I quite enjoy Spring...what I don't enjoy is the little "surprises" that comes along with spring time such as...
1. The knicks, scratches and dings on your vehicle once it finally gets washed
2. The constant need to refill your windshield wiper fluid
3. Your newly washed vehicle being sprayed by idiots who feel they have to drive really fast through massive puddles
4. "Pill" bugs that I have found in our garage (they are nasty looking creatures)
5. The inconsistent weather patterns in E-Town
6. Cracks in your windshield as a result of being sprayed by rocks/gravel that was used to sand the roads during winter
With that being said though...I also love spring because;
1. You can go outside without having to bundle up too much
2. The sun has returned and the days are longer!
3. The warmer, yet brisk fresh air
4. You can wear sandals (occasionally)
5. Shopping is more convenient (i.e. Farmer's Market, Whyte Ave, etc.)
This spring may prove to be an eventful one for my family and I as we have begun shopping for a new home...God willing, we will find a more suitable home as we are out of room at the moment!
I'm just mostly glad Spring is here as it has felt like a very long winter (and with no statutory holiday in March, it felt like a real long month)...plus with Spring comes Easter! I'm looking forward to seeing all my family again real soon!
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
My New Addictions
Haha, okay so the title of this post is a bit misleading...it's not nearly as bad as it sounds! Recently I've had some cravings, which is kinda unusual for me as I'm not usually the type that craves anything in particular (just as BEW...he finds it annoying that I don't usually decide on anything, which drives him nuts)!
So here's a list of things I've been addicted to as of recent;
1. Beef brisket (with white broad noodles)...sooooo good!
2. Banana Bread from Sobey's (I think they call it Grandma's Banana Bread)
3. Ice cream (this one is strange for me as I don't usually grave sweet things)
4. Garlic Peas (sold at Walmart, with the peas packed in individual packages...so tasty)
5. Sweetened soy milk (the Chinese kind, not the Soy Nice, etc. types)
6. Looking at flyers online (I usually like to look on Friday mornings as most sales start on Fridays)
7. Creeping on other people's blogs
8. Scoping out real estate on Comfree and MLS
9. Bejeweled on FB
10. My guilty pleasure TV shows (includes Grey's Anatomy, Extreme Couponing, Cake Boss, Kitchen Boss, and the list unfortunately goes on and on and on...)
I wish my "addictions" included spending more time in Scriptures and other readings. In our cell group, the ladies have decided to partner up to hold each other accountable and to support each other through prayer and sharing. My partner and I have decided to call each other on Thursdays of each week and to meet for coffee periodically to have a face to face conversation. I think this is a really good thing as it will humble me if I have nothing to report back to my partner, admitting my lack of finding time to spend in prayer or in reading my Bible or my pure laziness.
Speaking of which...I should go read a chapter in the new book I have just started (by "just started", I mean literally I am going to read Chapter 1)...it's entitled "Love & Respect", by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. *Sigh*...so many things I have to work on...
So here's a list of things I've been addicted to as of recent;
1. Beef brisket (with white broad noodles)...sooooo good!
2. Banana Bread from Sobey's (I think they call it Grandma's Banana Bread)
3. Ice cream (this one is strange for me as I don't usually grave sweet things)
4. Garlic Peas (sold at Walmart, with the peas packed in individual packages...so tasty)
5. Sweetened soy milk (the Chinese kind, not the Soy Nice, etc. types)
6. Looking at flyers online (I usually like to look on Friday mornings as most sales start on Fridays)
7. Creeping on other people's blogs
8. Scoping out real estate on Comfree and MLS
9. Bejeweled on FB
10. My guilty pleasure TV shows (includes Grey's Anatomy, Extreme Couponing, Cake Boss, Kitchen Boss, and the list unfortunately goes on and on and on...)
I wish my "addictions" included spending more time in Scriptures and other readings. In our cell group, the ladies have decided to partner up to hold each other accountable and to support each other through prayer and sharing. My partner and I have decided to call each other on Thursdays of each week and to meet for coffee periodically to have a face to face conversation. I think this is a really good thing as it will humble me if I have nothing to report back to my partner, admitting my lack of finding time to spend in prayer or in reading my Bible or my pure laziness.
Speaking of which...I should go read a chapter in the new book I have just started (by "just started", I mean literally I am going to read Chapter 1)...it's entitled "Love & Respect", by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. *Sigh*...so many things I have to work on...
Sunday, April 03, 2011
Where has the time gone?
Wow...it's been a long while again since my last blog entry! I cannot believe how much time has flown by! So much has changed in this Vanilla life of mine...let me catch you up to date...
Since the last entry these are the major highlights...
1. I got married September 2008 (haha, yes, it's been THAT LONG since I've last posted)!
2. For my honeymoon BEW and I went to Bali and Hong Kong for 2 weeks
3. 6 months after the honeymoon we went back to Hong Kong but used HK as mostly a stopover to book further trips (first we went to South Korea with friends KEY and her hubby V), then we spent some time in HK and from there we booked a trip to Chiu Zhou (don't know the proper spelling), Shen Zhen (for some cheap spa treatments...BEW highly recommends Queen Spa!), and to Beijing!
4. We bought a new vehicle and got rid of BEW's unreliable POC ("piece of crap" that I liked to call it as it was supremely unreliable). We upgraded to a brand new Highlander Hybrid Limited...of course that was BEW's call as I would have settled for a lesser model...
5. I went to Vegas with some girlfriends of mine to shop and see a couple of shows! Saw Jersey Boys and Phantom of the Opera...it was a great time had by all!
6. We went on a family vacation with my side of the family...it was our first time cruising...unfortunately the destination was to Alaska...one that my parents chose and us kids weren't all that excited about, but it was still enjoyable. We'd definitely cruise again!
7. In 2010 we vacationed to Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) for an all inclusive week. Too bad we encountered poor weather though (lots and lots of rain with only 2 days of sunshine)!
8. Most importantly though, we had our first child in 2010...he is the best gift I have received and been blessed with. He has enriched our lives and we are so thankful he is healthy and strong!
That's about it...all caught up to date...for now :) I've learned many life lessons since my last blog...will try to share some more in the future!
Since the last entry these are the major highlights...
1. I got married September 2008 (haha, yes, it's been THAT LONG since I've last posted)!
2. For my honeymoon BEW and I went to Bali and Hong Kong for 2 weeks
3. 6 months after the honeymoon we went back to Hong Kong but used HK as mostly a stopover to book further trips (first we went to South Korea with friends KEY and her hubby V), then we spent some time in HK and from there we booked a trip to Chiu Zhou (don't know the proper spelling), Shen Zhen (for some cheap spa treatments...BEW highly recommends Queen Spa!), and to Beijing!
4. We bought a new vehicle and got rid of BEW's unreliable POC ("piece of crap" that I liked to call it as it was supremely unreliable). We upgraded to a brand new Highlander Hybrid Limited...of course that was BEW's call as I would have settled for a lesser model...
5. I went to Vegas with some girlfriends of mine to shop and see a couple of shows! Saw Jersey Boys and Phantom of the Opera...it was a great time had by all!
6. We went on a family vacation with my side of the family...it was our first time cruising...unfortunately the destination was to Alaska...one that my parents chose and us kids weren't all that excited about, but it was still enjoyable. We'd definitely cruise again!
7. In 2010 we vacationed to Puerto Plata (Dominican Republic) for an all inclusive week. Too bad we encountered poor weather though (lots and lots of rain with only 2 days of sunshine)!
8. Most importantly though, we had our first child in 2010...he is the best gift I have received and been blessed with. He has enriched our lives and we are so thankful he is healthy and strong!
That's about it...all caught up to date...for now :) I've learned many life lessons since my last blog...will try to share some more in the future!
Sunday, July 06, 2008
Would you eat this?
Okay, so I'm not the "safest" person when it comes to food safety...I try my best, but apparently I have some of my Dad's bad habits when it comes to food preparation!
Anyways, tonight I marinated some chicken drumsticks for the BBQ. BEW cooked them and when he brought them back in, I told him they were not fully cooked yet but he insisted that they were. So this caused a bit of tension for us, but at the end, we came up with a good solution...he would eat his so called "cooked" chicken, and I would cook the ones I was eating for longer.
Take a look at this picture and tell me your thoughts...please note, this picture was taken AFTER BEW cooked it for an additional 5 minutes more once I said it wasn't cooked enough!
Anyways, tonight I marinated some chicken drumsticks for the BBQ. BEW cooked them and when he brought them back in, I told him they were not fully cooked yet but he insisted that they were. So this caused a bit of tension for us, but at the end, we came up with a good solution...he would eat his so called "cooked" chicken, and I would cook the ones I was eating for longer.
Take a look at this picture and tell me your thoughts...please note, this picture was taken AFTER BEW cooked it for an additional 5 minutes more once I said it wasn't cooked enough!
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Things I've come to appreciate in life...
Recently there have been some things in my life I've come to appreciate. Here is a quick list of some of those things...
1. A nice cut of steak. BEW and I went for a nice supper at the Moose Factory this past Friday for our "date" night and we each ended up ordering Bison strip loin. Not being a good judge of what a "good" meat is, I ordered the strip loin (I only for sure know that T-Bones and Prime Rib steaks are good, the rest, meh, not too sure). Anyways, my steak came out as I requested (medium rare), however it was tougher than rubber! Fortunately BEW's piece was less tough, so I'm glad he was able to enjoy his meal.
Tonight we served AAA Top Sirloin steaks to our friends (sorry for friends and family were not invited...no worries, soon enough we'll have you over too) and boy was I glad that the meat was quite tender and not at all chewy or tough to swallow.
Lesson: Don't be cheap and opt for the cheap meats. Always spend the money when it comes to meat.
2. My neighbourhood's garbage men. BEW and I recently finally got around to cleaning and sorting out my garage. I threw away a lot of crap and got rid of a lot of the carpeting that was in my garage from the previous owner (it was a scrap of carpet used for covering the cement floor in order for it to be more comfortable if you had to go out and get something from the garage in bare feet). Anyways, we had quite a bit of carpet we wanted the garbage men to take, but KEY didn't seem to think they would take a big rolled up piece away, but rather, would leave it for us to take to an Eco station or the dump. But on her advice, she said we could try to cut up the carpet into little squares (2'x3' or so) and see if they'd take the smaller pieces as it would likely be easier for them to lift. Sure enough, they took it ALL. In total, we had probably 4 boxes full of garbage as well as a garbage can full of regular garbage and about 4 rolls of carpeting for them to take. Kudos and many thanks to them as if they didn't haul it away, who knows how long this garbage would be sitting in my garage!
Side note: Kudos to the recycling guys as well. We had about 3 bags of recycled stuff to be hauled and those bags magically disappeared as well! Can you tell I'm thoroughly impressed? Would it be inappropriate to buy these hard working individuals a Christmas gift this year? What a thankless job they have...
3. Air conditioning in vehicles. BEW's very basic vehicle does not have A/C. I'm usually quite warm by nature, therefore with plus 20+degree weather, usually it makes me quite uncomfortable. To sit in his vehicle is torture, so unless it's cooler outside (late evening) or it's been raining, I usually prefer to use my vehicle for this reason alone!
4. Friends and family. This weekend alone, I've entertained (with BEW's help of course) twice. It's nice to sit back and relax and catch up with friends and family who are normally very busy as well. It's these down times that are precious to me and I really enjoy them. It was also nice for BEW on day 2 of entertaining as he had friends play the Wii with him (I don't typically enjoy playing the Wii too often).
What are some things you appreciate in your life?
1. A nice cut of steak. BEW and I went for a nice supper at the Moose Factory this past Friday for our "date" night and we each ended up ordering Bison strip loin. Not being a good judge of what a "good" meat is, I ordered the strip loin (I only for sure know that T-Bones and Prime Rib steaks are good, the rest, meh, not too sure). Anyways, my steak came out as I requested (medium rare), however it was tougher than rubber! Fortunately BEW's piece was less tough, so I'm glad he was able to enjoy his meal.
Tonight we served AAA Top Sirloin steaks to our friends (sorry for friends and family were not invited...no worries, soon enough we'll have you over too) and boy was I glad that the meat was quite tender and not at all chewy or tough to swallow.
Lesson: Don't be cheap and opt for the cheap meats. Always spend the money when it comes to meat.
2. My neighbourhood's garbage men. BEW and I recently finally got around to cleaning and sorting out my garage. I threw away a lot of crap and got rid of a lot of the carpeting that was in my garage from the previous owner (it was a scrap of carpet used for covering the cement floor in order for it to be more comfortable if you had to go out and get something from the garage in bare feet). Anyways, we had quite a bit of carpet we wanted the garbage men to take, but KEY didn't seem to think they would take a big rolled up piece away, but rather, would leave it for us to take to an Eco station or the dump. But on her advice, she said we could try to cut up the carpet into little squares (2'x3' or so) and see if they'd take the smaller pieces as it would likely be easier for them to lift. Sure enough, they took it ALL. In total, we had probably 4 boxes full of garbage as well as a garbage can full of regular garbage and about 4 rolls of carpeting for them to take. Kudos and many thanks to them as if they didn't haul it away, who knows how long this garbage would be sitting in my garage!
Side note: Kudos to the recycling guys as well. We had about 3 bags of recycled stuff to be hauled and those bags magically disappeared as well! Can you tell I'm thoroughly impressed? Would it be inappropriate to buy these hard working individuals a Christmas gift this year? What a thankless job they have...
3. Air conditioning in vehicles. BEW's very basic vehicle does not have A/C. I'm usually quite warm by nature, therefore with plus 20+degree weather, usually it makes me quite uncomfortable. To sit in his vehicle is torture, so unless it's cooler outside (late evening) or it's been raining, I usually prefer to use my vehicle for this reason alone!
4. Friends and family. This weekend alone, I've entertained (with BEW's help of course) twice. It's nice to sit back and relax and catch up with friends and family who are normally very busy as well. It's these down times that are precious to me and I really enjoy them. It was also nice for BEW on day 2 of entertaining as he had friends play the Wii with him (I don't typically enjoy playing the Wii too often).
What are some things you appreciate in your life?
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Long time, well no blog!
Hello to the few of you who still visit this blog! There has been little to no posts in over a year simply due to my lack of technological skill and memory (I couldn't remember my password)!
It's been well over a year and so much has changed in this Vanilla life of mine...just to recap...
1. I am engaged now and am set (well, with the exception of some of the finer details yet to be ironed out) to be married this September 6!
2. I have vacationed to Puerto Vallerta this past February...it was quite nice to get out of the cold weather here, although the ocean was still too cold to actually swim in, though BW still decided he was tough enough to brave the cooler waters!
3. I turned the big 3-0 and with the help of friends, my family decided to throw me a surprise birthday party (and indeed I was surprised and not at all suspicious, which means, especially for my family, they kept the secret well)!
4. I have been promoted from a regular Account Manager to a "Senior" Account Manager. What does this mean? Well, my portfolio remained the same (no additions or subtractions from it) but I did get a salary increase. Does this mean I have always been doing the job of a Senior but being paid as an Account Manager? Whatever...call me what you want as long as I get paid for what I'm doing!
Believe it or not, this quickie blog probably summarizes all that has happened in this Vanilla life of mine. Thanks for being part of it all :)
Vanilla...
PS. I honestly will TRY to keep up with this blog now. After reading some of your blogs today, you have given me a new desire to start up with it again!
It's been well over a year and so much has changed in this Vanilla life of mine...just to recap...
1. I am engaged now and am set (well, with the exception of some of the finer details yet to be ironed out) to be married this September 6!
2. I have vacationed to Puerto Vallerta this past February...it was quite nice to get out of the cold weather here, although the ocean was still too cold to actually swim in, though BW still decided he was tough enough to brave the cooler waters!
3. I turned the big 3-0 and with the help of friends, my family decided to throw me a surprise birthday party (and indeed I was surprised and not at all suspicious, which means, especially for my family, they kept the secret well)!
4. I have been promoted from a regular Account Manager to a "Senior" Account Manager. What does this mean? Well, my portfolio remained the same (no additions or subtractions from it) but I did get a salary increase. Does this mean I have always been doing the job of a Senior but being paid as an Account Manager? Whatever...call me what you want as long as I get paid for what I'm doing!
Believe it or not, this quickie blog probably summarizes all that has happened in this Vanilla life of mine. Thanks for being part of it all :)
Vanilla...
PS. I honestly will TRY to keep up with this blog now. After reading some of your blogs today, you have given me a new desire to start up with it again!
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Updates, updates, updates
Okay, okay...thanks to all my dedicated blog readers that have suffered a long silence on this site until now! I guess you're all wondering why the blog now? Just wanted to update you all on what's been going on in my life...and NO, I'm NOT engaged!
1. My office has now successfully relocated to our new site...it was a tough and tedious move, but we did it! Come by and visit me sometime, though I have to say, the view from my window isn't the greatest (I face into the neighbour's dumpster), but I guess the positive part is that there are no homeless people seeking shelter in there!
2. After many years of sleeping in my little bed, I have decided I am now a big girl and so I upgraded myself to a queen sized bed! Actually, to be more accurate, I upgraded my existing non-matching, pieced together bedroom to a full bedroom set! It's made of birch and is in a deep espresso color, with silver (of course) accents! The set is fully loaded with 2 night tables, a 5 (or was it 6?) drawer dresser, a 6 drawer piece with a mirror attached to it and of course the bed frame itself! Oh yeah, to top it all off, I also purchased an awesome mattress/boxspring set to match the new furnishings (pocket coils, just like the "bowling ball" commercials as seen on TV! All will be delivered this Saturday (YAY)!!
3. Work is hectic, crazy busy, but I will power through it. Today is only Tuesday, but I'm booking appointments into next week already!
4. Ladies group continues to be going well...I'm soo thankful for all the ladies in that group. They've been a true blessing in my life!
Hmmm, that's about it...see, nothing changes with Vanilla!!! Oh yeah, amongst all this craziness I turned a year older...yay (not really).
1. My office has now successfully relocated to our new site...it was a tough and tedious move, but we did it! Come by and visit me sometime, though I have to say, the view from my window isn't the greatest (I face into the neighbour's dumpster), but I guess the positive part is that there are no homeless people seeking shelter in there!
2. After many years of sleeping in my little bed, I have decided I am now a big girl and so I upgraded myself to a queen sized bed! Actually, to be more accurate, I upgraded my existing non-matching, pieced together bedroom to a full bedroom set! It's made of birch and is in a deep espresso color, with silver (of course) accents! The set is fully loaded with 2 night tables, a 5 (or was it 6?) drawer dresser, a 6 drawer piece with a mirror attached to it and of course the bed frame itself! Oh yeah, to top it all off, I also purchased an awesome mattress/boxspring set to match the new furnishings (pocket coils, just like the "bowling ball" commercials as seen on TV! All will be delivered this Saturday (YAY)!!
3. Work is hectic, crazy busy, but I will power through it. Today is only Tuesday, but I'm booking appointments into next week already!
4. Ladies group continues to be going well...I'm soo thankful for all the ladies in that group. They've been a true blessing in my life!
Hmmm, that's about it...see, nothing changes with Vanilla!!! Oh yeah, amongst all this craziness I turned a year older...yay (not really).
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