Birthday Goodness!!

Today was my 27th birthday and it was a gooder! 

I got an early present from my aunts in Vancouver. They picked up a Clay Pot for me for Christmas and got me this recipe book for my Birthday. I flipped through it and am excited to try a bunch of the recipes out! There is one in the back for Maple Pecan Croissants. I have to find a gluten free croissant recipe to do it, but I think it will be worth the effort, they sound amazing!

Today started off earlier than I would have liked as I had to work, but we stopped off at Starbucks on the way and I got a treat- a Triple Caramel Macchiato. Work was good although the leaky ceiling was quite annoying. Jon stopped by to bring me lunch and brought me a surprise Americano from Transcend....so yummy! Then, about 30 minutes later Shannon also dropped in, with a Transcend cup in her hand for me...Yay for a 3 coffee pileup! 

Shannon also brought birthday goodies! An awesome t-shirt from ThinkGeek and a hand warmer. She stuck around for a bit of a visit and then went back to work.

Jon came to get me from work and had these lovely flowers sitting in the front seat. He went to Off Whyte Floral before getting me and Kristi put this pretty collection together! I love her! And him!

Since we were going to be home for dinner Sylvie made my favourite....lasagne! We were all out of gluten free lasagne noodles, so it was made with corkscrew pasta instead, but still tasted amazing! Before eating I opened up my gifts, it looks like the present fairy raided the Apple Store...I got a new laptop bag, a keyboard protector, an amp for my iPhone, and a wireless mouse and keyboard for my iMac. All of my Apples are feeling special now. The only sad thing is that my iMac is too old to have Bluetooth, so the wireless goodies wont connect. We'll bring them back tomorrow and see what other solutions they have for my strange workspace (the cords on my normal mouse and keyboard are too short for where I sit, my arms are fully extended when I am using them!)

We inhaled the lasagne before I could get a photo, but I did get the cake on record. Gluten Free Chocolate Oreo cake. So good!! We didn't have any little candles, so one big one was the way to go! Oh yeah, this is what I look like when I actually wear my glasses! 

This is what the inside looks like. It tastes as amazing as it looks!

And now, i'm curled up on the couch with my sweetie, our kitties, a bottle of wine and Dirty Dancing on TV. Life is good! 

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes today!

Cards and Crazy Weeks!!

This week flew past and despite the efforts to sit down to blog it didn't happen. I'm here now although I really should be in bed.
Monday started out with an evil cold & sore throat. A few days of sleep and lots of Veronica Mars and I am feeling better. The crazy thing is that it was the first really sore throat I have had since I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. I spent the first day trying to figure out what I ate the day before that caused the reaction. Once I woke up the second day I figured out I was just sick, not reacting. That was a bit better.....not much, but at least I knew I didn't mis-read any labels. I am back to being super careful about everything I eat.
The rest of the week passed by pretty uneventfully. Lots more snow, a few days at work and lots of relaxing. I finished Glee, sadly now I am dependant on the TV schedule for more episodes. It has reminded my why I like to watch old shows. TV on DVD means no commercials and it is ready to go whenever I am!

There were a few highlights though....

1. We booked out flights to Victoria to house hunt, job hunt and explore. I am pumped! Jonathan is pumped! We still need to figure out hotel when we are there, but that's the easy part!

2. I set up shop on the table today to make some cards. Jonathan saw what I was doing and grabbed all his models. He was building his Warhammer army, so we spent the whole day gluing, filing and creating together. 

3. I opened up an Etsy shop, check it out here! I started scrapbooking and making greeting cards a few years back and love it. In reality, I probably love it a bit too much, years worth of gathering goodies to use means a big backup of supplies and cards. I made a bunch of new ones today but the shop also has some older ones that I made multiples of. I love everything about Etsy and the fact that it is all homemade things. I have about half of my listings up, I am excited to see them fly!

I will be here more often, I promise! Thanks for reading!!!

The Holidays (only a bit late...)

2010 went out with a bang! So many things to do, so little time to sleep. I looked a my computer each night and said tomorrow I would post. So here I am, a week and a half later, with only one post up.

So....Here is the last two weeks in a highlight reel:

December 24th: Christmas Eve

After a short day at work I went home to get ready for the evening. Our family goes to church every Christmas Eve and then we all head back to Mom & Dad's place for games and way too much food! The church sermon was awesome, the message was great and lots of beautiful music. The organ always blows me away, but it is spectacular when combined with a clarinet, tuba, violin and drums! We arrived at Mom & Dad's and spent the evening eating, drinking and playing Christmas themed Charades. It turns out I am a really, really good guesser, but an awful actor! I blame it on my luck when grabbing things like Holiday Affair out of the bag. Really.... I meant to have my camera out (I am usually the family shutterbug) but it spent the evening in my purse....

December 25th: Christmas Day

We woke up early to head over to my sister's house for brunch and gifts. It was fun to see her little guy open presents and play with all his new toys. Last year he was still a bit too young to really understand. We spent a lazy morning there and then went back home for presents and late lunch with the Latours... 

We opened up our stockings and then our gifts. Tons of fun, and we were all very, very spoiled. I got the  mitts that I subtly blogged about earlier this month, along with a pair that were hand knit by my Mother in Law and a few pairs of long warm ones from my Mom. I gave Jon the ornament that I ordered from Etsy. It was a big hit! I think that is going to turn into a yearly order for the very talented painter! 

After a quick nap we went over to a friend's house for dinner. We have done Christmas dinner with my family for the last 2 years, so it was the Latours turn to have us for the feast. They moved to Edmonton from Montreal and created themselves a new family here. Dinner at Barb & Raymond's had been the tradition for the last 22 years, and now that I have been there I see why. Great food, great company and some very strong Pictionary rivals. Raymond is also celiac, so there was lots of gluten free goodies for me to snack on! I, once again, decided I need to learn french asap! I had to draw a stork, and I did a pretty good job, but they took forever to find the word in English for me. My team was shouting the answer in french, and the men weren't going to help us get the point by telling me that they were right. 

December 26th: Boxing Day

We woke up early and went over to Grandma & Grandpa's house for a drop in brunch. She made a ton of food, and we all stayed for a visit and to see who would drop in next. It was the first year in a long time we haven't had a family gift exchange on boxing day, so after the visit we went boxing day shopping! Kingsway mall was a zoo, but less crowded than I was expecting it to be. I picked up a few great jackets and some new work clothes, so overall it was a great shopping trip. I kept laughing at Jonathan, he likes shopping (in small doses) and insists to be my packhorse while we walk around. All the women in the stores were fawning over him as he carried my stuff, they kept saying how they wished their husband would do that. It inflated his ego a bit, but it was fun! We picked up season 1 of Glee, which I have seen bits of and loved. After shopping we came home and started watching it. So good!! 

December 27th: The Spa Day and Wedding Day
In November my gel nails suffered an unfortunate run in with a dresser at work and a few split off. I got impatient and filed them down so they could all grow out a bit. The longer they were filed, the more impatient I got and eventually I just pulled them all off. That was not an easy task! Those buggers really are on there! My thumb nail was the worst, the gel was not leaving. Eventually I coaxed it off, but it took half of the real nail with it. Suddenly the gels that I have had for the last 5 years weren't a possibility until it grew back in. A month and a bit later I finally could get a new set put on. I was at the salon at 10am to get them attached, they are so pretty! Purple and sparkly with pretty blue and white designs painted on my ring fingers. While I was there I got a pedicure and then headed home. I had just enough time to eat lunch and then it was time to head to Southgate

Jonathan and I were, against better judgement, in matching outfits. I usually am very adamant about not matching, but his Mom always tells me the photos will be better. I may have to start listening to her, all the shots of us together are cute. We both rocked the black and red outfits!

December 28th: The Hangover Day
Lots of Glee and couch time. In fact, the rest of the Glee season 1 and cuddling on the couch. That is all. Such a good day!

December 29th: Saying goodbye to Rocket
We spent a lazy day at home and spent some time cuddling Rocket before bringing him to the vet. He was very loved and is very missed. Our poodle is still running around the house looking for him, and our cats still pause when coming up the stairs to see where he is. We spent the evening talking about him, and I got to hear a bunch of stories about him as a puppy. One great one about when the Latours took a road trip across Canada and had him with them. He really, really liked the fish nets in the Maritimes, much to the dismay of his car mates!

After dinner I introduced Jon to Gilmore Girls. He has seen snippets of the episodes over the years of girls nights and couch days that we watched the discs over and over again. I figured it was absorbing enough to distract him a little bit, and that it would help explain some of the quotes Shannon and I use. He says it's a chick show, but is still willing to watch the seasons with me.

December 30th: Work Work Work
After a quick stop at Transcend coffee I went in to work for the day. It was insane! The boxing week shoppers were out in full force and we were crazy busy. The day flew by and we had a blast! Jonathan spent the day at home doing errands for his Mom, who was busy preparing for her annual New Years Bash. Four Gilmore Girls episodes after work and then bedtime for us.

December 31st: Work and Party
Thursday was nuts at the store, so I was fully prepared to run around like crazy on Friday. Apparently all the shoppers were at home getting ready for parties. The store was so slow! Fortunately my Dad came in and we got a bunch of the tedious accounting stuff done. We went home as soon as the warehouse guys came back from delivery and got to work helping with the party.
Sylvie does a theme party each year, and this year's gala was Glitter and Glitz. She spent the morning covering the house with silver organza and white twinkle lights. I got there and helped out with food preparation and more setup. Soon it was time to get ready for the party. The only catch after all that setup? We weren't staying at our house. So, while everyone came here we went to our friend's place which is just down the street. We have a very friendly block, and while the parents all went to the lovingly named Geezer party, us members of the younger generation also all got together. Tons of food, jello shots and board games filled our evening. We did the countdown, the kisses and the hugs and then ran over to crash the other party for more hugs and wishes. Such fun!

January 1st: Yay! Today! Couch Day!
Wow, you stuck through this post all the way to today! Look at you go! Thanks for reading! Today was another relax on the couch day. We watched a bunch more Gilmore Girls and Karate Kid (apparently we were lacking in the testosterone friendly viewing)  Breakfast, lunch and dinner all consisted of New Years platter leftovers. I capped off the evening with a bath in one of my Lush Christmas present goodies. For those of you that don't know me, I am totally addicted to Lush. I love pretty much everything they make, and this beautiful gift box was under the tree for me this year! All of their limited edition Christmas goodies in one big pretty box. I used the bubble bar that looks like Santa Clause tonight. Yay!

Now that I am done this mammoth post it is time for me to go to bed! I promise tomorrow won't be so long winded!!! I hope you all had great Christmases and fun New Years Eves! I am so excited to see what 2011 is going to bring!!

Goodnight!

Uneventful yet busy days

I'm sorry about the lack of blog yesterday. I sat here in front of the computer for about 20 minutes and just couldn't think of the words. I had a busy day and apparently my brain was done for the night.
Yesterday was spent at work and nothing eventful happened. The warehouse and I managed to stay in our own corners, so no more battles. We were just busy enough to stay occupied but dead enough to take our normal breaks and for my Mom (the boss) to leave early. As soon as I told the warehouse guy to shut down the lights I had 2 couples come through the door and so we got out of there later than normal. Thankfully they both bought things, so my extra 15 minutes there was worth it.
Jon picked me up from work and we went to Accent European Lounge for the interVivos Holiday Mixer. It was a great event with two speakers running a debate regarding Municipal taxes. Surprisingly, the person advocating higher taxes, Scott McKeen, won the debate. He is the former Edmonton Journal's civic affairs columnist and was a candidate for ward 7 in the last election. Here is his website if you want to read about his ideals and policies. His challenger, Scott Hennig is the Alberta Director and National Communications Manager for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He had good points but he was unable to counter McKeen's harder questions. It made for a really interesting topic and people had some great questions after. We ducked out early because we are too polite to make the hors d'oeuvres our dinner. We chatted with a few people, and then ran to Chili's for dinner. Once again, I was excited to discover that they have a special gluten free menu. I was diagnosed celiac 3 years ago, and at that time most waitstaff looked at you like you were crazy when you asked if the sauce was gluten free. Now they cheerfully grab me a special menu and laugh about how excited I get. Once our tummies were full we headed home for the night. I framed some of our wedding photos that we finally got printed, then bedtime!
Today was supposed to be errand day so tomorrow could be relax day. It turned into another work day when our full time guy called in sick. He called my Mom on her cell phone when she was at the store and her purse was put away. My phone = always in my pocket or on the desk next to me. My Mom's phone = the last number that any of us call to get in touch with her. I got the phone call at 9:50 that he didn't show and got there at 11 to cover the day. We were fairly busy all day, lots of Grandparents coming in to grab little things for Christmas stockings. We also spent a ton of time figuring out our Boxing Week specials and getting the tags made and hung. We are closed on Wednesdays, open 8 hours on Thursday and then have a short day on Friday and then we are closed until Monday (which has short hours for my cousin's wedding) Getting the tags up today saved me a ton of headache on Friday!
Jon did a bunch of my running around for me, so after work we were able to head to the mall, completely finish the shopping and head home. I have a ton of wrapping to do, it will happen tomorrow as I think my brain is tapped for tonight.
See, busy, but pretty boring. What had your week been like?

Question: November 21, 2010

Today's Question: If, for your next birthday, someone offered to make you the ultimate dessert of your choice, what great concoction would you request? Be deliciously specific!

I would request Smores Cupcakes. Anything with chocolate and marshmallows excites me, and since being diagnosed with Celiac Disease I have been missing cupcakes and graham crackers. Summer campfires just haven't been the same these last few years! This really seems like the best of all the things I can't eat....i've got to get my hands on the recipe and alter it...yum!