Christmas wrap up

I thought it was about time I got you all caught up on what's going on around here before the new year hits:) I realize that I was not very good about blogging this past week, but in my defense I have been sick and am just starting to get back to normal.

Chris and I had a wonderful Christmas. On Christmas Eve we went over to our friends Becca and Travis with about 5 other couples. I made "Christmas meatballs" (Chris moms recipe) and they were so good. There was all sorts of food like cookies, sandwiches, mini smokies and chips and dip. It was a nice relaxing day with a lot of food, football and of course games. It was nice to spend the day with friends just relaxing. We headed home around 8pm and enjoyed a quiet evening together watching "A Christmas Story" marathon on TBS.

I am such a big kid at Christmas. I woke up Christmas morning and couldn't wait to open my stocking. I finally convinced Chris that we needed to get up and once the coffee was brewing in the pot he was ready to go. We took turns opening our gifts, it was so much fun and we got all sorts of goodies. We got some wonderful gifts from both our families. Thank you to all of you we really appreciate everything. Chris and I decided this year that instead of setting a gift limit we would make a money limit. We both ended up getting each other 8 gifts. For our money limit we set that was some good shopping. I ended up getting Chris the Indiana Jones Trilogy, a Seahawks "skull"cap, a Colorado Avalanche sweatshirt, a new NFL sized football, a practice putting matt, Dave Matthews CD, Lego Star Wars 2 video game for PC and a book about his favorite golfer Phil Mickelson. It was fun for me this year to pick all his gifts because he never really had a lot of things he needed this year so I had to get creative. The football was actually the last thing I bought because I had 15 dollars left over and I was walking around Target thinking what can I get for this. I saw the footballs and since he didn't have one and anything sports related is always a hit with him I decided to get it. Too my surprise it is one of his fav gifts, I don't think he has put it down all week. Chris got me some awesome gifts this year. He got me an ipod shuffle which I have mentioned to him everyday for the last few months. hehe. He also got me a new crockpot which I am very excited about, perfume, lavender body lotion, scrapbooking stuff, a huge book about U2 (my fav band) that follows them through their careers from way back when they were in high school in Ireland, a body pillow and super soft comfy socks. Of course Belle got new toys and lots of treats as well, we didn't forget about her.

After we opened our gitfs I started to get breakfast ready, we had bacon, eggs and pancakes. It was yummy and a great way to start our day. We decided to go see a movie in the afternoon and ended up going to see A Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. We were both pleasantly surprised by this movie and really really enjoyed it, I am glad we went. After the movie we headed home and got our little 11 pound turkey in the oven. We had potatoes, veggies, stuffing and of course cranberry sauce with our turkey. It was so good.

While Chris and I do miss our families at the holidays we love the fact the we can spend days like that together and making our own traditions.

Chris and I have both been trying to fight off this cold all week. I lost my voice Christmas eve and it didn't return till Wednesday. My throat is still pretty raw and we are both still coughing, mostly first thing in the morning. Hopefully a few more days and this darn bug will be gone for good.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY to my big brother Dave and his wife Susan, we love you guys!

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2007!!

Happy Christmas Eve

Yes I am still alive. I have been pretty sick with a nasty cold/flu and on top of it have been rushing around trying to get all our last minute shopping and things done. We are spending the day today with friends. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve.

I need to clarify something from my previous post about the people I saw in their thongs. LOL. Now when I lived in Canada we called them flipflops. Which I would still call them that except for the fact that when I met Chris and all my American friends on the west coast they made fun of me and said they were called Thongs not flipflops. So eventually I gave into peer pressure and went with calling them thongs. Now I am living on the east coast and finding that people here actually call them flipflops. LOL. I am SO confused. I guess what I am trying to say is that I was referring to flipflops/thongs/sandals WHATEVER you want to call them. LOL I did not see a bunch of people on the subway in their underwear. It would have been funny though!!

Mice.....

I HATE THEM!!!!!!

OH CHRISTMAS TREE OH CHRISTMAS TREE....

The weather here has been insane. I mean it is December 16th and we have barely even had so much as a flurry. It has been in the 50's most of the week and the other day when I was out and about on the subway I saw tons of people in thongs. THONGS!!!! Middle of December and people are out in their sandals. Crazy! It makes me sad because I love winter and I love snow, at this rate we will be lucky if we get snow by Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, Chris and I finally got our Christmas tree last night. We didn't end up cutting our own. Mostly because it was getting so close to Christmas and we just needed to get one. So we went to a nearby lot and got one. We also finally got a picture we liked for our Christmas cards which I will be putting in the mail tomorrow. For those of you up in the Great White North you may get yours a little late....oops!

Today we went for breakfast to this cute little restaurant called Auntie B's. It was tiny and so good. We love finding local little family joints like that. I think that may be our new favorite breakfast spot for a while. After breakfast we headed home and spent the afternoon working in the yard, finally getting rid of all the old dead leaves. After supper we decorated the tree, I am so glad to have it all up and done and now other than sending out our Christmas cards and shopping for each other I can relax and enjoy the rest of the holiday season.
And yes we have Bob the Builder stockings. My sister in law Susan made them for us last year. Actually she made them for her boys only realizing after the fact she made one of them with the girl from the show. And it wouldn't have gone over well giving one of them Bob and the other the girl. So anyways we have them now, and they rock. We also have SUPER COOL Oilers and Avalanche stockings that we just got from Chris's parents this Christmas. How awesome are those?! Sweet!

Ok so the Christmas "yard" ornaments in the 2 posts before this are not ours. We were driving home the other night and noticed all these lights. We made a detour to see where they were coming from and it was just this one house with a huge side and back yard that had it all decorated with so many lights and all sorts of Christmas ornaments. It was so festive and so pretty. There is even Santas sleigh and they have "Santa coming" for the kids and everything. I wish more people could get in the festive spirit like that. It sure put a little cheer in our evening and a smile on our face.

Evey joins the choir.......

Evey and her new buddies

Birds are taking over

As I was folding my laundry today I looked outside and saw all these birds. I don't even know how many there were. They were on the house across the way, the powerlines, the fence etc. I have no idea what they were doing or why they were all gathering outside our place but thank goodness they were because they gave me something to blog about. hehe! Sorry about the first pic, I forgot to turn the flash off. oops!

Still Treeless...........

Ok so we still do not have a Christmas tree. Yesterday was supposed to be the day but Chris is on call this weekend and sure enough he got an emergency call yesterday that took up 3 hours of our day. Since the place we are going to get our tree is a few hours away it didn't really leave us with much time. Instead we went for a drive, tried to get a good picture for our Christmas cards (we did not succeed), eventually went out and had a wonderful dinner at Olive Garden. Today of course we will be going out to watch the Seahawks game. So hopefully tomorrow we will be able to get off work a little early and go get our tree. If not I think I will just give in and go to the lot we have gotten our tree from the last 2 years. I just really have my heart set on picking and cutting our own this year.

YUMMY

Boy was it cold out today, the first real cold day of the season for us. I welcomed it though, I love winter and I will be even more happy when it finally snows.

I had lunch with a friend today, it was nice to enjoy some relaxation time and enjoy the company and conversation. Thanks Becca!

Chris and I are heading to get our Christmas tree tomorrow. YAY! I will be sure to take some pictures.

Have a great weekend!

My first bowl of peppermint ice cream of the season!!

This gave me a good chuckle this morning so I thought I would pass it on so you could all do the same......

http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a/flatulence-leads-to-grounding-of-plane/20061205210909990004

I totally thought I posted yesterday. Clearly I did not, oops!

We got one box packed and shipped off last night and the other will be going out this morning, I am so excited....I love Christmas.

The temperature has sure dropped this week. Last week we were at a crazy 65 degrees and this morning it is 24. I am actually glad the cold weather seems to finally be arriving. I love winter. Now if only it would freaking snow I would be even happier.

We are hoping to head out to get our Christmas tree tomorrow. We are going to cut down our tree which I have never done before. Fun times!

Alright I need to go get ready, I hope everyone has a great Wednesday:)

We didn't end up getting our tree this weekend like I had hoped, we were far too busy. One day this week though we will go get it.

Chris and I have been waiting to take our Christmas picture for our Christmas cards because we wanted to take the pic after it snowed. Well we have yet to get snow here, which is so odd. I think we have finally decided to just take a pic with or without snow because I need to get the cards done and sent out sooner rather than later.

Chris and I just have stocking stuff to get for our nephews which I plan on doing this evening and then tomorrow we will be shipping it all off to Edmonton and Seattle. I am so excited to have all of our shopping done. Usually I am scrambling at the last minute trying to get things sent off in time. I wrapped most of our gifts last night and just have a handful left to wrap today. For those of you in Edmonton and Seattle who are receiving these boxes please do not make fun of my wrapping job. We seem to always buy stuff that is hard to wrap and it ends up looking like a 10 year old did it when in fact it was me. LOL.

I think I will decorate the rest of our place for Christmas today and tomorrow and then we will just have our tree left to put up. I seriously am never this organized, I don't know what to do with myself. My mother in law Linda asked me today what I am going to do with the rest of December......LOL. I HAVE NO CLUE!

Chris and I are off to get the rest of our Christmas stuff organized so we can get everything boxed up and shipped away to its destinations. I am so excited to send our gifts off. I don't think we will have the time to get our tree this weekend like I had hoped, unless of course we go tomorrow. We shall see, I will be sure to take pictures when we do.

Have a great Saturday!

I have been meaning to buy Sarah McLachlan's Christmas CD for some time now and just never got around to it. Then today I got a surprise in the mail from my friend Becca who had burned me a copy and sent it to me. I was so excited. THANK YOU Becca, your awesome!! I have been listening to it all day and I love it.

The season premiere of Scrubs is on tonight. Chris and I are both VERY excited, it's one of our fav shows.

I think we are going to go and get our Christmas tree this weekend, we were going to go last weekend with some friends to a tree farm in Vermont but we were so busy with all our Christmas shopping and wanting to get that done we didn't get to go. So hopefully this weekend.....

Someone needs to get some crazy pills......

As most of you know, I am a dog walker. Most of my clients are in the same area so when I go out walking with them it's always around the same place and to the same parks etc. I tend to see people on a regular basis that live in the neighborhood. Most of them I talk with or say hello to as I am passing by. Most of the time when there is other dogs at the park with their owners I will chat with the owners while the dogs play or whatever. There is one lady however I avoid EVERY time and even if I just got to the park I will turn around and walk the other way because I just cannot handle her craziness.

You see the first handful of times I saw her it was at a distance and I never spoke with her. She wears this oriental style hat, big black gloves and a bandana up over her face. She has 2 dogs who I actually feel sorry for. They seem decently taken care of, but who really wants to live with a crazy lady. At first I didn't know she was crazy, at first I just thought that maybe she had a skin condition and she couldn't be exposed to the sun. Turns out it's some gothic reasoning. I also for the longest time thought she was oriental. I totally do not mean that in a racist way but generally the only time I see people wearing those style of hats it is an oriental woman.

The first encounter I ever had with her was short. There is an aids hospice next to the park where I take my dogs. There is this one guy I see at least twice a day and he always makes a point of coming to say hi to the dogs. He was standing talking with me this day when she walked by and asked me what kind of dog I had. As I started to answer her her dog went up to the guy and she said "get away from the faggot!" My jaw about hit the ground I was so shocked. How do you just say something like that to someone!? I wanted to tell her off but I was too shocked to say anything. He just laughed and said "she is always like that, shes the crazy in this neighborhood."

My next encounter with her I was lucky enough to be engaged in some fascinating conversation with her that really let me know just how crazy she was. I was at the park sitting reading my book while the dog I was walking was doing dog stuff, you know......Sniffing, rolling around in dirt etc....I had no chance at escape as one of her dogs came running right over to us and she was not far behind him. Right away she started peppering me with questions.....What kind of dog? What's his name? Is he yours? Where did you get him? Does he sleep on a mattress?????? WHAT? I made the mistake of asking her what she meant.....She proceeded to tell me that if you get a mattress ( and she meant an actual mattress that we sleep on) for your dog that they will be happier and have a better quality of life and posture etc. Uh ok......I tried to say I had to go and started to walk away but she walked with me. She told me all about her bike and where I should go to buy one, she told me about bakeries that give her free bread. I thought yeah if you walk in there with that bandana on your face they prob give it you for free cause they think you are robbing them. Anyways......Eventually our conversation turned in a direction that really let me know she wasn't all there. She invited me to go to this protest type thing downtown Boston the following day protesting psychiatrists and psychologists and how their medication was killing the people of America. Hmmmm, now that I think of it maybe she is friends with Tom Cruise. I finally was able to get away from her that day and have pretty much avoided her ever since. Other people I know have not been so lucky. Once day she told my friend Chris (whose dog Maggie I used to walk) that it was wrong of the masonry people to be working on the bricks on the buildings because they were "de-nuding them."

She is all sorts of wacked. The other day Chris and I were driving home after he had picked me up for the day and we saw her out riding her bike, hat and all. She was riding on the road going the same direction as us. As we were approaching a fairly busy intersection she cut over to the left side of the traffic as if she was going to go left. We had a green light and as we were going through she popped out of nowhere from the left, jumped off her bike and walked right in front of us. Chris had to hit his breaks or he would have hit her. He also felt the need to honk at her to let her know we were there and she needed to move. As soon as he honked she lunged towards the vehicle, at first I thought she was going to punch the windshield but instead she just got real close and yelled you !#%@ing @*$^&sucker!!! Wow, the RAGE! A few mins later as we were sitting in traffic we saw her coming our way in the rearview mirror. We both starting laughing as Chris said she reminded him of the wicked witch of the west riding her bike saying "I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!!"

So there is your story for the day, I hope you enjoyed and watch out for the crazies out there.

Oh my goodness, Chris and I hit the shops today and got almost ALL of our Christmas shopping done. I was so excited. We did really well and are even under budget. Now to get all the
wrapping paper etc and get it all boxed up and sent off to Edmonton and Seattle. Yippee!!

Chris and I had a very nice Thanksgiving. We spent the day with our friends, Becca and Travis. Amy and Troy, Troy's mom and our friend Dave. The food was yummy, the company even better. Chris and I are thankful we have friends here we can spend the holidays with when we are so far from home. We ate a lot of food, watched football and played games. Fun times!! And Becca you did an awesome job on the turkey and hosting. Thanks for having us, you guys are awesome:)

Troy, Amy and Nettie (how cute is she all posing)

Turkey for everyone
We played Balderdash which I normally do halfway decent at. Well if you notice the ORANGE game piece at the beginning and where the rest of the players are you will see how horrible I played. I think I ended up making it 4 spots or something like that. Brutal. Oh well, I guess it was better than the time we played Scrabble and I played so bad my best word of the night was FART only later to be topped when I added an S to it to make the word FARTS! lol

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there and happy Thursday to everyone else:)

Chris and I are off to some friends for a yummy turkey dinner. But before I go I thought I would share the pictures of my turkey cupcakes that I was very excited to make and very proud of:)

10 Years......

10 years is a long time. And yet 10 years can go by so fast that if you blink you miss half of it. I recently received an email survey asking about things I have done or accomplished in the past 10 years, or how I have changed in those the past 10 years. It really got me thinking about where I have been, the people I have met and the things I have done.

In the past 10 years I have been through times of joy and happiness and times of sorrow and sadness. When I think of the trials and hard times I have been through and the mistakes I have made I have never once wished I could change any of it. All of those things have helped me grow and learn. Perhaps the only regret I have is people who I have hurt or friendships that were lost during certain times. You take life for what it is, you learn, you grow and you move on and hopefully become a better person for it.

One of the great joys for me in the past 10 years was meeting and marrying my husband Chris who I met while I was living in Vancouver BC and he was living in Seattle, Washington. We have been together for almost 5 years and married for just over two. My whole life I have always wanted a dog and finally got one almost 3 years ago. She is a total brat but she is my baby and I love her to death. In the past 10 years my brother Dave and his wife Susan brought two little boys into this world. I love my nephews a lot and it makes me sad I can't be closer to them and see them more. In January 2004 my dad was remarried to a wonderful woman who I have yet to meet. But he is so happy that I don't need to meet her to know how wonderful she is.When I married Chris my family was greatly expanded as he comes from a pretty big family. I am grateful that all these people are a part of my life.

One thing that stands out to me when I think of all these things, good and bad, is that my mum was not here for any of them. 10 years ago today my mum, Margaret Floyd passed away at the far too young age of 49 years old after a short but hard fought battle against cancer. This was by far the hardest time in my life. People have asked me over the years if I think death is easier to accept and deal with when you know that it is coming. I am not sure I really know the answer to that but in some ways I think knowing makes it harder. I think people are more likely to be in denial and to always think it won't really happen, that they will be cured. I know for me there was a part of me that always thought she would get better and I think when she didn't it was that much more devastating for me. I remember the day I found out she had terminal cancer like it was yesterday. I was working at camp that summer. I remember sitting in a room with my brother and his wife and the pastors of our church at the time and my bosses from camp. They said she had a year at the most and 5 months later she was gone. Watching someone you love more than anything die from something so horrible is something I pray I will never have to go through again. It changes you. I am just so thankful that I have a faith in God that pulled me through that time in my life and made me better for it.

My mum was my best friend. She was the person I told everything too, she was the person who always made me feel better and always new the right things to say and do. She loved her family so much and I know the hardest thing for her was not leaving this world but leaving her family. She loved the Lord with all her heart and I know without a doubt in my mind she is in heaven with Him and I will one day see her again. The way she lived her life, loved her family and served God forever changed me. Knowing her made me a better person and for that I am forever grateful. I miss her and think about her often. You don't ever stop missing someone, it just gets easier over time and eventually when you think of them its with a smile and not tears. Most of the time when I think of her I smile because I have so many wonderful memories of her. But days like today I am sad because of what I lost and what she went through.

Go and tell your husbands/wives, your parents or whoever that you love them. Hug them and thank them for what they mean in your life. Don't take them for granted, not even for a second.

YUMMY

Chris and I had subs for lunch from D'Angelos. We had their Thanksgiving toasted sub. Stuffing, turkey breast, cranberry sauce, gravy. It was so good. I wasn't sure it would be, but it was and I was happy.

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EQUALS YUMMY!

Chris and I are discussing what we will do for Christmas since we will most likely be staying here in Boston. We don't want to stay in the city and thought it would be nice to get away for somewhere for a day or two. We are currently looking at different Bed and Breakfasts in Vermont. I have never been to Vermont but hear it is beautiful, especially in the winter. I like the thought of packing up our presents, Christmas goodies, our dog Annabelle of course and escaping to some quaint little lodge to spend Christmas just the three of us. Here are some pics of a few of the places we are looking into......

It hit me like a ton of bricks today how fast Christmas is approaching. Insane if you ask me, wasn't it just Christmas yesterday? The fact that Christmas is fast approaching means Chris and I need to get out butts in gear and finish all of our shopping since all of our gifts have to be shipped to Edmonton and Seattle. I love the holiday season. Last year we were in New York City in December and it was awesome. Such a great place to be that time of year. We are considering heading back this December for a few days.

Last night as I was watching a rerun of Dawsons Creek....Yes folks I said Dawsons Creek, it happens to be one of my favorite shows ever and I was devastated when it ended. Anyways back to my point, as I was watching I was suddenly hit with the fact that Katie (sorry Tom, I mean Kate) Holmes is really going to marry that wack job Tom Cruise. It made me sad. They are set to get married this Saturday. Am I the only one hoping that Katie falls and hits her head on the way down the aisle and when she comes to she realizes Tom for the wack job he is and takes off running as fast as she can. Should we all start taking bets on how long this blessed union will last?

On The View this morning Elisabeth Hasselbeck swore by this product......Sassynips

http://www.duematernity.com/sassynips.html

And no she not only used them when she was pregnant, she uses them often and swears by them. Boy these sure would have come in handy back in the day at camp in the freezing cold staff dining room, don't ya think Lori? What was it we called it? Oh yeah, the cold nipple room!!LOL

As I was doing my Tae-Bo this morning I started laughing and could not stop until there were tears rolling down my face and my tummy hurt. Why you ask? Well I would tell but you probably wouldn't it find near as funny as I did. Unless of course your names are Lori, Jenn or Ange. Do you girls remember that day at Lori's place when we tried to do that Tae Bo video? Funny, funny memory!

Happy Monday

Last week I read an article that stated the coffee chain Dunkin Donuts wanted to topple Starbucks. When I read this I laughed and laughed. For those of you who do not know of Dunkin Donuts you aren't missing out. For those of you in Canada Dunkin Donuts is like a poor mans Tim Hortons. It doesn't even come close to measuring up. Before I moved out east the only Dunkin Donuts I had ever been in was a crappy dingy run down one in Seattle. It was the kind of place that makes you want to shower after you leave. Then I moved here and they were on every corner, much like Timmy Ho's is in Canada or Starbucks anywhere. While the DD's out here are much nicer than the lone one in Seattle I still don't think they are any good. The have average coffee and average donuts. They aren't anything special. One thing that was stated in the article was the difference between the vision of each company. Dunkin Donuts promotes drinking coffee as fuel whereas Starbucks promotes it as a way of life. In that case, if DD's wants to topple Starbucks they had better start with a complete remodel of ALL of their stores to appeal to the crowd who goes to Starbucks for the atmosphere and don't care about the price. Anyways that is my rant for the day. Dunkin Donuts started out here in New England so they are everywhere and its annoying. So when I saw that article I couldn't help but laugh.

GOOD LUCK DUNKIN DONUTS....Your going to need it.

My cold seems to be lingering...I hate that.

Nothing exciting to report around here. We had a pretty uneventful weekend as always. Just did some shopping and watched some hockey and football.

This and That

While I still feel like crap I could not go another day without blogging about my joy in hearing that Britney Spears has finally woke up and filed for divorce from that poor excuse for a man. I feel for her, I don't know what made her think marrying him or having not only one but two kids with him was such a great idea. I hope he gets nothing from her. I find it humorous he is going to challenge her custody fight by fighting for custody himself. Is there a judge or court in this world that would award him custody of those kids?! I really doubt it. While I don't support the idea of divorce, in this case how could you not bend your own beliefs just a little.

It is funny how just last week I was so sad to hear about Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Philippe. I LOVE Reese Witherspoon and I really thought they were one couple that the rumors about splitting would not be true. When I read Britney had filed for divorce I was happy, does that make me a bad person? LOL.

Anywho....Enough about the celebrity world.

I cannot believe how fast December is approaching. Chris and I had originally planned to go to Edmonton for Christmas this year but since plane tickets are ridiculously expensive right now we have decided to wait till February and go then when it is cheaper. I am a little sad, but its only an extra month or so we have to wait to see everyone. We may still go to Seattle, but only if we find a super good deal on tickets, which right now is not looking so promising. Oh the joy of living so far from home.

I think this cold/flu may finally be starting to vacate my body. While I still feel like crap, I definitely feel much better than I did yesterday.

The Oilers started a 5 game road trip last night. They lost in a shootout to the Montreal Canadians. At least they got a point out of it unlike last Friday night when they were robbed of at least one point by a stupid referring "mistake." Tonight they take on the Detroit Red Wings and it might be a tough one. While I don't think the Red Wings are all that great anymore they do have some crazy talent (when they decide to show up) and the Oil will be tired from a game last night. Either way...GO OILERS!!

Out of commission

I have a nasty cold. My head feels like a soggy watermelon ready to explode. That is all.

Birthday Dinner

Last night we went to The Stockyard for supper with some friends to celebrate Chris's birthday. Our friends Troy and Amy, Travis and Becca and Tyrone were there. Our friend Georgette who belongs to Tyrone couldn't make is since she was out of town. So Ty got to fly solo for the evening. The food was very good and although the prices were a little higher, it was a fun place to go for a special occasion. We had our own little function room which was nice. Chris got the "Princess Cut" Prime Rib (fitting) and I had a Teriyaki Sirloin. Below are the boys (Chris, Troy, Travis, and Tyrone) and below that are the girls (Becca, Amy, Me). Below that is Troy gnawing on his full rack of ribs (of which he couldn't finish.) All in all it was a good dinner.

After dinner, Travis and Becca had to leave as Travis had a soccer game at 9. Amy and Troy had to be up early for a hike, so they went home as well. So it was us and Tyrone. He suggested that we go shoot some pool at a place over by Boston University called Big City Billiards. We decided that would be fun, so off we went. The place is pretty nice, and they had a ton of different beers on tap, which excited Chris. We ended up playing pool for about an hour and a half with Tyrone, which I haven't done in a while and I was rusty. But that's ok, fun was had nonetheless.

I thought I was going to get away with not posting the last few days, but Kirsten called me out on it;)

The toilet is still sitting on the street against the lightpole.

The garbage men didn't take our 6 bags of leaves, I am not impressed.

Yesterday was Chris's 29th birthday. I got him a CD (Best of Thin Lizzy), movie (Nacho Libre) and a brand new golf bag that I got for half off. Nice. 50 bucks instead of 100. I even made a cake....I know I know, I rock. We had supper at Applebees and tonight we are going to The Stockyard with some friends.

With that I must run, have a great day!

Insert caption here...... 

Chris and I were on our way home tonight after running some errands and stopping in at our friends Joy and Brians. We were driving now far from our house when we saw this toilet leaning up against a light pole. It was funny, so we took a picture.

We also stopped in at Starbucks on the way home, it was about 9:45 pm and we were sitting in there visiting with the people who worked there when this rather big lady in her 40's at least came in carrying a back pack and a mask on and was like "trick or treat" in a thick mexican accent. And the girl behind the counter was like "what, where's the kids" and the lady was like "huh? no kids, just me, no treats?" It was SO bizzare and so weird and it took all we had to hold our laughter in until after she walked out.

Happy Monday

First of all I cannot believe how many of you have not heard of the book "Bridge to Teribithia." Perhaps go here and read about it and you will remember it, maybe you just don't remember the name. Either way I will go being excited about the movie all on my own.

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I wish I had exciting stories to tell you of all our adventures this weekend, but we really didn't do much. Saturday morning we got up and went out for breakfast and did some shopping at Costco etc. I love costco, I really do, I could spend hours there. Saturday night of course was Hockey Night in Canada, we sure miss our Saturday nights with Jen and Ryan.

Sunday morning we met our friends Joy and Brian for breakfast at this little cafe. It was one of those tiny little hole in the wall places that was really crowded and the food was super good. We had a nice time and it was fun to hang out with their little guy Josh, go check him out here....How cute is he? After breakfast was church, Chris and I have been "testing" out a new church lately, we like it but we still miss our old church on some levels so we are still in a waiting and decision process. We will just go with it and know when the time is right we will know where we are supposed to be. After church was the football game where we got to watch the Seahawks lose AGAIN, tough times with key players out with injuries.

After the game we did some shopping, had some Subway and that was our weekend. Now for those of you who have not blogged about your own yet, get to it!!

Bridge to Terabithia

Who else out there is excited as I am for this movie? This was one of my favorite books when I was growing up and I cannot wait to see it.

http://movies.aol.com/movie/bridge-to-terabithia/25017/trailer

Chris and I had lunch at our favortie burrito joint, Anna's Taqueria. Anna's is by far the best burrito place I have ever been. If you are ever in Boston you must find an Anna's and see for youself, I promise you will not be dissapoitned. We even took pictures for you all to enjoy.

My favorite client

I love this guy. He is about 8 months old and is getting SO big. I started walking him when he was right around 3 months. He is the most mellow puppy I have ever met. Isn't he gorgeous though!? He is going to be a big big boy, he is a Lab, Great Dane, Boxer mix!!

I am challenging myself to blog at least once a day from now on, even if it is just a photo or something. I know how annoying it can be to continue to go to someone's blog and not see updates and I decided I don't want to be one of those people anymore:)

I was watching the Today Show this morning and they had a segment on a 23 year old woman who had a preventative double-mastectomy. 2 family members had died from breast cancer and her mum also had it. She went and got tested to see if she had the specific gene that put her in an even higher risk category and she tested positive. So 6 weeks ago she had both her breasts removed. It got me thinking and I thought I would throw it your way to see what your thoughts are on something like that. My mum had breast cancer in her early 40's and later passed away from another form of cancer. I suppose that puts me in a place where I should probably be more active about being checked etc. But I am not sure how I feel about someone having a double mastectomy "just in case" they get cancer 20 years down the road. I don't think she was wrong at all for what she did, it is her life and her decision and I assume it was something she thought long and hard about before she went through with it and I applaud her courage. Just something I thought I would throw at ya this morning to get the wheels turning in your active little brains;)

Kirsten I wanted to let ya know I am thinking about and praying for your mum today, I hope all goes well and she is as good as new asap.

Oilers game tonight, GO OIL! They continue to play well and are off to a 6-2 start on the season. Here's hoping they play well tonight.

In football news the Seahawks starting quarterback Matt Hasselbeck is out for at least 3 weeks with a knee sprain. He was hit early in the 3rd quarter on Sunday. It was a definite late hit and there should have been a penalty on the play. Of course there wasn't and the questionable reffing in the NFL continues week after week. Here is hoping the Hawks can hang in there until Matt gets back. Little tidbit for you....Matt Hasselbeck is the brother-in-law of View host Elizabeth Hasselbeck:)

Also I am looking for some new books to read, so please leave me your suggestions.

Have a great day!

Sports Weekend

Friday night Chris and I decided to go out to grab some dinner since I didn't feel like cooking. We went to Old Country Buffet since it is generally quick and cheap. As we were paying the host lady at the front she asked if we liked hockey. We told her yes and so she asked if we wanted tickets to the Boston University hockey game. Of course we said yes. I guess some lady who came in for dinner and has season tickets couldn't go to the game so she left the tickets for the lady to find someone who wanted them. Along with the two tickets was a parking pass for the underground parking under the arena. Nice!! So we ate a quick dinner and hopped in the car to try and get there before puck drop.

We ended up being about 10 mins late. When we got there BU was already down 2-0....yikes. The tickets we had said "club access" and we were like I wonder what this means. As we were walking around the arena checking things out we saw the Club area where we were allowed into since we had the fancy "club access" tickets. We had already eaten but apparently those tickets get you a big ole smorgassboard of food, beverages, snacks etc. There are a bunch of tables almost like a cafe setting and big screen TV's to watch the game while you eat and stuff. It was pretty cool.

Anyways we went to our seats after we hung out in the club area for a bit. The game was so much fun. I had never been to a college hockey game before. Actually I have never been to a college sporting event in the United States before. College sports is huge here, its crazy. Anyways behind both nets were the student sections and they were filled with people wearing red and white and chanting all sorts of things all game long. The band was also in one of the student sections, between play the band played. It was pretty cool, I guess I always thought bands were totally a football thing, I guess not. The game itself was exciting and fast paced. Some of those guys were pretty good, especially the goalies. BU was down 2-0 after the 1st but made it a one goal game in the second. They tied the game up early in the 3rd period and then took the lead in late in the 3rd to make it 3-2. Northeastern however scored 41 seconds later to tie it up 3-3. BU then scored with 56 seconds left to once again take the lead and won the game 4-3. It was a lot of fun and we are already looking at the schedule to see which games we would like to go to.

That was our Friday night, it was a fun time.

Yesterday we went our for breakfast and Costco but other than that it was a stay at home and chill kinda day. Last night of course both the Oilers and the Avalanche played so that was our evening.

Today we are off to watch the Seahawks take on the Vikings at home. GO HAWKS!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend:)

I love fall. Today was a perfect fall day. The sun was out and it wasn't too cold or hot. Just perfect.

My dog is eating like a pig lately, I don't know why. Can dogs go through growth spurts at the age of three? LOL

Chris's birthday is in 2 weeks and I need to figure out what to get him. Actually I have a pretty good idea now that think about it, but I can't very well tell you since he reads this and all.

We are dog sitting for our landlords this week, we took them to get haircuts on Tuesday, it amazes me how much smaller and younger and CUTER they look when they get all that shaggy hair shaved off, I wish they would cut it more often.

Hockey season is in full swing and I love it. Lots of yelling at the TV this time of year. Fun times!

GO OILERS!!

We're Baaaaaaack

So the reason we went to NYC was to see my very good friend Tania who is from back home in Sherwood Park but now lives in India. We go back about 10 years, she went to India about 7 years ago on a university work program and ended up meeting some street kids who changed her life. She went back a year or so later and has been there ever since. She started and runs a non-profit organization called One! International. Check out the website to read more about what she does. She was in New York City receiving an award from Childrens Hope India. We did not go to the awards banquet she was at as it was a 200 dollar a head event. We did however spend all day Monday in the city with her and her mom and we had a wonderful time.

Chris and I left here around 5:30 am Monday morning and arrived at our hotel in New Jersey around 9:30am. NYC is only about a 3 1/2 hour drive from us which is really awesome, I love being so close. We stayed in New Jersey because its WAY cheaper and then drove to the Staten Island Ferry (about 20 mins from our hotel) and took that into the city. It is definitely the way to do it because who wants to look for or pay for parking in New York City.....NOT ME! The Staten Island Ferry is free and has an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty. It takes about a half hour and it is really cool. I love watching the city get bigger and closer. The ferry docks right at the tip of lower Manhattan.

When we got off the ferry we had about an hour to kill until we met up with Tania and her mom so we putzed around lower Manhattan for a while. The weather was AMAZING. For October on the east coast it was unbelievable. It was at least in the mid 80's and the skies were clear, it was the perfect day.

We met up with Tania and her mom around 1:30 pm and immediately set out to look for somewhere to have lunch. We were happy to find a TGI Fridays not too far away and figured we could enjoy a relatively cheap lunch. We had a great time visiting and catching up. After lunch we decided to wander down to Water Street where there was a Columbus Day Festival going on. There was hundreds of vendors....Food, clothes, jewelry. Anything you can think of you could have found it there. All the food smelled so good, too bad we had already eaten. We ended up walking around and having some ice cream on the South Street Seaport. It was beautiful, on one side of us was the city, on the other was downtown Brooklyn across the water and on the other was the Brooklyn Bridge. It was awesome. We also met up with one of Tania's friends who lives in Brooklyn and is a real life British nanny. LOL. Just like Supernanny, accent and all! We headed to Starbucks for a little "break" before we headed for the subway to go up town to Rockefeller Center.

I have been on the New York Subway before but this time I really noticed how clean and somewhat nice it actually is. The subway here is way older and way crappier looking in parts. I guess one just always assumes that the NYC subway is dirty and scary and it totally isn't.

We had really wanted to go up to the top of the Empire State Building but were advised by locals that the line would be LOOOOOOOOONG and even more so considering it was a holiday. They told us that Rockefeller Center now had an observation deck appropriately called "Top of the Rock." It was a dollar more than the Empire State Building but we had no line and actually had a view of the Empire State Building as opposed to being in it. I am scared of heights and I HATE elevators so it was a little nervewracking for me getting in the elevator to go up 66 floors. The roof of the elevator was clear and the elevator shaft was all lit up with lights and stuff. I only looked up a few times but it was kinda cool to see the elevator moving up. The elevator goes up to the 66th floor but there are 4 more levels above that. So it is actually 70 floors and there is an escalator and stairs to go up the last 4. I was scared at first but once I settled in it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The view was like no other, it was unbelievable. You can see everything, The Brooklyn Bridge, Central Park, Times Square, Empire State building etc. In some ways I wish we had gone up when it was still full daylight but at the same time to see all those lights for miles and miles was amazing. It was worth way more than the 17 bucks to go up there. I am not sure how long we were actually up there for, it was quite some time though and we took a ton of pictures. New York is such a bustling city and to be that high up and see it from that view point is so peaceful.

After we headed back down to the bottom it was time for some supper so we headed to Subway. After we ate we headed to meet another friend of Tania's at a rooftop bar called 230 Fifth. When we got there the guy standing outside informed us there was a dress code and that no hats were allowed. Chris and I were both wearing hats that day so I was mortified when I had to take it off. I also had a sweater tied around my waist and the doorman looked at me and pointed to my sweater and smugly said "your going to need to do something about that." It was actually really funny (although I was mortified at the time.) He wasn't being a jerk, just doing his job. Oh well, once we got up there it didn't matter. It was amazing, it was dark except for candles on all the tables. We were on the 20th floor and outside on the roof in New York City. So as we sat drinking our NINE dollar Heinekens we chatted and enjoyed the clear beautiful sky and the amazing of view of the Empire State building directly in front of us.

After we enjoyed our drinks we headed to Penn Station to get on the subway where we went our separate ways. I was sad to say goodbye to Tania and her mom, it was so good to be able to spend the whole day with them just enjoying each others company. I sure miss Tania but I am so excited for all the amazing things that are happening over in India.

The next morning we slept in and didn't check out of our hotel until after 12pm. We headed over to IHOP for a late breakfast. After breakfast we headed back towards the city, this time to Queens to do a little more sight seeing. I am not sure if any of you watch The King of Queens and in the opening credits they are at a park with a globe behind them. Anyways we wanted to go see that and get some pictures of it. It was really cool and really big.

After that it was time to head home. On the way we decided to stop in New Haven, Connecticut to check out the Yale campus. It was so pretty, the buildings were so old and all stone. It was fun to walk around and take some pictures.

And that was that. We had a nice little 2 day adventure. I love going to NYC, it fascinates me. I highly recommend that if you haven't been that someday you go, you will not be disappointed.

Staten Island Ferry

Lady Liberty

Coming into lower Manhattan on the ferry

Brooklyn Bridge

on South Street Pier

Our AMAZING city views

Our view of the Empire State Building from the rooftop bar