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!