2009 Resolutions

So I'm back at work after a 5 day break and I'm not very happy about it. Although I was getting bored sitting at home, it was nice to be away from the bulls**t and stress for a while. Everyone else is working for 3 days and then gets another 4 off (New Years Day + a "company wide holiday" on the 2nd and then the regular weekend). However, I have to work on the second and THIRD due to the month/quarter close mandatory working days for the finance team. They tell us that the good news is, we will get 2 days off in lieu some other time... but seriously? IT'S THE HOLIDAYS! It will be USLESS for me to be here, but I'll do it anyway to save myself the drama and fight with my boss... I'm really not happy about it though.

This leads me to my next topic.....I've decided what my New Year resolutions for 2009 are (which is pretty big considering I don't usually make them):

1- Get credit cards paid off (if this means getting a second, part-time, job... that's what I'll do... I'm done with credit card debt)- ASAP, the sooner the better.

2- Lose the remainder of my excess weight (I'm thinking this is about 20- 30 pounds max, but I haven't weighed myself in a long time so I don't know)- by July 2009

3- Quit smoking- by the end of 2009

4- Get a new roof on the house- by the end of the summar/ early fall

5- Find a new job- PRONTO, ASAP, YESTERDAY, CAN'T HAPPEN FAST ENOUGH!

Now I just need to convince Bub that his reolutions should be the same. The smoking, credit card and roof thing are definate MUST COMPLETE'S before we start TTC. The weight thing would just be nice so that I am the healthiest that I can be before getting pregnant. The job's- well this goes two ways. I can make my current job work, I'm just ridiculously unhappy. Bub, on the other hand, needs to have a better job before we have children because he doens't make enough to get us through my maternity leave (during which I would go down to 55% of my pay for 12 months). It would also be nice to have him making more $$ so we're not struggling to pay for daycare etc even after I go back to work.

It's going to be a tight year $$ wise. We would really like to take a vacation as well, but we'll just have to see how it goes. We may be able to pull it off in the fall when the prices are cheap. I have lots of planning and budgeting to do in the next couple of weeks. I always feel better once I have plan of action. It's reassuring to have some sort of hard copy, tangible budget/plan to follow. I'm sure this will mean picking up a part-time job for a while, but I'm willing to do it. I need to have less $$ stress before we even start thinking about babies. As it stands right now, we couldn't do it.

So... here's to 2009, getting things done.... and to starting a family!

Well... I made it.

After what was definatley one of the most stressful months of my life, the move is complete, my other project is almost completely done (at least the hard part is over) and I had the talk with my new boss about the work overload (in terms of my finance duties) so my hope is that the upcoming close will be a lot easier than the previous. The conversation went well. I think he (yes- I have new boss now due to corporate resturcturing) was actually listening to me this time. He had me send him my job description and "resume" so he knows what my experience is and what my capabilities are. He's based out of our US office and fully admited that he didn't really know what my responsibilites were and agreed that all my concerns were fair. He was glad that I brought it all up to him for discussion. We're going to talk more next week. Hopefully this is the first step in the right direction. I think I am still going to look for a new job in the new year, but this one is definately more tolerable for the time being.

The move went really well. We were only down (network and phones) for Friday afernoon and Monday morning for a couple of hours. This was much less downtime than we expected and I got an email sent around to all the staff in our office, by my GM (the co-founder of the company) thanking me for all my hard work. This was really gratifying... and to top it all off, she cc'd the CEO of our parent company in and he replied to everyone thanking me for all my hard work too. It's nice to be noticed, especially when, for the last month and a half, I've felt like no one really gave a shit about me or what I did.

The GM told me that I need to take some paid time off, in addition to my vacation, for all the overtime I worked on the move. Since I'm on salary, it was really nice of her to offer this. I think, as long as I can work it out with the big wigs in the US, I'm going to take it ASAP.

I'm now off for the next 5 days and couldn't be happier about it. I really need this down time after the stress of the past little while. I love Christmas and can't wait for Wednesday. I'm so pumped to see Bub's reaction to his gift. :) He's going to be psyched. Since he's sitting right here, I better not risk posting what I got him (just in case he peeks at my screen) but it's pretty cool and it's something that he's wanted for a while.

Bub has to work tomorrow, but afterwards, we are heading to my Mum's for dinner. Christmas morning is always just the two of us, brunch at his Dads and then it's his mom's year to host dinner, so we'll be heading over there. I would love to get some boxing day shopping in, but I just don't have the money. We'll see. Maybe my credit card can take a little beating. Probably not so smart when I'm not 100% sure about my job security... but why not take the risk??? :)

Fabulous Fifties!

We threw a big surprise 50th for my MIL on December 12th. It was a 50's/ Grease Theme party and it was a lot of fun. We rented a hall, had a DJ, had 50-70 guests, awesome food that everyone pitched in and cool decorations.

Being 50's themed there was lots of pink and black.We had pink table cloths with records that we bought from goodwill and candles as centerpieces. We had music note shaped confetti, Elvis posters, pink and black balloons, pink and black plates/napkins, an awesome pink cake with black polka-dots... it was really cool. Then we had decalls that said "At the hop" and "Rock and Roll" etc.

I danced my face off and had a GREAT time... it cost us a lot of $$, but it was totally worth it. MIL was so happy and very surprised.

We dressed up in the theme too... here's some pics.

Me and my goodwill costume!

Bub- waiting for his Mom to arrive! He looked really good in his costume!

Auntie Cherrianne- she just happened to own this costume already!

Tom and Bonnie- you can always count on these two to go all out.... they looked awesome!

My job will be the death of me...

Here's the update on my god-awful, gut-wrenching, make me want to break my own legs (and maybe arms) so I don't have to go to work, situation.

It has been a rough few weeks. I went from having nothing to do most of the time and going out of my head.... to being totally and completely overwhelmed.

With the departure of Tess (see previous post of details) a lot of her responsibilites have fallen on my shoulders while my duties have been centralized at HQ. The only problem with that is, I am not an accountant!!! Most of the things that she did for close were things that I wouldn't even know how to start or even pretend to do. Closing November was a nightmare. I was working ridiculous hours and was on the verge of tears most days. I like to be really busy at work, but I HATE being busy with stuff that I don't know how to do. Could you figure out how to amortize intangibiles for a publicly traded company on your own when you've never even seen it before??? NO.... I didn't think so. I felt like a fool because I was constantly saying "I don't know" or "I need help" or "I'm totally lost". I was stressed to the max. This better improve because I can't handle that every month for a week. Every couple of minutes another email came in with another task for me... it was so frustrating.


We're also moving offices and that lovely project was assigned to me (and I was give basically 3.5 weeks to get it all done). I had no idea it would become such a logistical nightmare. I thought it would be time consuming, but fairly simple. um....WRONG! What a complicated mess it became and still is. I can't wait until this is all done.

I was/am responsible for everything from booking movers to working with Network specialists and electricians to wire the new location. What's with me getting assigned to tasks that I don't have a clue about? It makes it really stressful to know that it's ALL riding on you and you don't have a clue what your talking about. Where was our internal IT department through all of this you might ask? Oh... our office location doesn't have any official IT team. The closest team is in EMERYVILLE CALIFORNIA! Not only is that about an 6.5 hour plane ride away, but they are 3 hours behind us!!!! This makes life really interesting. When I asked if they would be coming up to assist with the move they said "we don't have the budget". So, they left me... who's on the Finance and HR team, to take care of it all. I keep getting calls like "When we move the BCM and the Megalink, what's the projected down time and who will be responsible to syncing the cisco with the network".... WHAT???? I HAVE NO FRIGGIN' CLUE! YOUR THE IT TEAM... FIGURE IT OUT!

Then I was basically volunteered by our Director of Engineering to work over the weekend to babysit the movers/ installers etc. So, Merry Christmas Ashley... your working the whole weekend before Christmas while the management and IT team sit on their asses at Christmas parties getting drunk. SWEET! Well- I actually don't have a clue what their doing, but I didn't see them volunteering to come in. It will be interesting because I will need to be in two places at once (new location and current location) so we'll see how that goes!

I was back and forth between the sites meeting security guys, landlords, electricians, phone installers, network installers blah blah blah. I've been over once today and have to go back TWICE more before I go home. I have to go at least twice tomorrow and who knows how many times on Friday. At least they're paying my mileage.

On top of all of this, we had a financial audit last week. For my office (and therefore the whole of one of the child companies) I am now the only one in Finance/HR. Therefore, while the whole Finance team in our US offices got to split up the duties for the audit for their companies, I had to do it all for mine. It's really crazy when 10 people are contacting you and everything they need you to do is priority# 1. Um... not possible people. I felt like screaming... "I AM ONLY ONE PERSON AND FINANCE IS NOT MY ONLY JOB. You all have clear cut jobs like-come to work, sit at desk, do AP all day long- and the next person is -come to work, sit at desk, do bank recs all day long. My list of tasks, roles, responsibilites is sooooo long and soooooo diverse I have-come to work, do AP, AR, deferred revenue, bank recs, professional services, collections, account management, project management, office management, supply ordering, HR dutes (RSP's, vacations, time off, new hires etc. etc.), special projects, baby-sit staff, plan staff functions, etc. etc. etc. "

Between coordinating the move on my own, closing the month, one other special project that's on a tight time frame, the audit and then doing THE REST OF MY REGULAR JOB, I am totally maxed out.

To top it all off, I was so looking forward to next week. I took Christmas Eve as a personal day so I was going to be off from the 24th through the 28th, work 3 days and then be off from the 1st through the 4th. Well... I get an email from our assistant controller that because it's quarter end, the finance team has MANDATORY WORKING DAYS on January 2nd and January 3rd while the rest of the company gets to enjoy a paid holiday. OH! and, the hours? 9-5 PST... I'm EST which means it's 12-8 my time. I'll be in the office, all alone (the rest of the finance team is in California) until 8 o'clock. My Dad (who I see 2ish times a year) generally visits during this time, so I'll be missing spending time with him to sit at work alone. I don't even know why they need me because they realized last month that I can't do any of the stuff that they need me to. So it will be just like closing November... I'll be sitting here alone, totally overwhelmed, getting 100's of emails asking me to do things that I don't know how to do and I'm sure I'll be crying. At least no one will be around to see it this time around (although no one saw it last time).

I'm sinking... soon I will just drown. I can't WAIT to start looking for a new job! I guess I should just be happy that I have a job at all right now.

I'm not a very good person

I came to the realization recently that I am not a very good person. Oh I come across to those I meet as sweet and funny and positive... but deep down, that's just not me and I think people who've known me for a while know it, but just don't say anything.

I'm judgemental- although not out loud, I have some not so nice thoughts about a lot of people. I wish I didn't have them, but I do. And then when I decide for sure that I don't like someone... I have nothing nice to say. Take my SIL for example. She drives me CRAZY and I have said awful things about her in the past, many, many times. How does that make me any better than her? Who am I to judge people when I'm a pretty crappy person myself. I have a tendancy to talk like I'm superior to some people... and although I know it's just not true, I continue to do it.

I'm a Liar- this is something that I've tried to stop doing, and have done pretty well, but in my teenage years and even early in my relationship with my husband I lied.. A LOT. It got me into a lot of trouble because I couldn't keep the lies straight even though they were about ridiculous things that didn't effect anyone but me(such as "I'm a competative dancer"). When I felt I was lacking somewhere I would make something up and then it just became habit. I lost a lot of friends because of this. In my mid-teens I lied and said that I had done some pretty hard core drugs with a non-existent group of friends, just so that I could be included in a conversation. From then on I just stuck with the story because I liked the shock value. WTF!!!!! WHO LIES ABOUT DOING DRUGS???? I've never done anything more than smoked a joint and even that I've only done maybe half a dozen times my whole life and not in YEARS! I HATE drugs!

I'm Mean: I get really easily frustrated, stressed and angry and then take it out on the wrong people... usually my husband. He'll ask me the simplest question like "what do you want for dinner" and I'll respond with something like "why do you always ask me that? Learn to make decisions for yourself". I can be a HUGE *** a lot of the time and no matter how hard I try to change it, that's just what ends up happening.
I can't take criticism or admit to mistakes: at work, if anything happens that looks like it may be my fault, my first instinct is to try to find a way to say that it wasn't actually my fault and place the blame elsewhere. The sad thing is, it usually works, at least in part, and I get off the hook. I don't deserve to, but I do.

I thrive on drama: this is one of the things that I just noticed about myself. I enjoy drama.... family drama, friend drama... whatever it may be. I HATE THAT! I wish I could just deal with things as they come, like my Mom does, calmly and maturley. Instead, I have the tendancy to freak out! I get mad, or cry or blow things out of proportion and it's sooooo stupid. It makes my life miserable along with the people around me.

What is my problem? Why can't I just be normal? I really don't like myself lately.

Wicked Awesome Movie- Another Boring Weekend

So Twilight was friggin' AWESOME. I was sooo happy that it didn't disappointment me. You always run that risk when your seeing a movie based on a book that you love so much. I'm going again with my MIL and I think I'm going to drag Bub once more this weekend. I won't bore you with details- but GO SEE IT and if you haven't read the book, then do it! You won't regret it. My only complaint was the screaming teenage girls in the theatre and the long line, but all of that should be done by now.


I didn't leave my house on Saturday except to walk the dog. Bub and I cleaned, had lunch on the couch watching movies, cleaned some more, made dinner (stir-fry....mmmmmm) and then took Lola for her walk (stopped at the store for some chocolate) and parked our butts on the couch in front of the fire to watch a movie. I love lazy days like that.

Sunday was Madden's 1st birthday party (my girlfriends son). He's so super cute! One of his Mom's friends had bought him a party hat at IKEA that was a birthday cake with candles. It was kinda boring... as most little kids parties are....but I'm glad I went. He only turns 1 once.

Then we had to go to a Grey Cup party at my FIL's. The food was really good, but I can do without the football. I sat on the computer the whole time and looked for jobs. I can't even tell you who won the game.

We finally have a quiet week, but I'm super busy at work. I'm also trying to coordinate everyone for the Surprise 50th we're throwing... but I'm determined to relax at little in the evenings this week and get caught up on my reading. I miss my books!

TGIF and TWILIGHT

I'm so friggin' excited to see Twilight tonight. My un-ending (and probably unhealthy) obsession with the books for the last 6 months is finally going get what it needs...the story will come to life on the screen. Now I know it will never be as good as what I have created in my head while reading the books, but it will still be interesting to see. All the previews look really good and I LOVE the soundtrack. So, I'm just here... counting down the hours. Robert Pattinson better do a good job as my Edward or.... well I don't know what I'd do.... but he just better be good!! He's definately sexy so that's a start.

We're having a date night tonight. This is not something we usually make a habit of (formally) doing, but since we're travelling 30 minutes up the highway to see my movie, I figured we could make an evening out of it. Bub is picking me up from work, we'll drive up to Orillia and have dinner, and then see the movie. Then I want him to take me for gourmet hot chocolate or something afterwards. Tis' the season right?


Guys are so weird. I asked Bub last night where he wanted to go for dinner in Orillia and he answered SUBWAY! What?!?! Nice date night! LOL. So, I'll just have to pick something when we get up there.


Tomorrow I need to put a huge dent in my Christmas shopping. I'm actually not doing to bad. My Mum and step-dad are pretty much done, my sister is done, my nephew just wants money towards his guitar so that's easy and I don't shop for my Dad and step-mom until I know if/when I am going to see them over the holidays. I still need to do ALL my shopping for Bub (including stockings- which always cost a fortune) and I need to get something for my Nana. Then I'm done! I think we're going to a party at a friends house tomorrow night. It will be nice to get out with that group as we don't see them very often any more.


Sunday... my nephew (one of my best friend's son) is having his 1st birthday party! I'm in shock that he's already 1. I remember when his Mom told me she was pregnant and that doesn't feel like almost 2 years ago. I have to find him the perfect present tomorrow too! That shouldn't be hard too do.


My only plans other than those this weekend are to make homemade Garlic and Tortellini soup at some point, have a fire and dive into a new book. It's perfect weather for it anyways (it was -15 C this morning... brrrrrrrr).

My BTTCTDL

aka: Before Trying To Conceive To Do List

Lets see where I'm/ we're at with this shall we?

Buy a house- check
Pay off current vehicle- check
Skydive- check

And that's pretty much it.
So, what's left you ask?

Take a tropical vacation together
Go parasailing
White water raft (totally doable... but I'll have to wait for the summer)
Pay off credit cards (Nice wish. We're not adding to them anymore but still... they aren't going down very quickly either)
Buy a second vehicle (yeah- and with what money do we make the car payments... especially while I'm on 55% mat. leave pay for 12 months???)
Be at goal weight (almost there- I haven't weighed my self in months but I know I'm close)
Put new roof on house (this is an addition to the list which we made before we bought the house)
Put a new furnance in (again- this is an addition)
Bub needs to get a better paying job!
I need to be secure in my job (this is an addition in the last couple of weeks)
Optional: European vacation

hmmmmm... this doesn't seem to be very even! I guess we're not going to start TTC this winter like we kinda planned. MAJOR bummer! \

I know I probably won't get all of this done before trying to have a baby, but I'd like to take a much bigger chunk out of it than where it stands now! I guess my dreams of little MST (boys initals) or AMVT (girls initials) will have to be put on hold for a while.
I guess I should just enjoy being married for a while...before we're a "family". That's not so bad!!

When I Grow Up

With all the turbulence in the economy right now, I feel lucky that I still have a job. However, I don’t know how much longer that is going to last. I won’t go back into everything that happened with my company/ job in the last couple of weeks (see previous posts for details) but I will say that I am still no more sure of my job today than I was on the day my boss got laid-off.

Aside from constantly wondering how long it will be before they cut me too (which is a horrible thing to live/work with every day), with all the changes that have happened with my role I’m really struggling to find positive things about my job right now. Actually, I’ve been struggling with this for a long time, but it’s worse than ever now. They took away most of my main responsibilities and replaced them with petty little things that are tedious, unimportant and completely unfulfilling. I keep thinking that “it’s ok, just make it work”, but then I think “do I really want to continue to do this every single day for another 6 months, a year, 10 years!?!” The thought of doing what I do for any longer than TODAY makes me cringe.

I don't have any friends at work. We all get along just fine, but I don't ever see these people outside of work and would not share personal stories etc. with them. I don't really want to be "friends" with any of my current collegues (specifically), but in my previous job we were all great friends and it's nice to have someone to talk to throughout the day. In fact, some of my best friends today are my old collegues from my previous job.

I really want to love my job, and it had potential when I started 2 years ago, but with all the changes and restructuring it’s now a total dead end. I know it, my colleagues know it and my boss knows it. I’m at a loss at what to do. This job is good pay, benefits, RSP program, great hours, close to home etc., but I’m truly unhappy here most of the time.

I know I should really not be complaining with so many people losing their jobs out there, but should I really be THIS unhappy ? I don’t know what to do. I don't even know where I would go or what I would do if I left.

I've decided, when I grow up, I want to be independantly wealthy and never work again. LOL

Winter's Here

We had a great weekend.

Friday night Bub and I went to the NHL Alumni vs. the Barrie Flyers Alumni charity hockey game. We had extra tickets so we brought FIL and his fiance. We went out for dinner to Kelseys first and then to the game. Wendall Clark played, which was totally awesome because he's a big name in Maple Leafs histroy and they are actually retiring his number later this month. It was the only name that I recognized on the NHL team, but Bub and his Dad, who are HUGE hockey fans, said they knew most of the other players.

Saturday Bub made me breakfast in bed. I was really lazy in the morning and stayed in bed to read, so he brought breakfast to me! :) Then we went to the OSPCA (Humane Society) because we would like to get a second dog. There was one that I loved, a female Rotti X named Tequila, but she was not good with other dogs because she was VERY protective of her toys and food. Lola, our boxer-pug X is only about 25-30 pounds and has always shared food dishes/ toys with my Mom's dog (who she lived with through the week when we were in the apartment). When she was a baby, I would put my face right in the bowl with her, pull her tail and her ears, take her food away, right from under her while she was eating, and do the same with her toys. This way, they learn not to be protective/ agressive over their food and toys. I could definately train Tequila not to be protective of these things, but I can't take the risk of this 95 pound bag of muscle ripping Lola to shreds before I can get her trained (since she is 4, it may take a little while to get her to trained that way). It's too much of a risk for Lola and I can't do that to her. She was there first. And Lola is not a meal feeder, she is what I call a "grazer" meaning there is always food out for her and she picks at it as she wants too. This could cause problems between the dogs when we aren't there to supervise, and I would never forgive myself if something happened to the Baby Girl. So, we decided against it, as sweet as she was.

We went to Chapters and Bub bought me Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama because I've wanted it for so long. He said that I have to wait for Christmas to get it though .
We got Starbucks and went grocery shopping. When we went into the store it was pouring down rain, and when we came out, it was SNOWING! It was so pretty. It snowed all night (stormed actually) and most of Sunday. We have almost 2 feet now. Our TV went out, but we just read. We got the house cleaned on Sunday and Bub had to go out and trudge through the snow to bring out patio furniture in because we hadn't done it yet.

I love the snow. I love this time of year. It's so pretty when it's all fresh like that. It means that Christmas is coming and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Christmas season. It made me want to decorate the house, but I know it's a little early for that. We'll do it the last weekend of Nov./first weekend of December. I did put a little Christmas music on though... I thought Bub was going to kill me when I did, but he knows how much I love it so he just grinned and took it in stride. My favorite part about snow is that you look outside and it looks crazy. It's falling so thick you can't see across the street, but when you go outside, it's totally silent and sooooo beautiful. I was so excited (ask me how I feel about it in February and my opinion changes drastically).

Last night our friends and their 2 year old son came over for dinner. Dale was helping Bub mount our new plasma so I got to hang out with Sam and Joel. He's too friggin cute. Our new TV is up and although we lost about 10 inches (we went from a 51 to a 42) it makes the room look so much bigger. Our 5 year old big screen was just way to big (and deep) for the room. Now that this ones up, I love it. Bub made homemade lasagna (with 6 different cheeses) and it was sooooo good. I have left overs for lunch and I can't wait to eat it.

We have dinner guests again tonight to plan my MIL's surprise 50th and again tomorrow when we have my MIL for dinner. I get a quick break on Thursday and then Friday Bub and I are going for dinner and then to see TWILIGHT!!!!!!! I'm so friggin' excited about that movie that I can't even explain it to you. I'm obsessed with the books so it's going to be awesome.

Drinking Into Oblivion

Saturday night was exactly what I needed. I had a REALLY shitty work week last week so I was determined to have some fun this weekend.

**Back story: from my previous posts you know that my boss got laid off last Monday and I was scared for my job. Well on Wednesday I was talking to my Controller in Cali. and she basically told me that by the end of this month, most of my responsibilites are being centralized in our HQ down there. She didn't say my job was in danger, but really, what am I supposed to think? I'm not stupid. That day was terrible... I was really upset and didn't know what to do. Finally, my boss in this office called me in because she got word that I was really worried and told me that I had nothing to worry about for now and that I would be really busy with other things over the next couple of months (this is the really condensed version of this story). I don't totally believe that though because they told my boss the same thing less than two months ago and now she's gone. Needless to say, I am skeptical. To top it off, that day they found the body of a 15 year boy who's been missing from since Thanksgiving Day (Oct. 13th) after a three week search. It was really sad and scary (because my nephew is just 2 years younger than him) and I was already emotional, so I didn't handle the news very well.

The only silver lining was DH knew I was having a really crappy day/week and went to the grocery store to make me dinner. He made breaded pork chops, twice baked potatoes, asparagus and a PIE! He's so cute.

So the rest of the week was tough. We were trying to close the month and move payroll down to the US without my boss (the Finance manager). It was not fun! But, it's done (as far as I know) so we did it. Now I have to help them transfer my responsibilties down there. That's the last thing I want to do.**

By the time the weekend rolled around I was ready to let loose! Friday night I had a dentist appointment, but afterwards I took DH out for dinner at the Fishbowl. We really couldn't afford it, but I needed it.

Saturday- I went and got my hair done and spent the day with my Mum, who's a/my hairdresser and then DH and I went to our old highschool to watch the Senior football team in the championship. They lost, but it was still fun (REALLY cold though). On the way home, I told DH I needed to party that night. He made a few phone calls and before I knew it we were hosting an impromtu "house-warming" party. We went from having no plans at 6 o'clock to about 20 people drinking in the house by 9. It was a lot of fun. It gave me a chance to have some fun, show off the house and not think about what happened earlier in the week. The only downer was the neighbour came over to (politely) complain about the noise. I made DH deal with it because I didn't want to. He apologized and said we were bringing everyone inside (they were on the back deck to smoke etc). She said that she had to work the next day, so she'd appreciate it. I felt bad, but at the same time it was just people talking.... we didn't have music cranked of anything. Oh well... now we know that we can't have big parties, not that we really would have anyway.

We told everyone they could smoke in the unfinished basement so that they weren't outside pissing our neighbour off even more. We have NEVER smoked in our house (or apartment before it) so it was a little gross, but it was better than the neighbour calling the police and having a $500 fine. We just opened every single window and turned on every fan in the house yesterday morning and you can't smell anything now. We won't ever do that again though. It's not worth the smell.

It was super fun, we laughed a lot, drank even more and had some very interesting conversations. I didn't think about work or $$ once and it was really nice.

Well, back to reality today. It will be an interesting week because the boss lady is on holidays, my other boss got fired last week and my third boss is in our Cali. It will be quiet for sure, but that will be nice. I'm looking forward to it.

I Witnessed History

History was made last night. Not only did Obama win and become the first African American President of the United States, but, more importantly, a record number of people come out to vote. This shows that on the whole, the American people are ready for change. They don't want a carbon copy GWB back in the White House. They don't want anything close to it, and they made it very clear. They won't stand for more failed policies and broken promises. It was democracy at it's finest and I truly feel that the best man won.

I will give McCain kudos for his concession speech. It was extremely gracious and eloquent and I was thinking while listening that it's too bad he didn't know how to speak like that during the campaign.

Can I talk about Obama's speech?? W-O-W. From the moment he walked out on stage with his wife and girls to the moment he walked off, I was fighting tears. MAN can that guy give a great speech. He is so real. There's no phony politician in him (yet) and he's just a genuine family man who loves his country. He spoke powerfully, intelligently, yet in realistic terms so that everyone could relate. When he reached out to even those who didn't vote for him, I think it showed what a great leader he will be. He's been a favorite political figure of mine since before he even announced that he was running for President because I can see the great leader in him.

I finally broke down when the whole group was walking off and Barack stopped to give a final wave alone on stage, with the exception of Michelle standing in the background waiting for him and supporting him. You could see the emotion in him in that moment as he looked out over the more than 100,000 people there to congratulate him. He looked so unbelievably proud and yet humble. When he finished, Michelle met him across the stage and as they started walking away together, they gave a playful kiss and the smallest, but most triumphant high-five. They're a team... and really truly love eachother.

Congratulations America!!!! You definately got this one right and the change you need is coming.

Scary Times

I knew this was coming. I could feel it.

My boss got laid-off yesterday and I think there's more to come. I work for an American company (I am Canadian), so we've all been a little tense here lately with the way the US economy has been. Two weeks ago today our CMO was in our office and held a meeting telling everyone that we were doing fine and better than our competitors, and not to worry. Nothing was changing. Three days later they told us that they were making some cut backs on budgets (ie. no x-mas party, no snacks in the offices, changes to bonus structure etc.) but no lay-offs. These were changes we could easily live with. We were, for the time being, keeping our jobs, our health benefits and our RSP program (Canadian equiv. of the 401k). Everyone seemed to buy this, but I wasn't so sure. Then, yesterday, just over a week later, my boss gets the axe and the lay-offs begin.

Side note: I've been in fear for my job for a while now, and not in relation to the state of the economy. You see, myself and my boss are the only ones in finance at this location (my job entails some HR as well, but is mostly finance). For a long time they have been talking about centralizing finance in our US offices. This would mean the elimination of my job. Now with the economic "melt-down" it's even more tense.

What pisses me off the most is that my boss (T) got the news over the phone from the assistant controller who sat in this office last week for 3 days and had every opportunity to have the discussion face to face. Additionally, not 2 months ago, that same person had a telephone conversation with both myself and T to "disuade rumours" that our jobs/positions were in trouble. She literally said, "We have no intentions to eliminate your positions. I don't know where that rumour is coming from, but please disregard it. We need you and couldn't handle the Canadian finances down here. Your jobs are safe and your not going anywhere". WTF!?!?!

I've been preparing myself to receive that same call for a while now, but it's more of a reality today than ever before. I truly don't believe that I'm going to have ajob much longer. Whether I get the call this week or in a couple of months, I 'm pretty sure it's coming. We had a brief staff meeting this morning to announce that T was leaving, and our GM told us that there were no further planned lay-offs. Everyone seemed relieved, but I kept thinking, "are you all blind? Where and when have we heard that before"?

Now it's a waiting game. I guess I just have to take things one day at a time. I desperately want to go home and crawl onto the couch and veg. I have no motivation to work today and this waiting thing sucks... especially when you don't know how long you'll be waiting for. Hopefully I can weather this storm!

I'm an old married woman...

I hate being a boring old married woman....

Weekend synopsis:

Friday- hand out candy to all 10-15 kids, eat way too much chocolate and pumpkins seeds, have BIL over for a beer after DH's ball hockey game, SIL and her BF and daughter show up. They watch Shrek 3D and it was hilarious to see them sitting there with their glasses on reacting to 3D things that I couldn't see, everyone leaves, DH goes to Wendy's for salad and we watch PVR'd Greys Anatomy and CSI, then pass out on the couch.



Saturday- sleep in, read in bed, sleep some more, started x-mas shopping, got groceries, bought new TV (42 inch plasma- our 51 was just too big for the new living room and will be moved downstairs to await the basement being finished), made homemade Garlic and Tortellini soup for dinner (sooooo good), took dog for a walk, drove DH to a buddy's house to go drinking, cleaned, watched Harry Potter and fell asleep on the couch.



Sunday- Watch Most Haunted and "What Happens in Vegas" (really cute movie), rake leaves, rake and seed bare spots on lawn, cut grass, DH goes to ball hockey, I walk dog, make dinner (ham, mashed potatoes, salad, broccoli and snap peas) read, have a bath while reading, go to bed and read.


Boring huh?

I wanted to go to a Halloween party so bad, but no one we knew was having one or going out at all, and we don't have the space (yet) to have a big party. I felt like an old lady, which seems to be a trend lately. I'm a bit of a hermit, and normally I'm at peace with that, but it has really been bothering me lately. I need a life. I miss getting dressed up and going out dancing all the time. What happened to those days!?! I'm only 23 years old for god sakes!



I'm having a crappy day already, which is making me mope pathetically. I hate Mondays!

Gadget Girl!

So for YEARS I have wanted a BlackBerry. But, my employer only pays for them for the sales and PM team (I work in finance and HR) and I couldn't justify the monthly cost on my own. I see the sales teams expense reports and so I know how much they can be. I've hummed and hawed about getting a Pearl because the monthly plans were cheaper but I hate the keyboard. They're really adorable, but it would drive me crazy to answer emails and have to hit buttons twice etc. I would rather keep my cell phone if that was the case. I won an IPOD touch at a staff party in Sept. and it's awesome. I updated it to have the latest software which give me the equivilent of the newest iPhone, without the phone part. I can check my email etc. from that, I have calendar etc. but it sucks to have to carry that AND my cell phone as well as the fact that I have to be in a WiFi hot spot to get online.I love the thing, but it was really annoying.

DH called me yesterday while I was out of the office on course and left me a vmail saying that they had a staff promotion on BlackBerry's at his work just for the day and it was a really good deal so we would go up when I was done work. We did and I FINALLY got my BB (silver Curve)! The phone itself cost me $12 and my monthly plan is $40 (incl. an awesome voice and data plan) + system access fee and tax. It's the employee promotional plan. I'm so friggin' excited and totally addicted to it. I can't stop playing with it.

This morning on my way to work, I had my old cell phone (for contact switch over), my iPod Touch (for music) and my BB on the bus (I do my part of the environment by taking public transit to and from work and it helps to not have to pay 6 bucks for parking every day too). People were probably looking at me going "GEEK" but I don't care. I'm a gadget junkie and I LOVE it! I totally understand the term "CrackBerry"!

That's Life... just an update

Couple things I wanted to blog about:
1. Work Sucks: Over the last little while the general atmosphere has become very, very negative. It's too complicated to explain on here but I'm reaching a breaking point and don't know what to do. I'm not the only one feeling it. I'm also bored to tears most of the time (with exception of month end, qtr end and year end). I have a lot to do in a day, but I can usually get it done in a couple of hours. Then what? I trying to find things to do/look busy. It sucks. I like busy days. I enjoy constantly having something to do. It's challenging and therefore motivating. Having nothing to do SUCKS! I'm always edgy at work now and I snap at people all day. It's getting really bad and I feel stuck. I can't afford to give up this job. I can't take a pay cut, it' just not a option.
2. Reading Season: My reading season has finally begun and I'm so happy. Here's what my nights consist of in the fall: Home from work, make dinner, clean a bit while dinner is cooking, eat dinner, clean-up dinner, make lunches for next day, go for a walk with DH and dog, come home and park my butt with a good book and a cup of tea (or sometimes hot apple cidar). I'm either on the front porch wrapped in a blanket, in the bath tub, in my reading chair or in bed. I love taking that time to be able to read at least a solid hour each night. Fall is the best time to do it outside. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I hardly watch TV in the fall because I'd rather dive into my latest book. Right now, I'm reading Outlander (the first in a series of what is currently 6 books) and I have heard RAVES about it on GoodReads and on the NBC board. It's really good so far, but I'm just getting into it, so we'll see. DH is at work tonight so I'll have the whole evening to myself to really dive into the story.
3. VACATION: DH and I are on vacation next week. We plan to stick around the house and get some of the outside pre-winter stuff the needs to be done, done. One day we are going to head up to Algonquin Park (a HUGE provincial park about 2.5 hours from here) to do some hiking and see the fall colors. We always take a lunch and eat outside in the crisp fall air... soooo much fun. I can't wait just to have a quiet break from work. I may try to convince DH to give me a day of shopping Downtown (Toronto) as well. It's expensive down there, so I usually just pick up one cool thing, but it's fun.
4. Thanksgiving: It's the Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and we have 2 dinners planned thus far. 1 is at my FIL's and one is at my Mum's. I love Thanksgiving. I love the food, the decorations, the time of year. It's one of my fav. holidays. To me, it signifies that fall is really here and summer is officially over. My fav. part is the leftovers. Warm turkey sannies??? mmmm... can't wait.

Getting Settled

So we're almost one week into owning our first house. It's been pretty awesome, and feels fairly normal. I'm excited to go home everyday.

Sunday, as a posted before, we did a crap load of yard work etc. My mum, step-dad and DH's mum came over to help (my Mum is a lawn and garden guru). By 6pm I had hit the wall. The whole weekend had caught up to me and it took every ounce of strength to even stand up. We went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients for my fav. quick homemade meatball soup (comfort food), I made it, we ate it and then I collapsed into the tub. I felt a little better after my bath and played DH a game of air hockey, which he won, and then we settled in bed and started to watch a movie. Within a couple minutes we were both asleep.

Monday, I defiantely paid for the manual labour of the weekend. My body was sore from head to toe, especially my knees. I could hardly walk when I got out of bed that morning. Monday night we went to look at TV's because, unfortunately, the 5 year old 51" ProJo that we currently have is WAY to big for the living room. It's too close and it make me dizzy. It also makes the room feel crowded. We are going to get a 42" plasma, but are going to wait for x-mas sales. It will be substatially smaller and can get mounted on the wall so it's out of the way. It's funny to watch DH pretend that is something we "HAVE" to do when really I know he's elated at the fact that I'm FINALLY giving in to getting another TV. We also decided to pick-up a chest freezer (just a small one) because our main freezer in the kitchen is small due to the ice maker/crusher etc. It's coming in today and DH will hopefully have it when he comes home from work. We went grocery shopping, made fresh pasta with rose sauce and really yummy fresh bread for supper and just relaxed around the house that evening. We played eachother a best of 3 tournament on our air hockey table (DH won) and turned in for an early night.

Tuesday, DH put his home theatre system together and we learned that his x-box will now not shut off. Therefore, I have a feeling a new gaming system will be in our near future as well. Maybe I'll be a good wife and get him a 360 for Christmas. We had to go buy new cordless phones as well because ours were shot. I made dinner again that night (I had put some sausages in the slow-cooker that morning so there really wasn't much to do). Then we played another best of 3 air hockey game. DH beat me again. I went to bed early to read, but again was asleep within minutes.

Last night was the best night. It was the first time that DH worked an evening so it was the first time that I had the house to myself. I went home, changed into sweats, made fish for my dinner (DH hates fish, so it's the only time I can eat it) and when that was done I took a blanket out to the porch to read with a tea. It was sooooo chilly outside so it was nice to be in my cozy clothes wrapped in my favorite fleece blanket. I had to keep going inside to what I call my reading chair and once I was warmed up, I would go back outside. These are my favorite week nights. Quiet time to myself to dive into a good book with no interuptions! I LOVE it. In the 3 months we stayed with MIL I didn't get this. It was an awesome night.

When DH and I were going to bed last night, I realized that my bed feels more comfortable and bigger in the new house. I told DH this and he kinda laughed it off, but I'm serious. I've had the best nights sleep since we've moved into the house (though not nearly enough) and I'm soooo comfortable in our new room. Weird, I know.

We have a lot to do before the cold weather and snow comes (scrape and paint the windows, put the supports into the shed, get the gardens weeded and under control etc.) and we have to get in gear about my MIL's surprise 50th that we're throwing in December, but I think we can get it all done. I love this house, we're so happy in it, and I love the fact, that I LOVE to go home to it.

Closing Day/ Moving Weekend=Fun, Excitement, Happy

Here's the good stuff about our move!:

1. We got the house (obviously)! It was soooo friggin' exciting. There's no feeling like it. We went in before anyone else got there and just walked around (testing lights, fixtures etc.) and were in total shock that it was OUR house. We love it.

2. Friday was hell, except because the U-HAUL screwed up and we had to make alternate arrangements, our bed came to the house on Friday instead of Saturday, so we didn't have to sleep on the floor.

3. My mum left, champagne, glasses, chocolates and a candle in the bedroom for us for the first night. We sat on the floor after everyone left and I opened the bottle. I hit DH when the cork flew off and champagne spilled all over our new carpet, but we both laughed hysterically. It was fun.

4. The actual moving got done in just over 2 hours on Saturday morning. This gave me a lot more time on Saturday than I thought I would have to start unpacking etc. The essentials were all unpacked by the time we had dinner on Saturday night.

5. Everyone loved the house and said what a deal we got on it.

6. Saturday and Sunday went really well. Friday was really the only bad day. We had a ton of friends and family there to help us clean and move and it was great.

7. They left us a trampoline! I didn't want it at first (and was pissed because I would then be responsible for getting rid of it), but my mum and I cleaned it up yesterday and it's actually a lot of fun and looks a lot better. Our yard is definately big enough for it (it's way in the back corner and totally out of the way) and it's a blast so we may keep it for a little while.

8. We got soooo much done this weekend. We're almost completely unpacked, the light fixtures got changed, the dishwasher was installed properly, the lawn got cut and "weed whacked", we raked, seeded and watered the bare spots, the gate got fixed so when my mum's dog is over, he can't get out under it (our dog won't go anywhere), the stove was switched, the back garden was weeded (which was no small undertaking)
So, we're in and loving it. I can't wait to go home today.

Closing Day/ Moving Weekend= Frustration, Anger and Stress

Here's the negative things about our move:

1. I left work Friday at noon to go home and wait for the call to go pick-up the keys for the house. We were expecting to get them somewhere between 2 and 4 that afternoon. At 2:30, my cell rings and it's our lawyer. However, she's not calling to tells us that the deal is closed, but that she's been to the bank twice and the $$ is not there. She says that the bank has left it so late that we'll be out of time for her to get the closing done that day and it will have to be pushed to Monday (you can't close a sale on the weekend). I asked her what I could do and she said that unless I could figure out what happened very very shortly and get the bank to send the $$, that I couldn't really do anything.
So, I frantically call our broker who says she'll call me back in 10 minutes as she needed to call the lender directly. That was the longest 10 minutes of my life because I knew we were on the clock and running out of time, and I was desperate to get the house on Friday. Everything was packed, the truck was rented, people had booked time off to help us move, the Bell guy was coming on Saturday to hook-up the cable, the phone, hydro and gas were being connected that afternoon etc. When she calls me back she tells me that the $$ has been in our lawyers trust account since 12:17 (meaning it's been there for over 2 hours) that afternoon and that she doesn't know why our lawyer said it wasn't there.
I call the lawyer back and tell her that it's in her trust account and has been since 12:17 and she responds to me "ohhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyy bank account!". I wanted to scream!!!! WHAT BANK ACCOUNT WERE YOU LOOKING IN!?!?!?!? She tells me that she thought they were sending a draft to BMO. However, we don't bank with BMO, she doesn't bank with BMO, we didn't get the mortgage through BMO, so why she thought that I don't know. And what else kills me is that she would have had to give them her bank details for the lender to do a wire transfer to her account, so how did she not know that's where the money would be????? I was so frustrated and pissed of I could have screamed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Anyways, she gets the deal done and we pick up our keys and are in the house by just after 4ish.

2. DH calls U-HAUL to see where we pick up our truck on the Saturday morning. I had reserved it for 9am. The girl, who was INCREDIBLY RUDE on the phone, tells us we can't pick it up until 5pm which is totally not enough time and not when all the people who were going to help us were available. It made me furious how she spoke to me and DH on the phone. I couldn't stop thinking about it until the following day. For whatever reason it stayed with me and made me soooooooo mad. So, we had to scramble around and find another way to move our stuff, which we did, and it only took the guys 2 hours to get it done on Saturday morning.

3. In moving our new stove in, we had to remove the handle to get it through the door (which DH has done thousands of times at work) but with this particular stove, you have to remove the whole front. While trying to put it back together the trim breaks so you can't get the door back on. DH was soooo pissed and frustrated, I was mad, but trying not to show it and my FIL, who was the one trying to put it back together was freaking out and thinking we were mad at him. We weren't mad at him, we were just pissed off because it was one more thing to add to the pile of negative for that day.
Those are the main, negative things that happened on Friday. I'll post seperately for the good stuff!

Sorting it Out

Posted Friday, September 26, 2008 8:38 AM
Meeting went great with the lawyer last night. We only ended up owing $516.99 in closing costs (WOW) so she will take a regular cheque from us. It was nice to scratch that worry off my list.
I'm so excited because we had all this money saved for closing costs and now we have a bunch left over! DH wants to buy a new plasma TV. We have a great 51" right now, but its rear projection and apparently that's sooooooo 2 years ago (DH works at a major electronics company so we have to stay up to date with all this stuff). I actually wanted a new TV anyways because the liviing room is small and the TV will take up WAY too much space, but there are other things I wanted to do to the house. Like I was thinking we should save this money to put new shingles on in the spring, my friends Dad is going to fix the body of our car for $350 (really cheap) so we could pay him and get it done with enough time to go have it oiled afterwards before the winter, we need a lawnmower, I want to get the furnace serviced before the cold weather. I don't know... none of that stuff is very fun, but it's necessary. We'll have to talk it out this weekend.
Everything is signed and ready to go, so now I just wait for the call to go get the keys. I'm soooo excited I can't stand it! I'll have pics on Monday hopefully.
Have a great weekend everyone!

All I can say is...

Posted Wednesday, September 24, 2008 1:20 PM
Two more "sleeps" ..... I'm so friggin' excited. Feel free to point, laugh and mock!

Where did all the excitement go???

Posted Thursday, September 25, 2008 3:08 PM
So, tomorrow's closing day, and all the excitement that I've felt over the last couple of weeks (and especially days) is dwindling to basically non-existent.
WTF?
Here's why I'm freaking out....
1. We go to sign all the paperwork tonight w/ the lawyer and I'm freaking out about paying her. Not because we don't have the $$, we do (and we assume it's enough), but thinking about actually HOW I am going to pay her. I read today that lawyers generally request certified cheques, which I can't get because I have one of those no fee bank accounts with a bank that doesn't have actual branches, so to get a money order I have to order it and it takes 5-7 business days. I talked to my lawyer today and she said "you can pay however you want" but I don't think she was fully listening to me. Why didn't I think of this before?
2. I don't know when I first mortgage payment comes out. I'm pretty sure I remember from grade 10 math that it comes out a month after you move in, but I'm not sure AND I don't know when the MPP payment will come out or if it's built into the payment now (I'm pretty sure it is, but I'm not 100%). Why didn't I think to ask this question BEFORE????
Being "pretty sure" was good enough for a while, until today, when I started thinking that when it comes to this stuff of this caliber.... be DAMN SURE! I don't know what my problem is... I'm so particular about details usually (to the point where it annoys people), but for whatever reason this stuff slipped my mind.
Oh well... one way or another it will all be over in just over 24 hours. If I don't get a chance to blog tomorrow, have a great weekend everyone!

Runaway Baby Girl

Posted Monday, September 22, 2008 11:41 AM
I was having a good weekend until......
Friday Night: quiet night waiting for my Dad to call. We got Taco Bell at 10pm for dinner, which left me feeling not so good.
Saturday: DH's ball hockey game (the lost 8-0) and then we spent the afternoon getting everything that's ours into one room at MIL's for moving on Friday and Saturday. Saturday night I made my favorite meal and we watched Braveheart.
Sunday: We got up and DH and I went to Home Depot to get some more stuff for the house. We left Lola (our 3 year old Boxer Pug) at home with BIL. *Necessary tid-bit of information, Lola is terrified of strange or unfamiliar men. We don't know why, but it's a fear that has developed over the last year and a half. She also hates the road. If we try to walk anywhere on the road she gets really antsy and trys to go up every drive-way we pass* Anyways, long story short, my FIL showed up to pick up BIL and inadvertantly scared her and she took off. You have to understand that Lola doesn't take off. She doesn't need a leash and is always out in the (unfenced) yard with me or DH and is right on our heels. She's too much of a suck to run away. So I knew that she must have been really, really scared to take off like that because she's never done it before. BIL called us at Home Depot to tell us that they were "chasing her". This was BAD because I knew she'd be so scared by this point that she'd never come to the two men chasing her, it would just scare her even more. But, they had to keep going to try to stay with her so we could get her once we got back to the area. She just kept running. I immediately started to panic because she's my baby. I called my Mum (who Lola lives with through the week and has known since she was a baby- it's like her other mommy) who immediately headed out to look for her too because we were still 15 minutes away. I knew at this point she would only come to me, DH or my Mum because she's be so scared.
BIL said that everyone in the area was super helpful telling them where they had seen her etc. They finally caught up to her at a cat-walk where she was cowering behind some "bushes" but as soon as she saw them running towards her, she took off again. In the process of all of this she crossed countless side streets, she crossed a really busy main street TWICE and an extremely busy 4 lane street where it intersects with the really busy street once. She ran through a really busy parking lot with several stores and a drive through fast food place and just kept going. We kept getting calls from BIL saying "okay someone saw her over on ____ street" etc. Everytime we got a call that she had been seen on a busy street I would cry even harder because I knew a) how totally terrified she must be and probably totally panicing b) I had visions of her getting hit by a car. It was so stressful to try to "stay on her trail" but we had to do it. I knew it was only a matter of time before she ran out on another road and got hit.
DH had got out of the car to run down the really busy street because someone said they had seen her there, and I kept driving trying to catchup with BIL and FIL who were closest to her and had seen her several times. It was like a friggin' high speed chase because I was driving so fast and pulling so many U turns etc. I finally saw them, BIL was on foot chasing after her (she was quite a ways ahead of him because I still couldn't see her). She turned into a field (thank god she was atleast off the road at this point) and I went back out to a main street to try to get ahead of her. Finally I saw BIL running through the field a bit behind so I made my next left and he came up an intersecting road. He's yelling "she's right ahead of you". I finally see her and yell out the windown "LOLA". She's so scared by this point that she drops to the ground, cowering right down with her tail tucked underneath. I slowly drive up beside her, make sure theirs no cars coming, open the door and yell, in my "puppy-talk voice" "hi baby-girl, common'!" She turns, realizes it's me and runs full out and launches herself into the car onto my lap and collpases against my chest. She's panting so hard she's making herself choke and is drooling everywhere (she doesn't drool at all unless she's very ill) and she's pressing herself as close to me as she can get. She had been running, full out, for almost an hour. We went home, she had a HUGE drink of cold water and then she crawled up on the couch with me, curled up in the crook of my legs and went immediately to sleep.
I couldn't be mad at her, because I knew she didn't run away to be "bad". She ran because she was terrified and kept running because it just got worse and worse. She came right to me without hesitation amd the look of relief on her face was so sad. She was being chased by scary men, she was on the road, in a strange area with lots moving, loud cars etc. It breaks my heart to even think about how terrified she must have been. Especially when I think about the roads, the parking lots and how big eveything must of seemed to her because she's so tiny and when she stopped in the cat-walk to hide. I would hate to know what was going through her head at that point "I don't know where I am, I'm on strange roads, what do I do now and where's my mum?". It was the scariest moments of my life and I never want to feel like that again. Luckily, we move into our house on Friday and she doesn't have to live with strange men anymore. My poor baby girl... what an awful day for her.

3 More "Sleeps"

Posted Tuesday, September 23, 2008 9:21 AM
Has anyone every seen the commercial for Disney World where the little boy and his sister are talking in their bedrooms about what each of them thinks it will be like and the mom yells something about that they need to go to sleep... and then the little boy,in the absolute cutest voice, with the absolute cutest grin on his face says "we're too excited to sleep" and falls back onto his pillow?
That's totally me right now. We get the house sometime on Friday (hence the "3 more sleeps") and I'm too excited to think about anything else! My work day yesterday dragged out for what felt like days and I'm sure that today, tomorrow and Thursday will feel the same. Then, I pulled a really stupid move and didn't take all of Friday off. I've either booked or used all of my vacation and personal days for the year and only had 4.75 hours banked, so I only took a half day. That's probably going to be the longest morning of my life, although sitting around at home waiting for the call would suck too. Such a long week!!!!!!!!!!
I'm trying to keep busy after work with house related projects. Last night, I sanded down the main part of our dresser (will do the drawers tonight) so that it can be painted. I'm painted the bedside tables to match as well since they are currently two different colors of wood. Hopefully this keeps me occupied.
I think it was MrsS that said last week that this would be the longest 9 days of my life and god was she right. The wait is friggin' killing me!

Posted Thursday, September 18, 2008 11:30 AM
It's official!!! Our lawyer has everything she needs for the closing of our home. That means at some point next Friday, Sept. 26 we will get the keys for our first house! It just hit me that it's really happening (after 3 years) and I'm soooooo excited.

*for pics, click the date link above for original post*

Specs:
3 bedrooms
1.5 bathrooms
Walk-in in master bedroom
1100 square feet of finished space
Unfinished basement (will become rec room w/ a bar)
170 deep lot (huge back yard)
Wood deck and unistone patio in back
Private porch on the front
Plans:
-Lots of landscaping (they let the lawn go this summer, it's not horrible, but needs some work)-prep this fall and complete next spring/summer
-Reface kitchen cabinets-ASAP
-Paint one of the spare rooms (it's currently pink w/ disney princess stickers)-ASAP
-Scrape and paint window frames (exterior)- this year
-Finish basement- when we get around to it/ have the money
-Energy audit in the next couple of years and then get grants to: replace furnace with a high-efficiency model (pray that the current one works for a while), replace windows, do shingles prob. next spring/ summer
-Several tiny little jobs that inspector pointed out (all which are simple and DIY)- ASAP
I CANNOT WAIT TO SPEND OUR FIRST NIGHT (SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR) IN OUR NEW HOUSE!

Still sick, but surviving!

Posted Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:44 PM
So this cold is really hanging on and my voice is coming and going, but I'm at work today and feeling alright about it.
We had a staff party last night at the horse races. The food was great, the company was not so great but... I won an 8GB iPod Touch! I never win anything so I was soooo excited. Our computer is in storage until we move into the house next Friday, but I'm playing around with it seeing what all it does until then.
Speaking of moving into the house, I still haven't received confirmation from my lawyer that she's received instructions from our lender. I talked to her late last week and she said it was still early, but my broker said on Monday that the lawyer should receive something in 24hours. Well, it's been 48 and NADDA! I haven't heard a thing. I'm starting to freak out a little, getting really really nervous about it. What if something went wrong and our financing fell through for some reason? I'd rather know about it now then a couple of days before we're supposed to move into the house! I'm definately going to start panicking soon!
I guess I don't have any choice but to wait. God it's going to be a long 9 days!

I feel very blah!!!!

Posted Monday, September 15, 2008 11:56 AM
SICK SICK SICK.... I hate colds. Don't get my wrong, I'd prefer a good cold to a stomach bug any day, but seriously... this is very unpleasant. I have no sick leave and therefore am at work, plugging away, sounding like a little kid because my sniffles are getting worse and worse.
We were supposed to have a great weekend, but here's how it really turned out:
1. Friday night: we were supposed to go to the Oro Fair- well it rained all evening so we scratched that. Disappointing.
2. Later Friday night: we got together with some friends before heading down to a local club for a CD release party of a friends band. I was super excited for this but about 30 minutes before the band was scheduled to go on I started feeling really sick and achy and had to go home. Then I had to drive back downtown to get DH after they played because I didn't want him to have to miss it and come home with me earlier or pay 20 bucks for a cab.
3. Saturday: Write-off. I felt pretty crappy all day and just hung out around the house with my puppy all day (which is not a lot of fun when staying with MIL and BIL). DH and I did go shopping briefly and each bought a new outfit, but then I had to return to my jammies.
4. Sunday: We were going to shop for stuff for the house. We had a list but the main focus was a stove, a lawn mower, a patio set and a weed whacker. After 4 hours of shopping we found NONE of this stuff (out of season or out of stock) and in the process DH lost his cell phone. We still had fun hanging out together, but it was discouraging. Plus... I was still sick.
Now today is the worst sick day and, of course, I don't have the option of being at home in bed today. So, I watch the clock and await 4:30 when I can go get my waxing done and then go home. I want nothing more than a hot bath and my book. Oh well.... 4.25 hours to go! :(

Who Needs a Baby? I have a husband instead!

Posted Thursday, September 11, 2008 8:54 AM
DH called me at work yesterday to tell me that he ear was really sore. He's always had bad ears, ever since he was a kid, so I said call you doctor and get an appointment or go to the walk-in clinic. It turns out that he has "swimmers ear" and had to be on ear drops for the next 5 days. I sympathize with him because I know this is kind of a chronic problem, but honestly, what a baby he is when he's "sick"! I know he hates ear drops, he always has, but your a big boy now, suck it up and take them to get better, or don't complain that your hurting.
I get "home" (my MIL"s) last night and he's lying on the couch. I ask him if he needs anything and he says no. He's lying in a little ball hugging a blanket to his chest like his 6 or something. I find this hysterical. Then, his mom arrives home and oh my does the baby in my husband come out. She immediately starts saying "oh baby... do you need anything, can I get you anything" and rubbing his head and his back. He ate it right up "I'm sore, I'm hungry" blah blah blah *WRETCH*
I finally said "he's not SICK!! He just has a sore ear!!!!!!!!!!!!" God. He;s such s sucky baby! My sports loving, 240lb husband is a big fat baby when he's sick, ESPECIALLY when his mother is around!

Meet Lola... Our Fur Baby
Posted Friday, September 12, 2008 9:06 AM
All this talk about dogs made me want to show off our baby. Her name is Lola (and I swear I named her that BEFORE I heard everyone and their brother calling their kids and dogs that). She's a "Bugger" which is a Boxer-Pug X (yes... it was a very planned pregnancy for the Mama who was the boxer) and she will be three years on Sept. 23. We've had her since she was 8 weeks and she was the cutest baby, but unfortunately, the memory card with all puppy pics malfunctioned and I lost them all! She was 3.5lbs when we brought her home and is now about 25-30lbs and holding steady. She's such a lover, always needs to be held with her face buried in the crook of your arm. She sleeps directly between us, either spooning her Dad or along my chest with her face buried somewhere.

And below is what we're looking at getting once we're settled into our house...
DH, who I have totally converted into a dog person (he was scared of dogs when we met, which wasn't gonna fly because I will never have a home without a dog), has his heart set on a Cane Corso. We have more research to do since I don't know much about them but, look at that face!!!!!!!

Today is a good day

Posted Thursday, September 04, 2008 4:35 PM
Here's why:
1. I'm buying a great house. We move in, in three weeks and I'm a lot less stressed about it now. I'm mostly just excited!
2. I have a fantastic husband and I realized after recent events with my best friend and her husband that I am very very lucky to have someone who loves me and who I love so much!
3. I have a good job, and today was one of those days that went by very quickly because I was busy with lots of things that I actually enjoy doing. It's nice when you have days where your not watching the clock.
4. I have a fantastic family who is willing to do a lot of crazy things to help me get what I want and reach my goals. I don't think there is a more supportive mother in the world than mine.
I'm guess having one of those days that I just feel good. I hope it lasts! :)

Lazy Weekend

Posted Monday, September 08, 2008 8:46 AM
Breakdown of my/ our weekend:
Friday- We had an impromptu dinner @ my FIL's. He's the best cook (super creative) and we have a good time with him and his fiance. He created a new recipe and we got to test it out for the first time. It was delicious!
Saturday- Got up early to go garage saling to look for a couple things for the house (lawn mower, tree style clothes line etc.). This was completely unsuccessful as we purchased NOTHING. DH went to Canadian Tire to buy gas and garbage cans and then he had a golf tournament with a girl friend of his (that's a whole other post) and I stayed home. I feel really guilty saying it, but I slept most of the day. I think I needed to catch up after the couple of weeks we've had. BIL made a great dinner and when DH came home we just had a lazy night watching the first season of Prison Break (which I LOVE, but is sooo stressful and intense).
Sunday- DH had his first ball hockey game, so we went to that. The supporting/loving wife in me told me that he needed my support, so standing in the rain for an hour was worth it (yuck). They lost.... by a lot... to a team who only had 5 guys present... but they had fun. They'll get better as the season goes on. Then I went shopping because I went through my clothes yesterday and I ended up being able to keep only 2 pairs of pants! Everything else is way too big. I kept some sweaters too that boarder on too big, but will work for now. This pissed me off because I had to buy these clothes on my credit cards. I don't have any money to be buying new clothes right now and I hate using my credit cards. I spent $115 on two pairs of jeans and 1 shirt which pisses me off. Then we went to our friends for a bbq. It was a lot of fun, but after the sun went down it was freaking cold! Fall is definately coming.
That's it. BORING! I'm gonna post later today about the golf tournament thing and get some opinions.

I'm freaking out, but in an ok way this time!

Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 11:30 AM
So, our home inspection went well. There are no major problems that need to be fixed right away. What was really nice to hear is that what does need to be fixed can all be done by our friends and family who have experience in construction/renovating. This includes our roof (which the inspector told us does not have to be done before winter and that we would probably get another couple of years out of it). DH's uncle said "oh no, don't hire any one. We'll do it next spring or summer". I was so relieved and he's not just a DIY nobody. He knows what he's talking about and built his house from the ground up.
I have major questions about the mortgage paperwork that we received on Friday before we sign anything. It looks ok, but I want to make sure I understand it 100% and that we can give them everything that they are requesting before we waive our financing condition and sign any financial docs. I emailed my questions to our broker on Friday, but she hasn't got back to me yet. I better hear from her soon.
Our insurance company is giving us problems. They wanted a crap load of seemingly irrelevant information before they would quote us. One of our conditions is that we find acceptable home insurance. This is the 3rd of the three conditions that we only have until tomorrow night (Wed) to waive. They told us on Friday to call them back today (Tues) with the info and that they could probably have a quote by EOB tomorrow (Wed)! I said "no, no... we have to waive our conditions by Wednesday at the latest. We can't wait that long. So they said ok... we'll get it to you Wednesday through the day. So DH is going to give them a call today and tell them that we have another quote coming through and that we have to go with whoever gets back to us first with a good rate.
So, we're down to the wire waiting to hear back from two different people and it's stressing me out!!!!!! I hope we can get everything firmed up tonight so I'm not freaking out all day tomorrow that we'll get it done on time. I am feeling better about the purchase. I do still have moments of "what the hell are we doing... we can't afford this" but in general I'm feeling good about it. I'll just feel so much better when the mortgage broker gets back to me and answers my questions and when the insurance company gets their butts in gear and gets a quote together. I'll be able to relax a bit more then. Grrrr.... I can't wait to get these next two days over with.

A Sigh of Relief

Posted Wednesday, September 03, 2008 9:15 AM
Update:
1.I talked with our mortgage broker and got my questions about the mortgage answered. It's going to be a good mortgage for us and I'm happy we went with this company.
2. I talked with our insurance broker and got a great quote. It's going to save us $35 per month from what we budgeted!!
3. With the above taken care of and a successful home inspection on Friday we were able to go and waive our conditions of sale last night and the house is officially sold to us! We take possession on Sept. 26th!!!
I'm feeling much better about all of this now. I know we still have a lot of things left to do that can be really stressful (like paying closing costs.. which is totally freaking me out) but we can do it. It will all work out and I'm excited!
After getting a good deal on our insurance last night I am determined to find other deals for us. Example: we used to have our home phone with one company and our cable/internet with another. I looked online today and we can bundle those three things together with one company and save more the $50/month for the same or better service. I may get a new cell phone and add it to the same bundle as I've been thinking about going on a plan anyway and this would make it cheaper than if I did it seperately.
Any other cost cutting suggestions? Anything would be appreciated! :)

I'm going to be a homeowner

Posted Wednesday, August 27, 2008 11:39 AM
They officially accepted our offer yesterday. We went in last night to sign-off and give the deposit ($1000 gone already). We now have 5 days to get our financing and insurance solidified as well as have an acceptable home inspection. This is proving to be a frustrating process, so I will be happy one way or the other when these 5 days are over. If any of that doesn't work out to our benefit, we can walk away... the cool part is, they can't! I'm still freaking out but it's getting a little bit better. What I can tell you 100% for sure that I am ready to be done dealing with our real-estate agent. I really liked her in the beginning but there's just something about her now that drives me crazy. I shouldn't be that way because she kicked in $1000 towards our house (off of her commission) because we wouldn't go any higher and the seller wouldn't come any lower. She didn't have to do this so it was really nice of her to do just because she "really wanted us to get this great house" (right- I know the real-estate game) but I still have a sour taste in my mouth about her for some reason. DH thinks I'm nuts and likes her, but my intuition says there is just something. I won't be recommending her to anyone... but I wouldn't say not to use her either. I'll just keep quiet about her.
After we signed the paperwork, we went for our anniversary dinner at The Keg. We were going to go somewhere fancy pants, but we love The Keg so that's where we ened up. I thought I wasn't hungry (still feeling nauseous over this house decision) but man did I eat once we got there!! I had 2 pieces of bread, half a ceasar salad (we shared), the insides of a baked potatoe with butter and salt (I couldn't eat the skin) and steak with Chipotle sauce, herbed cream cheese and onions!! DH said "hmmmm... you did ok for someone who wasn't hungry when we got here". I wanted dessert too, but knew that I shouldn't. Dinner made me feel better because we talked about what we were most excited about with the house. DH is excited about the garage (why I'm not sure because he's not one of THOSE guys) and the yard. I'm excited about having a library/office, the yard, the fireplace/mantle and about having a dishwasher!!!!! We're both most excited to get out of his mom's house. 2 months have been more than enough. It will be 3 by the time closing comes. We miss our little apartment desperately.
So.... I'm feeling ok today, just trying to get appointments made for mortgage, inspection etc. It's frustrating, but it's keeping me busy. If all goes through we close on our first house on Sept. 26. Fingers crossed that everything works out!

1 down, 2 to go!

Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 10:30 AM
I just got a call from our mortgage broker.... our financing is approved and we got a great rate! I was scared because the type of mortgage we were applying for usually adds a couple of points to make up for the 0% down. Well, that didn't happen!!! Yay! I hope we can lock in for a while at this rate because it's really good.
She said she was sending me the paperwork while we were on the phone, but I still haven't received it. I just called her and left a voicemail with my work email so that I'll know right away when the email arrives, but I'm still waiting. Grrrr. I just want to look at the fine print, the term, the payment details etc.
So that's 1 of our 3 conditions met. We have the home inspection tonight (condition # 2) and then I have to call the insurance broker to make sure we can get good home insurance (condition # 3). Once those things are done, we can firm up our sale and then we just have to wait until closing. I hope that the home inspection goes well and that he doesn't find a lot of big problems.
I'm feeling better about the whole thing now. I'm still really nervous, but not in such a negative way as before. It's now starting to become an excited nervous. However, I will be happy when all of this is OVER! It's the most stressful thing I have ever been through.

I have the greatest husband ever!

Posted Tuesday, August 26, 2008 12:42 PM
I just got a dozen beautiful antique roses delivered to me at work. The card is for an anniversary (which we are celebrating our 2nd today) but DH added "everything WILL work out fine. I love you baby."
He knows how stressed I am about the house and I know he hates it when I'm feeling like this because he never knows what to say or how to fix it.
This is perfect. I feel better already.

Rollercoaster Baby Baby!

Posted Tuesday, August 26, 2008 8:43 AM
No, I'm not having a baby :) I see how the title could be misleading.
Last night we got a verbal acceptance on our offer for the house. Their lowest was 2k more than the absolute highest we wanted to spend. Our agent and their agent made up the difference. I am on such a rollercoaster of emotions right now. I'm super excited one minute and totally panicking the next minute. I also go back and forth between thinking what a great deal it is for the lot, house condition, area etc. and then thinking we should have held out longer because eventually the would have had to come down more (but we were afraid to lose it and they were really sticking to their guns). However, we still have to get their signed acceptance and then we have 5 days to get a home inspection and firm up our financing. If either of those things are unacceptable to us, we can walk away from the deal. I think that is the only thing keeping me totally sane now is that we're not necessarily stuck in this if we find something we don't like. It's just really hard to deal with being literally at the very tip top of your price range.
We went over our budget again and again last night. Paying the bills shouldn't be an issue, it will just means there won't be a whole lot left over for a while. We just know that this house is a really good buy and will get better resale than any of the others we looked at but I'm still freaking out.
We've wanted to buy since a year before the wedding and now that it's actually happening I'm unsure about it. I called my mom this morning (who has been super excited for us over this whole process) and told her they had verbally accepted and all she said was "oh... interesting. Well, good!". This did not instill a lot of confidence in me and our decision. Especially since this was coming from my mom who is alway super supportive.
All this and it's our 2nd Anniversary today. I wish I could just be 100% happy about it, because it's a pretty awesome anniversary gift to give eachother. But, I'm just too nervous to be happy.
DH left me a card on the bed side table this morning... it said something to the effect of "Someday we'll look back on this crazy time in our life and wonder how we did it. But we'll know that if we had to do it over again, we wouldn't change a thing because we can do it together". It's so appropiate for what's going on right now and it made me smile. I just wish I didn't feel so nauseous.
I guess I better go and get ready for a crazy few weeks.

Yay! The Ball is Rolling!

Posted Friday, August 22, 2008 9:34 AM
We met with a broker yesterday and got our questions answered and got a preapproval done. We we preapproved for 50k more than we thought we would be, but we won't be spending that much. We're going to stick with our original budget unless we find a property that has a basement apartment (or similar) and therefore is an income property. Then we can spend a little bit more.
It was such a relieft to have a solid preapproval so we know for sure what we can spend. It's also a relieft to have our questions answered, but of course, as soon as we left, I thought of about 20 more questions. I think I am still going to talk with one more broker and see what the differences are, but I was happy with the guy we talked to yesterday. My mum and uncle both have mortgage with him and are confident about him and his company, so that makes me feel good about it.
We're going to go to lots of open houses this weekend and try to get in to two different properties that we have our eyes on. I'm so excited now and feeling much more confident about the whole process. Still... I can't wait until it's over and we're getting the keys for our first house! :)

Holy Crap! I this what it's supposed to feel like?

Posted Monday, August 25, 2008 9:47 AM
On Saturday we found the perfect house. Good size, huge yard for being in town, all the specs we wanted, awesome area, decorated nicely etc. However, it's about 10k above the max we are willing (and able) to spend and it's going to need a new roof in the next couple of years. But, we instantly fell in love with this house. It's the only one I have walked into and said "yes... this is it." It's also the only one that I don't really have any complaints about or that I see us living in long-term. All the other properties are either not in a great location or there is something rather major I don't like about them so I find myself saying "it's ok... we can make it work for a few years". With this one, we were saying "I want to live there and it could be long-term".
Here's what we considered when talking price for our first offer
-The house is 18 years old and therefore, although they look like they are in great condition now, windows are going to have to start being replaced and the furnace is original so we have to think about that too.
-These people didn't landscape. It's not totally horrible, but the yard needs to be cut, weeded, trimmed, edged, seeded and the back yard will probably need a couple of loads of earth to make it level.
-It will need shingle, probably within the next year
-Pricing of similar housing sold in the last 3 months
We put an offer in yesterday at about 12k below asking. We knew the wouldn't accept it, but we wanted to get the ball rolling to negotiate. They responding with an counter-offer later last night of 1K below asking! Our agent said there is a lot of interest in the house and therefore they aren't budging much on their asking price yet because they want to see what other offers they get.
I was so excited to get the offer in yesterday, but once we were in the process of drafting it etc. I started to panic. I kept thinking that it was out of our price range and we were really going to struggle, that we probably can't buy any house, never mind this one and that I am nuts to be doing this. I kept thinking of ways to get out of it and was relieved when we added the conditional on inspection clause thinking "that's it, that's our out". Everyone keeps saying, its worth the extra money if you love it and see yourself there long-term. "You don't want to lose it for the sake of a couple grand". But what if we can't afford the extra money? PANIC PANIC PANIC We also had to sign a bunch of other paperwork with our agent that I am now thinking we were stupid to sign without asking more questions... but that's a whole other story.
I immediately got a headache and felt extremely nauseous and instead of going to the bbq for my BIL's b-day, I went home and tried to sleep. On the way, I ran over a snake on a back country road and in the rear-view mirror I saw it coil up and then flail into the air in pain and it totally gave me the creeps. I literally shivered. P.S. I'm absolutely 100% terrified of snakes. When I got home I cried and panicked some more and I didn't know what to do. When the seller responded to our offer, I was disappointed (by the low amount they were willling to drop) and relieved at the same time. Everyone says this is a normal way of feeling once you've put in a offer on a house, but I don't like it. I never want to feel like this again. I called Brad and he wanted to respond right away with our own counter-offer, but I told him I needed to sleep on it. He agreed that was ok since they hadn't received any other offers yet. I fought a headache all night and had to force myself to eat. I fell asleep surprisingly easily. I woke up this morning at 5am and took Brad to work. Then I came back home and tried to go back to sleep for a couple hours but my mind was running overtime. I don't know what to do. We have to respond soon and all Brad can say is "what are we going to do?" or "have you decided if/how we're going to respond yet?". I'm gonna punch him pretty soon. Does he have any idea the kind of pressure that puts me under? He's half of this too and I need his input. It pisses me off more than I can explain and it's only getting worse.
Oh, on that note, tomorrow is our 2nd anniversary. Hopefully it's a happy one but with the way I feel right now, I don't know how I'll be able to pull off a romantic dinner when I feel like I could vomit at any second and am furious with the person sitting across from me. I'll guess we'll see how the rest of today day plays out.