Pancakes and Smiles

      So over the weekend a few of us decided to kick up our heels and go out on the town! It was mostly instigated by the fact that P's brother was in town for the night. I very soon realised.... I am getting old!  
     The music was loud, there was soooo many people to try and walk around and "did you SEE what she was wearing" or NOT wearing?!? What happened to throwing on your favourite pair of jeans, doing your hair and makeup while sharing a mirror and going out to have some laughs? I told a girl in the bathroom that I had a shirt just like the one she was wearing as a dress. Blech. Needless to say we were at Denny's eating breakfast by just a bit after midnight. 


But my pancakes were happy to see me!!! 

The reason I love it here... 

    I think the most fun part of a night on the town is sitting around eating pancakes with your friends laughing about it. That's my favourite. And I have some really great friends who I can have SO much fun with. 

   Work has been busy lately. Rugby is fully under way - most the schools are officially practicing outdoors (sorry kids, hope you aren't too waterlogged!) And now (CAN YOU BELIEVE IT) Baseball season is upon us. I swear they start earlier and earlier every year. I am not a fan of baseball. Never have been, probably never will.... this is the extent of my baseball skill: 

Mini bats - please don't knock them over

   Yes... talent comes in many forms.... (ok ok ok I stole the idea, I confess, I'm really not that clever!! But its a cool display don't you think?) 

So... yep not much else. Did my taxes ... felt good to get that out of the way. Now I can wait for April to hit and bring all its new stresses!! 

I Love Me - passed to me from Megan

1. List three things that you love about yourself.

2. Post a picture that you love.

3. List five bloggers to whom you are passing this along.

  Well Megan I suppose I shall take on your challenge and do this too. Now the thinking part...

My Sense of Humour

Let's face it, I have probably made you laugh at some point. Most people when describing me use the words funny, goofy, silly, blonde ect... and its true. I get a total high from making people laugh. Its just one of those things that makes me really happy, to see people crack up. And with how my life has turned out I am so happy that I have the outlook of may as well laugh before you start crying over it. Has gotten me through some really hard situations. (when I was younger I always thought I would work on some Comedy TV show as a writer - but its more payment to see my loved ones laugh.

 My Strength

I don't mean physically. My life has been a roller coaster of events, some of them wonderful, some of them really not. A gravestone where my son lays, altho makes me sad, also reminds me that I have been thru the worst pain, none that I would wish upon my worst enemy, but I made it and I continue to live every single day happy and thankful that I had such a short time with my little angel. 

  I was married and in a very volatile situation and I had the strength so say "This is not where I need to be" and I left to keep myself safe. And now I know that I can do ANYTHING on my very own. No matter what, I am a strong woman who can take care of herself in any situation. 


My Body
 That probably sounds pretty vain but I really love it. I spent so many years feeling so awkward and gangly and like I didn't really belong in my own body. But I have finally gotten to the point where I am comfortable in my skin and feel amazing. I have my flaws OF COURSE - many of them. But I embrace them. I have scars that have some great stories behind them (The scar on my cheek from running into Steve in my grade 3 class and then my mom telling him he was going to have to marry me)  I have a bum knee from years of skiing and a creaky shoulder from years of competitive swimming, a scar on my tummy from my appendix coming out and freckles from forgetting sunscreen. 

Reagan's tiny feet -left prints on my heart forever.

   The name of 5 bloggers? Oh jeez, I don't think there are 5 people that read my blogs lol.

Anyone that wants to feel free to pass this along. It actually made me feel a lot better about myself - thank you Megan. 

It's Wednesday... wait ONLY Wednesday?

 

Sometimes you just need some Cyanide and Happiness in your life... 


So I am on day 26 of the 30 day Shred but because I was sick I missed a few days. So I am thinking that I will start level 3 tomorrow and go for 34-day shred. Nice ring to it? We'll see. Level 2 has Military Presses in it which are really hard on my shoulder. 


Had a good busy day at work today, didn't even have a normal lunch break so just ended up leaving early which was really nice. Trying to get some extra hours on this pay period. I am saving up for a couple things so it would be nice to put away some bigger chunks if at all possible. 
I have one order that is really stressing me out. The customer has NO concept of size. She wanted her name on the back of their team jackets to be in 5 inch letters... WOW. We never do a name larger than 2.5 cause that's usually pretty massive and pretty expensive. So I have finally convinced her to come into the store and I will literally lay down a measuring tape on the jacket and show her how large it actually will be. UGH!! Some people make me so crazy!!

sorta how I feel at work somedays

  I am almost ready to go to bed. Kind of a burned out feeling sort of day. I haven't been sleeping all that well the past few nights. Been having some stuff on my mind that I'm trying to work out. Rather than just set it aside and worry about it at a different time (or not at all because worrying really isn't going to change the outcome) I just lay there chewing it over until I'm so exhausted I could cry. It's kind of a silly thing to do really.

I had a really nice talk with my mom today though. Sometimes I need another female to talk to. One of the down sides of being "one of the guys" I suppose. So anyways, I let her know that I needed to

talk to her like a 25 year old woman who has some stuff going on in her life and needs to chat, not her little baby girl that she wishes she could control my decisions and how I live my life. She was very wonderful and just listened to what I have going on and I didn't feel like I was on the verge of being lectured or anything. I'm a pretty lucky 25 year old baby girl that's for sure. 

If it ever gets nice weather I WILL be out skateboarding!!

So I am feeling a bit better about some of the stresses in my life and am looking forward to some changes coming up in just over a month. Now its the excitement and stress not the worry and stress! Nice change anyways. (more details coming eventually as plans are made, don't worry)

Ok, I am off to bed. Really need a good nights sleep tonight. Wish me luck!! 

Love D

First Full Day of Spring... Really??

Springtime... 

Spring Time....

   That is what you expect to wake up to on the first full day of Spring. Not so lucky here today!! 

Spring in Lethbridge...
We were officially put under a Snow Fall Alert today - not supposed to stop until Thursday - when it will continue to be cloudy. YUCK!

   Today was set up to be a fail - I woke up to look at my alarm and saw that it was indeed FLASHING but with NO SOUND!!!  ARGH!!!!!!  So, my entire morning was rushed. I hate Mondays.

   But, I survived... 

I think that due to the icky weather nobody really felt like being out and about today cause it was a pretty slow day at the store over all. Worked out well as I got some pricing done that needed to be and some tags up on the walls so customers can actually know what things cost (novel concept don't you think?) 

  Got home and just flopped on the couch and needed some chillout time - Found out that a good friend of mine has a blog up for her designs. She makes amazing invitations, cards, announcements, pretty much anything you could ever want. She is extremely artistic and I think very talented. 

Her blog is cassandrasdesigns.blogspot.com if you would like to check it out and I think you should ;-)

   Made perogies for dinner tonight and they were SO yummy! I didn't make homemade - I bought the perogies pre-made. I'm a working girl!! I don't have time to made them from scratch (altho they would be soooo worth it) But - P didn't notice, he thought that I HAD made them. If I was more dishonest I would have gone with it :-D

Yesssss.... sooo gooooood

   And - I just have to tell you - P finally won a doughnut on his roll up the rim!!! Its his first win!!!! He's such a sweetie, told me to go ahead and get myself a doughnut tomorrow when I take a break at work. I love him so much <3

  Gonna go crawl into some sweat pants and snuggle up with one of my books. Hoping that tomorrow the alarm goes off, I don't miss my work out and it STOPS SNOWING!!! 

Pretty... but its getting old

Love D

Food... and spiders

  

  I have had one of the most lazy days! It has been SO fantastic. I slept in (and this time my phone was turned off so nobody was able to call and wake me up!) And it felt SO great. I am afraid I was running of fumes the past few days and finally had a chance to just regenerate a bit.

  No work out today - Sunday is my "recovery" day and boy did my muscles need it. I am having a shoulder problem that is flaring up from and old previous injury, and that is causing me some frustration. Today its not feeling as tight so maybe tomorrow I can push thru again. 

   Last night P and I went for dinner with my parents. It was really nice to have a "double date" with them as we don't get to see them terribly often and never when its just the 4 of us. The conversation was centered mostly around the NCAA tournament (BYU beating Gonzaga!!) And the fact that Jon Bon Jovi and my mother are the same age, as well as my father thinking that the crab cakes were actually tuna.

  It was pretty funny actually. P and I both ordered the same thing - terriyaki bowl with shrimp. And of course we got our Sweet Potato Fries to start mmmm

oooh sooo goood

    They came with this spicy sauce that I had never had before and it was delicious. I like them more than normal french fries, they are just so tasty!! 

   After dinner P and I came home and there was a GIANT SPIDER in the house. We were both a bit paralyzed with fear, but my hero KILLED the little creature saving me from the pain and suffering of knowing it was somewhere in the house.  One of the gross things about summer - SPIDERS! They completely freak me right out. Its a good thing P can kill them for me (He actually killed another one in the bathroom just a few minutes again! SAVED AGAIN!)

Hate them!!!

     "The Adventures of Augie March" is not going well, I just CANNOT get that into it. It's just not sucking me in that well. So today I set it down and picked up "All The King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren. I just needed a bit of a break!! Its already making me happier. I will still finish "Augie" I just really needed a bit of a break from the ongoing story that is not going anywhere as far as I can tell.

  The end of another weekend. Back into the grind tomorrow morning... blech, I have to set the alarm clock.

    Off to dreamland!! <3

Love D

shirleyjsmith.com

Day off work.. and shopping trip

    
   Friday!! And a day off from work too!! Very excited I must say!! I slept in (ok not really because some jerk called my phone at 9 am - no idea who didn't answer)  It was WONDERFUL though because I simply rolled over and snoozed for a couple more minutes. But then it was time to get my butt outta bed and get in gear. 


For about 20 days now I have been doing Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred work out DVD. I started it because my sister and mom did it a while ago and they both saw some AMAZING results. I haven't been hitting the gym very much recently (I always feel like its such a hassle to pack up my bag and actually GO to the gym - maybe a lame excuse but that's what it is) So I thought maybe I would give it a try.
  Lucky for me, my awesome roomie already had a copy. She's the work out queen, literally, I should just magically be in shape because she is SO committed about it. If you have heard of P90X - she KILLS it. 
    Ok so, today I was back to level 2 (went down to level 1 due to the whole cold that nearly KILLED me if you recall)  So - BACK TO LEVEL 2

   I FEEL AMAZING!!!

Its so great to be back working my body HARD after that stupid cold took me out for about 4 days. I honestly didn't realise how much it affected me. But, today was great and I had a lot of energy afterwards and was in a good mood!!! Which just added to the wonderful-ness of a day off work!

Small issue = my work out top ripped - Giant plus = SHOPPING TRIP!!!

    I went to the One Tooth store here in town and they have GREAT stuff. I was really impressed. It was the firs time I had been in there. I normally buy just cheap stuff from Wal Mart or whatever, but the quality is so much better when you buy something from a store that actually specialises in the product! I put on a new top and was amazed that the straps didn't dig in or I felt like I was wrapped too tight!  Made a fantastic purchase of a top in HOT PINK and honestly I'm giggly excited about putting it on tomorrow morning to work out!

PINK!!!!!

P and I did some other running around today. He was looking for certain video game and I love just going into stores and looking at what there is to see. I usually don't have money to spend (I'm kind of a cheapskate) but we found the game and it was WAY more money than he had seen it at a different store. Of course, me being the typical penny pincher informed my wonderful boyfriend that they price matched. Guess who walked out of the store with a game listed at $64.99 for only $20 ??  US!! We make an excellent team if I do say so myself!  And that meant we both had an excellent shopping day! (I even got a laptop bag for my netbook FINALLY after searching for the perfect one for a few weeks - Its super cute and PERFECT size - YAY)

   We also checked out some cute furniture and had a "make believe" day of what our house might potentially look like someday. For this week anyways. We can change our mind as many times as we want when we play make believe. I did however inform P of my girlish dream to have a canopy bed and he laughed and said whatever I want. True love ? I think so! 

   So I am off to get ready for sleep (NOT in a canopy bed.. yet) I actually fell asleep on the futon for about 15 minutes before dinner today. I must have REALLY worked out hard. 

Love D