Anna in action

One of Anna's favorite things is her straw, and her favorite thing to do with the straw is play fetch. Seriously. Stephan taught it to her. He throws it, she chases it, brings it back to him and drops it in his lap and then waits for him to throw it again.

She's now developed such a love for this game that she does it with her other toys. This weekend Anna and Stephan took the game a step further, and he started playing fetch with her toy mouse by throwing it down the stairs for her to chase and return to him.

Here are some shots of her in action:

weekend recap

Friday we did a little shopping. We started Christmas shopping for Stephan's family in Germany, as they have to be in the mail pretty soon. We also stopped for Stephan to pick up some things for work, to keep him warm while he works way up north.

Saturday we slept in, and had a pancake breakfast. As per normal! :) We didn't do too much, just lazed around until it was time for me to go to my hair appointment. I just got it trimmed, but I had them do an up-do for me, since I'm absolutely useless with my hair. After I got back we headed off to the hotel to check in and get ready for Stephan's work party. The party was great. A little less formal last year, and less people were there. It was also our choice for seating, whereas last year it was pre-arranged (last year someone took our seats and we were left without a spot, so we ended up sitting at the table with the president of the company....extremely nerve-wracking!!) This year was also better because I actually knew some people! Last year's Christmas dinner was my first time meeting ANYONE from Stephan's work. Sadly, I don't have a lot of photos. I just didn't end up taking a lot...just wasn't one of those nights.

Ok, this is not the most flattering pic of me, but like I said I don't have that many.

Sunday was super lazy! We checked out of the hotel and grabbed some food on the way home. When we got home we were both still tired so we had a short nap. I did some cleaning later in the afternoon, and then we sat on the couch all night. I was too lazy to cook, and we were too lazy to get up and get some food so we ordered in Swiss Chalet. Yummy! It was also probably a good thing we stayed inside. The entire day we had super high winds, reaching up to 130km here in Calgary. It did quite a lot of damage around the city, and a lot of debris was flying around. Just so you know, those winds are a equivalent to a category 1 hurricane...which is bad for landlocked Calgary that doesn't get those kind of winds! They caused several transport trucks to fall over on the highway, road signs got ripped up, some roofs were even ripped apart! There were a couple shingles laying around our complex, so we'll have to see from the builders if there is any damage to our unit. Fingers crossed that everything is ok!

How was your weekend?

Happy Friday!!

Good morning everyone! It's Friday!!! (Us Canadians still had to work today, haha :P)

I'm pretty excited about this weekend. Tomorrow we have Stephan's work dinner and party, and I get to dress up all pretty :)

I would like to wish all my American friends a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! Hope you have a great time with family and friends, and that your holiday is as happy as you wished :)

Sometimes and Always #2

I'm going to follow Megan's lead from her blog she posted yesterday! I really liked this idea, so here goes!

Sometimes: I do the laundry instead of Stephan

Always: I never fold the laundry. I'm horrible at it, and don't have the patience. Stephan can fold it like they do in the army, so I leave that job for him. ALWAYS.



Sometimes: I think about exercising

Always: I don't like the thought of leaving my house earlier, or getting home later. My day is already long enough, and on top of work I'm doing a course. So the thought of exercise dies pretty quick. haha! Maybe one day....



Sometimes: I wish I looked and dressed more like other people...like my gorgeous-naturally-skinny-eat-as-much-as-she-wants-sister.

Always: But than I realize that's just not me. And being me is pretty good :)



Sometimes: I miss living in Ontario.

Always: I remember the reasons why we left, and the great life we've built out here that has allowed Stephan to stay. And that there were things that I disliked about Ontario as well.



Sometimes: I get mad at Anna because I am unable to keep plants (real or fake), or any decorations out around the house. This greatly limits my Christmas decorating.

Always: On lonely nights when Stephan is away for work, I'd rather have her than a fake plant. And nothing beats coming home and finding her waiting for me by the door, already purring before I pick her up to smother her in hugs and kisses. And the cuddles!! She sleeps in my arms at night :)

Weekend recap

Friday after work I met up with a friend from church. We had agreed to meet at Michael's craft store to buy some silk flowers to decorate the church with for Christmas. We had a great time, and then she invited me back for dinner with her and her hubby, and their adorable baby daughter. We had a great time, and I stayed quite late chatting with them.

Saturday I got to sleep in. I ran a few errands like running to the bottle depot, and dropping of a pair of heels and boots to be repaired. Then I headed off to Chestermere for a youth Choir practice. I'm helping my cousin Rachel get the youth ready for their concert next weekend (I'm not playing for it though, as I have Stephan's work Christmas party the same night). The evening was quiet, I spent it watching Christmas movies :)

Sunday I was in Chestermere again, I had to play for service at my old congregation as they were short an organist. I had a nap after church, and than spent the afternoon getting some chores and laundry night. The evening was spent getting some planning done for work this week.

How was your weekend?

computer help

I just got a new camera as an early Christmas present from Stephan. It was on sale, so we went and got it.

HOWEVER...it will not upload any pictures to blogger taken by this camera. I checked. My old pics will load, just not the ones I took with my new camera.

I checked, there's no pop-up blocking anything. I also checked what type of image it is...and both my old pics and the new pics are jpegs. So there should be no problem.

Blogger is just refusing to load these pictures from my camrea. I've tried uploading them directly from the camera, as well as from the folder on my computer.

I am clueless now as to what is wrong. This goes beyond my knowledge. And I am so so frustrated.

oh oh

(First of all, I wanted to post this last Thursday on the 17th, but I was having troubles uploading the pics from my new camera. And then I was just busy this weekend. But thanks to everyone for helping me to figure it out! Turns out the pics were too big to upload, so I had to resize them. I'll have to fiddle around with the settings on my camera. They did however upload fine to facebook.)

I have been wanting to put up Christmas decorations. But I've been having trouble trying to find a way that works with Anna. You see, she has figured out how to jump up on the counter and dresser now. She also has a love of plants - both fake and silk. And any decorations. I can't have any in the house now because she attacks them with such zeal that not even the water bottle deters her. She is quite determined.

So I thought and thought...and finally had come up with a solution. I could put a Christmas village up on top of the upper cabinets in my kitchen, out of Anna's reach. Or so I thought. I heard a noise on the kitchen counter, and I looked up from my computer to discover this.....

Discovering the top of the fridge

What's up here?

Guess my hiding spot for my plant isn't safe anymore

Look at me Mom!!

Way up high on the cupboards ... there goes the only spot I had left for my Christmas village

Having fun way up high

Trying to get down. This took a few tries, and a lot of complaining for Mom to help. She didn't get down from the fridge the first time. Instead she went to corner of the cabinets and dangled over with her back legs as far as she could, slid down the face of the cupboards until she got to the end of them and could jump down onto the counter. The 2nd time she made the jump from the fridge down the floor.

Needless to say, she goes up there all the time now. She loves being up high and being able to watch everything.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

It's Wednesday! I'm linking up with Jamie for What I'm Loving Wednesday.


I'm loving starting off my day with a super-sweet text message from Stephan (he's away for work this week)

I'm loving my boyfriend, Stephan :) I'm thankful every day for him

I'm loving my adorable kitten Anna, who cuddled in my arms all night.

I'm loving getting ready for Christmas....a.k.a the Christmas goodies I bought :)

weekend recap - Remembrance day long weekend

I had Friday off, WOOHOO!! And after last weekend of being sick and still having to do a first aid course, I needed it.

Friday I slept in, of course. It was gloriously wonderful. Stephan and I had our usual pancake breakfast. We lazed around the house until we decided go buy a new laundry rack, we needed one that was more sturdy than our current one. We grabbed a quick snack, and by that time it was time to go to our reservations. A while back our boss had taken us out to Jubilations Dinner Theater, and I had won tickets at the end of the night to the opening night of their next show, which was on Friday. Friday's show was "Buddy Holly and Friends: The Last Concert", which if anyone knows me they know how much I love music from the 50's and 60's. The show was awesome, Stephan loved it too.


If you haven't been to Jubilations before, the basic premise is that you are watching a musical production while having dinner. There are breaks between the act, during which the characters FROM the musical take your orders and serve you, while staying in character the whole time. They also incorporate the audience in to the act, and put a lot of comedy into it. Its hilarious, and the singing is great. They do a fantastic job. This show runs until the beginning of February, so go out and see it! It's well worth the money :)

Saturday we slept in, as we had got back quite late from the show. After we got out of bed, we decided to check out a few stores. The first was a retro shop, the couple beside us on Friday told us about it. I've been loving retro dresses lately, not rockabilly but more like the cute 50's/60's dresses (like what you see on PanAm). I've been eying several from modcloth.com, but not liking the price. This store, Blame Betty, was supposed to be more reasonably priced. It was also supposed to have the style of t-shirts Stephan likes. Sadly it failed on both ends. It had no men's shirts whatsoever, we were told those pics on the facebook page were several years old and they no longer carried them. And the dresses were to-die-for-cute, and I fell in love several times...but they ranged from $115-$200. Not quite the price range I was hoping for :(

Next we headed out to a German bakery we found online, most of the goodies were already gone so we'll have to go earlier next time. After that we headed to the farmer's market to get some more honey. After much debate, and help from another customer who had tried all the kinds, we decided to try the blackberry honey. Its the most delicious honey I've ever had!
s.

The rest of Saturday was quiet, laundry and some chores.
Sunday was quiet as well, I had church in the morning and the rest of the day was spent relaxing.

It was a great weekend. :)

How was your weekend?

Happy Thursday!

It's Thursday! And it's a long weekend, no work tomorrow. So that means, by the end of today I will be done work for today and I will get to relax! YAY! I am sooooo looking forward to it. Because I didn't get relaxing time last weekend, busy with my first aid course.

Tomorrow is remembrance day. In Alberta it's a holiday. Not in Ontario though.

I need the rest.

weekend recap

I spent another weekend sick. Or should I say I was more sick.

On Thursday at work, my throat started to hurt and I started to lose my voice. By the end of the day it was almost gone. Stephan, from way up north at work, made me promise to stop by Shopper's Drugmart and specifically speak with the pharmacist to ask for a better cough medicine he could recommend me. So I did just that, and he picked out a super strong cough medicine (that is oh so delicious....sweet, and orange tasting!), and then informed me that laryngitis was going around and that I should go check. He told me where my nearest walk-in clinic was, so off I went. Magically the walk-in clinic had no lineup, I didn't even sit in the waiting room. I went right into the doctor's office. As the pharmacist suspected, it was a throat infection....laryngitis. I was given a prescription for penicillin, 4 times a day.


I took Friday off of work, and by then I couldn't speak at all. It was horrible, I felt like a truck had run over me. I spent most of the day sleeping.

Sadly, I didn't get the full weekend off. I had to do a first aid course all day Saturday/Sunday. But by Saturday I was already feeling much better, and was able to talk a little. My energy was also very good.

Today, I had to drop Anna off at the vets, she got fixed. Yup, she's 6 months old now :) I picked her up after work, she was not a happy little lady. Quite grumpy. And groggy. She wobbles when she walks, and she's sniffing at her food but not eating yet. But she's purring, she's very happy to be home. Still, she made me feel pretty bad when I picked her up.

She's on medication for 3 days, to stop any inflammation. Also, she developed a small ulcer on her eye after the surgery. The vet said it was normal, and very minor, just on the surface. She told me it's nothing to worry about, and gave me some drops to give her for the next week.

Groggy and a little unsteady

random rants

I'm following Leigh's lead yesterday and ranting, because I'm still sick after 1 week and am now losing my voice (and I work with pre-school kids, great!), so I'm grumpy...soooooo things that irk me!

• people who don't know the difference between they're/their/there and your/you're. It's very simple, really people its not that hard.
• Alberta drivers (no offence, and I know not all are bad drivers!)...I thought drivers in Ontario were bad, but than I moved here. My grandma drives better....this is going to be a sub-category, and some are the same as Leigh's.
  -they don't let you merge. They sit in right hand lane when people need to merge, and they don't speed up or slow down...oblivious that there are people merging! In Ontario, we leave the right hand lane when people are trying to merge.
  -left hand lane highway drivers: In Ontario, this is a passing lane. Meaning you do not pull into this lane and drive 20km under the speed limit, nor are transport trucks allowed to drive in this lane
  -slow highway drivers in general. They are in abundance. So much so that often there are 3 of them driving abreast all 3 lanes going under the speed limit and no one can pass.
  -drivers who pull in front of you, although there is no one behind them, going way slower than you were causing you to have to slam on your breaks so you don't rear-end them.
  -drivers who don't turn on their lights...when its dark, when its foggy, when its raining, when its dusk, etc.
  
  (I am aware people do this in Ontario too, it just seems to happen more often here)
  
  
• guys who walk around with pants hanging down to their knees, boxers showing. Seriously, why?! This does not look good. Really, it doesn't.
• People who litter and can't walk the few extra steps to a garbage can
• People who park in handicap spaces....I've been with a family member who needs handicap parking and has been unable to find a spot before.
• Pedestrians. I know they have right of way, but that does not give them the right to walk in the middle of the road in a parking lot, oblivious to the car following slowly behind who can't get past them. Move to the side at least. Also, look before you walk out onto the road
• People who are out to dinner, and sit texting to other people and ignore the person they are with. Its just rude.
  

What are some of your pet peeves?

Weekend recap

I know this is a day late, but my cold is not 100% gone and it came back full force yesterday. After work, I went straight home to bed and only got up for some soup before going back to bed.

Hence why this post is late. But better late than never!

This weekend was not exciting. I was sick. That tells you a lot. Stephan took real good care of me all weekend. Its nice to have someone when you are sick :)

Friday was quiet, I didn't stay up too late. Stephan made sure I had soup, and warm milk with honey and than practically force-fed me cough medicine (I have an aversion to it in that I DON'T LIKE IT. It makes me gag. Especially when its Buckley's, or it tastes like black licorice).

Saturday was more of the same. I slept in, was feeling better enough to make and eat some pancakes. I had energy back. But when I was grocery shopping, I didn't feel so good. It was so hot in there that I felt very faint, and the lights made me feel dizzy. Stephan said I was very pale, and bought me a pop to get some sugar into me. I was so glad once we were out of there.

I did have a choir practice that day, out in Chesteremere, so Stephan drove me and waited for me. Which was very sweet of him.

Sunday I stayed home from church, just to give my body extra rest. I was feeling much better.

But than yesterday, it just hit me again. We had a field trip with the preschool outdoors in cold weather to a pumpkin patch where the kids picked and decorated the pumpkins, and ran around the petting-zoo. By the time I got back around lunch I was exhausted and fighting a killer headache, and my throat was very sore. So add another 5 hours onto that, and by the end of the day I felt like a truck had run me over.

Today I'm feeling much better, though still not 100%. I'm hoping that this cold will be gone soon, because I'm sick of being sick!

How was your weekend? I hope it was much better than mine!