weekend recap

I know this is a bit late, but I was busy with some paper work last night and just didn't get around to blogging.

Friday night was quiet, as usual. We just hung around and watched TV.

Saturday I slept in for just a little bit, and than got ready to go to a church congregation event. Some friends from church were celebrating their daughter's first birthday, and she is oh so adorable! I meant to bring my camera, but I forgot it at home :( so I have no pictures! But it was so adorable watching her eat her cake (she was very unsure about it at first!) and open presents - she had to inspect and read each card, piece of clothing, and boxed toy! And she had a blast ripping the tissue paper out of the bags and throwing it on the floor.

It should also be noted that I should not be allowed to buy baby clothes along....I really had to control myself not to buy every cute, adorable dress or outfit I saw. It was so hard to choose!!

After the birthday, I headed out to do some grocery shopping since Stephan had sweet-talked me into making the long-ordeal of stuffed peppers, so that he could eat left overs for Sunday. Nice me, I agreed to it.

Sunday was quiet, I had church in the morning and than a nice, long, lazy nap after. I did a little house cleaning, and then we heated up some leftovers while we watched The Oscars (which we both thought was a little boring this year, and not that exciting).

How was your weekend?

It's Friday!

YAY! I made it, you made it! It's the weekend!

Wishing you all a wonderful and safe weekend with your loved ones! Happy Friday everyone!

This is why I have Stephan...

It's amazing how a phone call with the man you love can fix everything!  After venting and complaining on the phone to Stephan, I feel a lot better.  My confidence and ego is a little less bruised, and I'm feeling less doubtful about my capabilities.  I know this happens with everyone throughout their career.  But I feel a lot better about getting through it knowing I have a man who loves me, supports me, and believes in me by my side.

When it comes down to that, what else matters?  That's what's really important.  As long as I have that, nothing else matters :)

Sorry for the emotional post before!  Sometimes, a girl just needs to vent a little and get it out of her system.

Plagued by doubts

Do you ever have one of those days where you wonder if you've made the right choices in life?  If  you really should be doing what you are doing?  I am having one of those days.  I love kids, I love music.  I love doing both and combining them.  I'm good at both.  I'm human, I have my days where its more trying. Working with 30+ kids is not always the easiest job, but I try hard to always do my best and I really enjoy my work.  Its the other part I'm not good at.  Politics, irate parents, sticky situations.  I'm good with kids.  I'm not always good with adults.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a very social person and I like to be around people.  Its just sometimes I'm not always...eloquent in talking to people, sometimes I'm awkward.  I try not to be, but often it just ends up making it worse.  Sometimes I think I expressed or explained something well, and it turns out I didn't.  I'm working at becoming better at this, but sometimes its more difficult. 

Days like today make me wonder as much as I love music and teaching, if I can handle this aspect of the job for the rest of my career.  Right now, I don't think I can. Days like today crush my ego and my confidence.  It makes me wish I wasn't as sensitive as I am, that I had a thicker skin.  Days like today make me regret being talked out of working with animals in order to go into a career of music and teaching.  Don't get me wrong, I loved my time at university as a music student.  Its what came after that hasn't been as fun.  You see...animals don't judge you.  They aren't as complicated as people.  I can be myself around animals, and will always be understood.  You know, that 100% unconditional love. There are less "sticky and awkward" situations.

I think a lot about a career change sometimes.  But here in Canada, its so hard to switch careers without going back to school again, something I don't want to do. Here in Canada, you study and become SO SPECIALIZED in your field that it makes you unqualified for everything else.  You need a degree or diploma specific to what you want to do, in order to work in that field.  Right now, the only thing I could change career wise without going back to school would be to work a minimum wage job or work as a waitress. 

As much as I love what I do, I don't know if I can handle the politics of my field for the rest of my career.  I'm plagued by doubts, and I feel as if I'm stuck at a dead end.  There's also the thought that if I switch careers, I feel like I wasted my university education.  The guilty feeling of all that money spent and than not using it professionally....

At least, its a short work week and there are only two more days left until the weekend.  And on the positive side, Stephan comes home from work tomorrow.  At least I know with him, that I have that unconditional love despite my flaws, and support in whatever decision I make.

weekend recap

No, I am not writing this late! It was a long weekend here in Canada for us :) YAY!  Stephan and I both had the day off of work yesterday :)

(P.S the boys got home safe on valentines day, but they didn't get home until 11pm!  However, they arrived safe and sound, so that's all that matters :) Sorry I didn't update on that!  It was just really busy after they got back, and than I got into our long weekend and got lazy with the blog.....its a bad habit of mine!

Friday was quiet, we sat around watching TV.

Saturday we slept in and had our usual pancake breakfast.  We ran a few errands which included a stop at Willow Park Liquor store (a HUGE store here in Calgary that has almost anything you want that you can't find at other stores) to grab some Rum cream for me (think Baile ey's but made with RUM! YUMMY!) and a birthday gift for Stephan's friend.  We grabbed some groceries and picked up a baby-shower gift for a friend, Vanessa's, baby shower.  Stephan headed out down-town with his buddies for the evening, and I rented the newest Twilight movie on TV and relaxed with a glass of wine.

Sunday was church, followed by Vanessa's baby shower.  I have to say, that little girl is going to be loved and spoiled! After I got home from the baby shower, Stephan and I decided to catch a movie at the theater (this is becoming more common since we can no longer rent movies from Blockbuster now that they have closed forever *sad face*).   We caught the late show for "Safe House", and we both really enjoyed the movie :)

Monday we slept in again.  Once we finally decided to stop being lazy we headed over to Walmart and bought a book shelf we had been eying.  The plan is to buy 2 of these bookshelves to put on either side of the matching TV-unit.  Currently we have bought just the 1 bookshelf, which does not match our current bookshelf and TV unit.  So we put it up in the office.  Once Stephan got it built, I got to work on organizing.  I was able to unpack of all the boxes in the office, as well as 6 boxes of books in the basement.  The only boxes remaining are box each for my piano and oboe music, as well as the box containing all the tools for my reeds for my oboe.  It feels so much better to have all the boxes unpacked, and no clutter.  I can see the floor! And it actually looks like a room now.  What didn't really go on the bookshelf is in a bag in the office, until I can get a desk and/or other storage to put them away.  Satisfied with our productiveness, we grabbed some pizza for dinner, watched a movie and than watched our Monday night shows (while I got some paper-work done for work).

How was your weekend?

My Valentines Day:

Was supposed to be Stephan coming home, with a fellow crew member (who had to drive an additional 3 hours home from Calgary, but would be staying with us 2 nights due to some errands he had to run here in Calgary) to me making them a delicious dinner.

Currently:  dinner is on the stove, almost done.  And the 24 foot crane truck Stephan and his crew were driving broke down in the middle of a major highway about an hour north of Calgary, and they are stranded and waiting for a tow-truck.   (Is there even a tow-truck BIG enough to tow a 24-foot crane truck??).  And we had a big snow storm today, so the roads are not the greatest. Who knows what time he will be back.  Who knows if he'll even make it back tonight.

I'm REALLY worried, for Stephan AND his crew.  I hope they are all safe.  I hope they get home safe.  And I hope they get home as soon as possible.

.....what do I do with the dinner on the stove?!!

weekend recap

Well, my weekend was quiet, Stephan was away. Friday night I spent in by myself, just watching some TV, resting and eating pizza. I stayed up a bit too late watching movies (oops!), and so I slept in quite late on Saturday. YAY for Saturdays!

I lazed around the house, had a late breakfast and did some cleaning. Then I headed out the door and did a little shopping, there was a sale at Ricki's and I picked up a few tops :) I also grabbed some bedsheets from Ikea for the guest bedroom. I came home, did some laundry and lazed around in front of the TV again. I washed the new bedsheets and went to put them on the bed, and discovered there was a huge rip in the seam of one of the pillowcases! :(

Sunday was church, and then after church I went with a friend back to Ikea to return the bedsheets, grabbed some lunch and then went to the mall because I wanted to grab a new pair of jeans from American Eagle. I grabbed a different set of bedsheets from Walmart, and headed home to wash them and put them on the bed.

How was your weekend?

Stephan comes home tomorrow! And it means I get to cook for company too, as one of his friends on his crew is from Medicine Hat (3 hours from Calgary) and has errands to do in Calgary on Wednesday. So it doesn't make any sense for him to drive home 3 hours, only to drive back 3 hours to Calgary the next day, so he'll be staying the night with us. Any excuse for me to cook for people, and I'm happy!

ok girlie

ok Adele, I LOVE YOU.......but............chewing gum at the Grammies?? REALLY?!! Not very classy, IMO. This is a big, very formal and fancy event and you are sitting there, getting up for your acceptance speech and smacking your gum?!!!

Just my thought.

Random Saturday night thoughts

• Sometimes I don't mind if things get messy, because it means I can sit there and re-organize and re-categorize to my hearts content
  
• I want to be a house-wife, from the 50's and 60's....just so I can wear those gorgeous dresses and shoes!  Plus, I know all the music (I grew up on oldies, and have more oldies cd's than anything else), I love the cars, and I collect the classic movies.  Huge fan!  I was totally born in the wrong decade :(  If I had lived in the 50's, I most likely would have learned to Jive.  Oh how I wish I could Jive!!!
  
• I'm borderline obsessed with Lady Antebellum right now...I have their newest CD, and I listen to it almost every day.  I'm so obsessed that Stephan lets me know when they have specials or concerts on TV so I can watch them.  They are coming to Calgary in March, but the tickets are quite pricey.  I keep hearing all these people who are coming for the Calgary Stampede's centennial celebration this year, and I'm hoping that Lady A will also be one of those acts so that maybe I might have another chance of seeing them....and maybe less expensive!
  
• Today, I navigated Glenmore trail in Calgary by myself, without fear, without a GPS, without getting lost or going the wrong way on Glenmore trail.  Glenmore trail always has a lot of accidents, and the ramps on and off are HORRIBLE (I swear, they are the worst ramps in the world!), and so I generally just avoid it.  Plus, I don't know that road well, which is another reason for avoiding it.
  
• I hate driving downtown! Sometimes, it goes ok, IF I've been to the place a few times and I know where I'm going.  But if its someplace NEW....oh boy!! My GPS fails downtown, loses reception all the time and all I hear is "re-calculating", "re-calculating" and then its saying I'm driving down a street I'm not actually on.  And then I drive around in endless circles, usually because construction closes roads.  And oh, the one way streets! Combine construction, and one way streets, and sometimes its IMPOSSIBLE to get where you need to go. So then I get frustrated and l leave to go home...or try to.  If I'm really upset, sometimes I get flustered and then get lost trying to GET OUT of downtown.  I know, its sad.
  
• Anna eats:  the soft part of pizza dough (cooked), ham, apple crumble cake, the apple crumble cake dough batter, ranch dip, eggs, and Maultaschen - a german soup (she eats all 3 parts: the ground meat/spinach filling, the cooked egg dough, and the soup broth).  Weird?
  
  

Question to my readers?

So we are decorating the guest bedroom and getting it ready for some guests coming from Germany this spring and summer. We've already started with a few simple things like the duvet cover, and the TV unit. But there's much more to be done.

I have a before picture ready to post, but before I do I thought I would ask you guys how I should do my posts on the decorating?

Option A: I just do one post at the end, showing the before and after; the complete final project done.

Option B: step-by-step, where I do posts with each step in the decorating process.

What would you prefer to see? Let me know!

(P.S I'm am RIDICULOUSLY excited to be decorating!)

weekend recap

cFriday night after work we grabbed some Wendy's to eat, and then headed out to see "The Grey" (starring Liam Neeson) in theatres. I have to say, it was good but it definitely made me jump a few times!

Saturday we slept in a bit, and did some light cleaning around the house and some laundry. We grabbed a few groceries, and lazed around for the afternoon. We had plans to go to The Keg for dinner that night, in celebration of our Anniversary this coming Thursday - 3 years!! (Stephan will be out of town for the actual day), however we couldn't make reservations, and it was an hour wait to get in. So we went to Boston Pizza instead. Stephan promised that when he gets back from this shift, we'll go to The Keg on a weeknight when it's less busy and when we are allowed to make a reservation. After dinner we cuddled up on the couch and watched a movie, where I promptly fell asleep (I was REALLY tired all day, even after a nap. I was so tired I could barely eat at dinner! weird??).

Sunday I had church in the afternoon, and then I did a little shopping after. Stephan liked my plans and budgeting for the guest bedroom (except for the fact that he really doesn't want to paint, so that subject is still up in the air), so I grabbed a few things. We had agreed to put off getting a new frame and headboard for the bed, so instead I grabbed a bedskirt to hide the old medal frame we currently have. I also grabbed the duvet cover, and a few decorations for the bedroom. Photos to come!

We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I did a little baking (I baked the german apple crumble cake again, I had to use up some eggs and the apples), and then I made us dinner - Maultaschen, a German soup and a family favourite. Of course, Stephan watched the Superbowl in the background. I spent a few hours after dinner getting some things ready for my lessons at work this week, and then relaxed in front of the TV for a bit before bed.

How was your weekend?

Who, me?!

• Who hauled a heavy box with a TV unit from the car to inside, and up the stairs to the guest bedroom, because she was too impatient to wait for her boyfriend to bring it in for her? ME

• Who opened the box and started to put the TV unit together? ME.

• Who thought I was going to injure myself? Stephan.

• Who put it together by herself, no mistakes, and no damage to herself or the TV unit? ME.

• Who then rearranged the bedroom furniture herself to fit the TV unit in its proper spot? ME.

• Who was impressed and proud over their girlfriend's handiness? Stephan.

• Who's a little over-excited about decorating the guest-bedroom? ME!!!!!!!!!!!
  (can you tell??)