Tired

I had 2 things - TWO things - on my to-do list today and I failed them both. Mind you, they were huge things but still. I had ALL my laundry from the past two weeks to do and I had to help Cass get her wedding invitations designed, built and sent out. I slept in until 10:00 (this could be why I failed), walked the dog, grabbed my laundry and was at Cass's by 12:00. I got a late start on the laundry and had a heck of a time using Word to design just the wording and map for the invitation. By American Idol time I had just finished cutting all the card pieces to size and started the assembly line for building the invitations. By this time 3-4 loads had been washed, dried and folded. At 10:00 I finally gave up on completing either task, packed my remaining wet laundry and headed home. An hour later I've had a chance to reply to the most urgent of emails, quickly check facebook and now can vent (really briefly) on how maxed out I feel right now.
Hannelle, a friend I haven't talked to in ages, called me yesterday and I vented for the first 3 minutes without even getting a chance to hardly say hi and how are you doing. I feel like I'm not having enough time to get any of the chores done that I need to get done and definately no time at all to do the things that I really want to do: visit family, check out blogs, write posts, plant some seeds and visit with the neighbors that live about 10 steps away and have been asking for a couple weeks now to hook up! Where has all my time gone?!! Why am I feeling so busy?! And I only have 20 hours of work this week. All of this must be leaving me scatter brained too because I left my wallet at Hannelle's (I figured that out at the end of the grocery checkout with no money... and now no groceries for the 3rd week in a row) and some clothes and a needed belt at Cass's. BAAAhhhhhh!! I HAVE to go to sleeeeep!

writing

My apologies about the last two posts. I really wasn't in a writing mood for the past two but I felt like I had to get them up before I had something else to say. The result: a boring discombobulated story.
The show we went to was for Roxanne Potvin. You can hear her on CBC Concerst on Demand.

One memory the trip did trigger was of going to Ottawa on a family vacation. Mom and Dad dropped us off at the parliment buildings with a mission to go and find our MP. At the time and in my memory it sounds completely normal but telling the story it sounds like the funniest wackiest thing for a family to do. How OLD were we? And why in the world did you guys need to drop us off somewhere? I have such .... odd (but GREAT) childhood memories like that. Funny....

The black sheep Inn, part 2

So we get to Wakefield, leave our stuff in our rooms and walk the strip. It was cold. Well, it wasn't that cold but it was colder than here so Dan and I hadn't brought our coats. We walked through a few unfriendly shops, didn't buy anything and settled on a place to eat. We went for Thai food. Our choices were a pizza place, a pricey bistro that served game food (interesting), or the Thai place. Even if there were more choices we still would have gone for the Thai and my GOODNESS!!!! it was sooooo good. It was a really small restaurant where the kitchen was seperated from the dining room only by a small counter so we could easily watch the chef mixing and frying etc. It was such a good dinner. Everyone really enjoyed it. Since we were told to get to the "sheep" early if we wanted seats Dan and Mike decided to wait in the line while Meg and I ran back to the b&b for the tickets. While we were there I started dawdling and taking my time since the show didn't start for a while. As we started walking back Dan and Mike came huffing back all hot and bothered.... the doors had opened, the swarms had entered and now all the seats were taken. Ooops. I felt really bad. So we found some stools against the far wall in front of the sound guy and hung out there for a while. We were wondering how the "sheep" started and got so legendary so I turned around to ask the sound guy what he knew about it. It turns out that he was the part owner. Wow... what a life. He has met so many amazing musicians. He ended up telling us the whole story of how the "sheep" started. It was something to do with a lottery ticket win but I think I'll make you guys go out there to get the story yourselves. So it turned out to be a good thing that we came late. We never would've met Paul and gotten the scoop on the place.
After the show we pretty much just went to our rooms to crash. In the morning we slowly woke up and got ready for the day. We had a great breakfast downstairs from our host and then hit the road again. We stopped in Ottawa to check out the Byward Market which made me feel like I was at the Forks in Winnipeg. I love markets like that. Sarah would've had a hayday with the tables outside laden with jewelry and scarves. It was very hippie-granola (as Mike called it) but St. Jacobs would probably be just as good (I think... I haven't been there a while). The rest of the drive back was ...... ll ooo nnnngggggggg. But not terrible. We dropped Mike and Meg off around 6:00 (i think?) and were home about half an hour later. I sure slept well that night.... and I had Sunday off.
And here I am in the middle of the next week and almost at the end of March. Wow, time really is flying by. I'm super glad we went on this road trip. We all agreed we need to go again but for a longer weekend.

The Black Sheep Inn, Part 1

What a good weekend. It was a whirlwind of a weekend but still a good weekend. Mike and Meg came over Friday night so that we could get an early start the next morning off to Ottawa. We decided to rent a car for the trip just for the fun of it so we didn't really get started till around 10:30. That's alright though because the trip really only took about 6 hours. Dan and I got a GPS for Christmas and before March we really hadn't used it too much. There's little things here and there but this weekend we really found it helpful. We left without even looking at a map to see where Wakefield is. It turns out it's about 25 minutes past Ottawa into Quebec. The trip there really didn't seem to last too long. We had lots of time to chat and catch up on our lives for the last 6 months and where the next 6 months are heading. It was neat going through Ottawa and since Mike's been there a bit more than us he pointed out all the important buildings to us. I really don't have any live memories of driving through Quebec so once we got past Hull I was really impressed. You can see distinct differences right away. Besides the street signs there were plenty of things that made it seem like we just entered a different country. The houses looked different and even the landscape looked different. When we got into Wakefield I'm sure someone actually said "is this it?!" It's realy just a small hamlet although I'm sure there are more houses tucked into the hills. The town is right on the edge of a wide turn in the Gateneau river so on one side of the road is a beautiful view of the river and on the other side is a row of cafes/shops/pubs and then behind them are houses going up into the hills. It's really beautiful. I could very easily live there but the other 3 said they would prefer to visit often but couldn't quite live there. It seems very isolated and quiet (even though it's so close to Ottawa).
We drove up to the B&B and were brought to our rooms. The house seemed like an older house but was comfortable enough. Before we had our bags down Meghan was just drooling over the home renovation ideas she would have for the place (have a look at the rooms and you'll see what I mean). It was a good place to stay the night at though.

I have so much more to say but, alas, I have to go to work so you're all going to have to wait for a part 2.

Relief is soo addicting

Maybe that's why I get myself all worked up about schedules and multi-tasking. I just finished a 50+ hour work week and I still get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. Phew. It feels sooo good to get it done yet there's still this and that and sooo much more to do... or so I thought!! Dan and I are going to Ottawa area with Mike and Meg this weekend. The dog has to be brought to mom and dads, a B.Y.O. bed needs to be picked up, the house is a disaster (!!), bills have to be paid and the list goes on. Plus, I realized I still have to arrange my schedule for next week. I was so worked up about scheduling this week around my life that I forgot to ask off next weekend for another camp. I rarely double book myself (thanks to my handy day timer) and I was super stressed out when I realized that I do have to work both jobs at the same time next week.
At 7:00 tonight, I finished work, went to my other job and very easily switched some shifts around to make sure that I could work both jobs (overlapping a little bit and hoping for some leniency with start times). I drove home getting ready to do a crazy fast clean up job so that if M&M have to sleep on the floor they won't wake up with dog hair in their mouth. Oh, it was soooo beautiful. Dan had, once again (second time this week) cleaned the entire house. The kitchen floor was washed, the living room vaccuumed twice, the bathroom cleaned and even our bed was made!! Sigh. I have such a good husband. The relief I feel from all of that feels like such a high. Now I can go on vacation this weekend, enjoy myself and get ready for another 50+ hour week next week.

Nicole's day so far....

Good morning Family!!

I only have 3 minutes to post before I have to run off to my first job. I just got back from a quick walk with the dog where I believe I met our first grouchy neighbour. I wasn't prepared for that so I might have taken it a bit personally and would be more upset if there wasn't some more neighbors around to defend me. It's muddy and gross out and I think the mice are out like crazy because Chloe has been digging and sniffing through the ditches like mad. Well, I started to turn a corner and saw 2 dog owners talking to eachother and another one coming towards us walking her dog. So, I put Chloe back on leash and kept walking. The single lady and her dog passed me but both her and her dog hissed a bit and the dog barred his teeth... whatever. Then, as I passed the 2 ladies she turns around and comes half way back to yell about how she's been living here for 15 years and if you guys don't live here you should go away. The one lady called back that we all do and even pointed to where we all lived. Then the grouchy lady pointed at me and yelled something about calling someone on us!! What?!!?!?!! She walked away and the other ladies just told me to forget about her since she's just a grouchy lady. We should make sure we buy her dog tags now. oops.

So, now I'm off to Job #1 and then I have 3-4 hours to kill before Job #2 so I think I'm going to bring some laundry and find a landromat. And a mall so I can find some jeans. I have a dumb story to tell about that one but I'll do that tonight with pictures on my other blog (after I shave my legs).

I hope you all have a GRRREEEAATTT day. Especially those of you who will be in tropical places!

Nicole



PS. Mom wants us all to post a lot so she doesn't waste her $5 for 15 min. internet time. It'll be fun to try to post everyday anyways.

Grocery shopping

I love grocery shopping. I don't see what there could be to hate about it. I get to slowly browse all of the aisles, be inspired by new ingredients, think about things that I would like to make and EAT (mmmm), and do some guilt free spending. Everyone needs to eat so I don't think I should feel guilty about spending money on food, right? Well, I'm starting to re-think this a bit. I've heard that groceries is one of the biggest expenses that is easy to cut down on. So here are some of my grocery habits that I have and I need to know what I should change. What are some ideas that you all have about grocery shopping?
- I never look through flyers. I'm a spontaneous shopper and I like to pick things up as the inspiration hits me.
- I don't feel guilty about throwing away food. I know I should but I would rather buy the apples and peppers and have them at home with the hopes that we'll eat them (and we usually do) rather than stocking the house with processed food that won't go bad. Besides, compared to the processed food, it usually is cheaper.
- I have NO problem with no name brands. In fact, no name is one of my favourite brands. It drives Dan nuts (he swearst he no name sour cream is soupier than the name brand stuff) but I think there is rarely any difference at all.
- I will almost always spend more money to buy the local food than the stuff from California. I don't care if the Gaylea cottage cheese is more than the other stuff, it says right on it that it is made from Ontario product. Yeeahh... I also always buy Hewitts when I can. I always go home from the shopping trip planning on calling all those 1-800 #'s on the packaging to ask about where it's from but I never have.
- I love to do the once-a-week big shopping trip but sometimes I just don't get around to it and I end up picking up something everyday. Sometimes I end up doing both.
- I love to grow and preserve as much of my food as I can. I figure I don't really have the energy to grow that much food so I'll buy bushels of whatever is in season and preserve as much of that as I can. Unfortunately, I don't do that as often as I would like (last year it was just a lot of red peppers). I'm hoping that as a stay-at-home mom I can one day have more time to do that (?).
- I love to host and make people feel comfortable. I know that I probably spend too much money buying the food etc. to make people come over.... although I sometimes fail in this area too.
- I love eating. I love eating expensive food. I limit myself with buying these foods but I do enjoy buying a new expensive cheese (or something like that) once in a while.
- There's a foodland grocery store about 2 min. from our place where I buy most of our stuff. It's an okay grocery store. I don't think the produce is all that fantastic and neither are the prices but it's still alright. There's a Fortino's right beside my job which I LOVE!! They have everything! They have all the meats and cheeses and funky produce you could want and it's all fresh. But the prices are a little high. I rarely shop at the food basics across the road from work. I do NOT like that store. I feel dirty shopping there but that's because I'm a snob. I should get the basics there because I do love their prices.

Pinching pennies is not fun for me. I know some people live for it but it's like pulling teeth for me. I feel like grocery shopping is my one area of life where I get to just forget about it. So is there a way to enjoy my grocery shopping and still make things cheaper? What new grocery habits can I start and still enjoy getting food?