the centre element of my life right now -  seriously, I barely talk about anything else.  Oh well – it’s only two more weeks.

A whole new adventure

Today is day one of me being officially “on vacation”. I slept until 11:45 this morning, I’ve cleaned part of the house (living room, soon to be kitchen) and I’m enjoying not having to shower. I figure I’ll start errands tomorrow and go from there.

Otherwise, today is also day one of another adventure – my hypoallergenic diet. I’ve been seeing a naturopath for a few weeks now to manage my fruit allergy. It’s a different experience, but I’m enjoying so far. They’ve asked me to go on a hypoallergenic diet to help see if I still react to them after I eliminate some other possible allergens. This means three weeks without caffeine, sugar, salt, gluten, dairy…It’s tough. I’m living on brown rice products, veggies and fruit. But it’s also kind of cool because I get to try a bunch of new products. We’ll see how it goes.

I’ll keep you posted

Holding out for a Hero

Tonight after church me a fun crew (Tim, dr/., Alannah, Adrian, and K) went out for a bite. All I really wanted was a burger – so, we decided to hit up Hero Burger at Queen and Palmerston. Such a good idea. The food was good, the gent at the counter was super helpful and we had a fun time.

I like this hero fresh from the grill.

Breakfast of champions

This morning I woke up, kinda tired, but smiling after a great evening out at the Drake with M and his crew. (Happy birthday Kenneth, and props to BK for organizing). I rolled out of bed, played with the now tamer kitties, and then shower and headed out for breakfast with Kevin, Adam and Alain. So random but so much fun!

Turns out the boys had a really crazy night last night too – the most of which was apparent by the lovely look to Adam’s face this morning. Seems he threw up and threw down all in the name of JD. Hahaha! So hilarious! Breakfast was good – good conversation about life, politics and making a difference in the world. Really appreciated. It’s good to know that there is conversation out there that isn’t just about relationships and poo.

On fasting

Today I am fasting. Last Sunday, David gave and FT wide call to fast today as a sign of recommiting to God. Love the idea. The practical aspects, not so much.

This is only my second fast ever – the first I did right before my baptism. It was no fun, and it was a bad day in general. I didn’t know what to expect, and well, I was a little let down, I think. I had always believed that in fasting I would have some sort of amazing experience where I could feel God near me. I though my life would be changed forever. I thought it was going to be more than in was. In fact, really, I was just hungry, dizzy and cranky.

Maybe that’s a part of it. You have to be cranky and feel awful because the task is crappy. It’s not meant to feel good, but rather show how much nicer it is when you do have the ability to eat. Today I don’t feel nearly as bad as I could though. I’m surviving on nothing but water, and I feel prepared to do this.

Yes, I may complain a little, but it’s just another moment to lay my life down and confirm – Yes, man does not live on bread alone.

Martha, you help us make good cookies!

Ok, so just as I predicted, the sleepover was so very much fun. Contrary to popular belief, we did not have tickle fights in our underwear, or talk about boys. We did, however, eat lots of sugary things, watch a tween movie and stay up late. It was great. Ann Marie and Johanna came over for a bit on Friday night, and we just had fun being girls. It was great!

Saturday morning, we slept in a bit, and then Lisa came over for some much needed bonding over brunch time. (Brunch feast = caramel cinnamon buns, bacon, omelet, cantalope…mmm…) It was great because the whole situation was kinda thus: Rachel calls Lisa says come eat breakfast; Lisa says she’d eaten already but will come for coffee; Lisa comes and eats full serving of food. Ha!

After we cleaned up the breakfast stuff, we just kinda lazed around and then embarked on a new adventure – making sugar cookies using Rachel’s amazing KitchenAid mixer and a recipe from Martha Stewart. With this dynamic duo, we were bound to succeed, especially seeing as the recipe involved adding brandy or cognac to the dough – we didn’t have either, so we got adventurous and added Disaronno. Mmm…Oh, and we also iced the cookies with Easter coloured royal icing. It was a blast – think arts and crafts meet cookie making. It was priceless.

All in all, it was a great sleepover/lazy Saturday (seeing as I didn’t get home until 6:30!) Wow.

Love you girls.

Morgan Spurlock was right – UPDATED

Revised Title: Morgan Spurlock was right about McDonalds feeling icky*

I did it. I ate some McDonald’s tonight, for no good reason other that I felt like a little bit of greasy food and there it was…Now I feel like it’s all just sitting there. I don’t feel ill, just lathargic…but that may also have to do with the fact that I only slept 4 hours last night and have been awake since 4:45 am…

Blarg.

* updated in light of fact that Morgan Spurlock has recently made some politically incorrect statements in from of teens when visiting a school, therefore he is not right about everything.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

For the second year in a row, I didn’t make it home to visit my family for Thanksgiving. It’s kinda sad, because for a long time (especially when I was at school) it was something I really looked forward to. But alas, as things worked out, I’ve had to work both last year and this year. In the end it’s been good. Last year around this time I was going out to brunch with my ex Dan and his parents, this year I was offered at least two different turkey dinners. It’s amazing what can happen in a year…

Today was a good day. I had some weird dreams last night, something to do with Germany, probably because I watched a German movie before bed and I have a new found bank of German friends. Very strange. I awoke, was running late, but made it to work. For the third day in a row, it was just me and Kaleena on at the store, and it was pretty chill. We had a fairly steady flow considering it was Thanksgiving Monday, and we still managed to beat our goal in sales for the day. I mean, I managed to sell 6 watches – that’s almost ridiculous based on the aforementioned holiday. Heck ya!

Then I went and had a great meal of turkey and veggies at my friend Rachel’s. This girl is amazing – I have never met a better organizer and more practical girl than her. She’s fantastic. I mean, she’s the only person that just about rivals my sister in whom I find great and sensible advice about 95% of the time. (That’s saying a lot, ’cause I really love and respect my sister, and hold her opinions in very high esteem). But back to the dinner – dessert was pumpkin and white chocolate tart topped with marzipan pumpkins. Wow. It was nice to just be somewhere to have someone take care of you, with good conversation. If you can’t be with your immediate family, it’s good to have a very amazing replacement family. Sigh.

Tonight was bonding time with Nick – it might just be that he is switching over from WWE RAW to UFC (Ultimate Fighter Challenge), so tonight I sat down to watch some of the fights. It’s true, it’s very exciting compared to the sheer contrivance that is professional wrestling at times. Maybe Monday night will be forever changed at the Harem House!

Anyway – today was a good day friends. I hope yours was too. Full of fall leaves, pumpkin pies, and good friends and family. Blessings!