Day 31 - The End!/New Year's Eve

The apartment is clean, the dishes are done, the jello shots are in the fridge. I'm ready for 2011! This is my final post of 2010 and of BEDD! It will be short but sweet because I still need to get dressed (lol!)

I spent the day tidying the apartment, getting ready for tonight. Tyler and I are having a couple of friends over to ring in the New Year. No crazy party (not even close to how many people we had in here on Halloween), just a couple people getting together.

I'm relieved that BEDD is over. It wasn't the way I expected it to be. I'm planning on still blogging fairly regularly, but looking forward to not having to force myself to at the end of every day.

I have some ideas in mind for a couple of topical blogs, blogs that will be more thought out than the mess that has been this last month. I hope you all enjoy them.

Happy New Year and thanks to everyone for reading!

Day 30 - Goodbye 2010

Last year, around New Year's, I wrote a post called Goodbye 2009, it listed off some of the things that I did in 2009 and some goals for 2010. Looking back at it, it's shocking to realize that I actually accomplished some of these things!

"I'm going to be taking a sign language class with my friend Amy (hopefully - I have to make sure that they'll still let me register!). I plan on completely editing my novel (from nanowrimo) in the next few months. If I get it done by July 1st they will send me a free paperback copy of it."

I actually did those things! I finished my novel and ordered my free copy (it came out pretty cool looking too!). I finished levels one and two of ASL and had fun doing it. The next class is coming up soon (in the next few weeks). I don't think I really feel up to doing it, but I probably will end up going, just to get it over with.

Some of my other goals were: graduate, move out and start planning my wedding. I only did one of those things. I have made progress on the graduating part though, I am almost done and I'm hoping to finish it completely by my birthday at the end of January. Tyler and I moved out on October first into an awesome apartment. It has been great but definitely an adjustment to what we were used to before. And the wedding...Obviously there were some setbacks on that this year, but I would like to start thinking about a date again soon.

So what have I accomplished this year?

I finished Holding Hands (my 2009 Nanowrimo novel)

I started another novel (tentatively titled Under Ground) and completed more than 50,000 words during the month of November

I completed levels one and two of ASL and got good grades :)

I moved out with Tyler

I flew to Georgia all by myself

Made the decision to take my cat back to my mom's house (and then somehow ended up taking in a kitten less than a week later)

Probably read even more books than the 90 that I estimated for last year

Hosted my first party on Halloween

It doesn't seem like much, but this was a good year. This year was the hardest year of my life. I went through some of the toughest stuff that I've ever dealt with before. But I got through it. I learned a lot about myself, how much I can take and how much I am willing to take. I realize now that I am a strong person.

I'm glad that I went through everything that I did this year though. It changed me and it changed my relationship with Tyler. For the better. Tyler and I are so good now, so strong and I am so so happy. I am so glad that I made the choices that I did and I have no regrets.

What do I want to do it 2011? I dunno, I think I'm just going to live it one day at a time and see where the wind takes me.

Day 29 - Repeat?

I think I accidentally wrote yesterday down as Day 29 as well, oh well!

So Tyler and I were tidying up the apartment tonight and decided to take all of the Christmas decorations down. I was going to wait until New Year's or after to do it, but since we're probably having people over on New Year's, I figured it was time for it to come down.

We set up our new microwave (which works perfectly! The plate spins so fast and smoothly! Thanks mom and Claudio!) and our new lamp. The lamp that Lisa and Matt got us...I don't know where they got it or how much it cost but it looks like a million bucks! I said to Tyler, now we have this fancy lamp and microwave, everything else in our apartment suddenly looks very shabby!

This lamp is seriously awesome though. It is a big tall lamp with the shade and lightbulb at the top, but it also has a small reading light that comes off the side. If we point it at the window, the reading light alone is enough to light up the whole balcony! I will be able to read outside so much easier from now on! Love it!

Surprisingly it's nice to have the Christmas tree and everything else down. The apartment suddenly seems bigger. It's awesome. I'm hoping that Tyler can get the Christmas stuff down to the storage locker tomorrow so we can get it out of the living room before Friday night.

Anyway, I'm outta here! G'night!

Day 28 - Ugh

I am so freaking sick of going to the dentist, you have no idea. I have seriously been there five or six times in the last few months. Every other week I have an appointment at the dentist. My next one is at the end of January, I'm supposed to be getting a crown put on one of my teeth. I am probably going to cancel it soon though because I can't really afford the almost four hundred bucks that it would cost me.

Today I had two cavities filled. The were both on the right side, one on the top and one on the bottom. They used so much freezing! I was seriously frozen for like five hours. I wasn't frozen nearly that long when I had my wisdom teeth out! On the other hand, I didn't feel a thing!

Before I went to the dentist, I finally went to Value Village to buy work pants. They didn't have much but I did manage to get a pair of black pants for work, a pair of jeans and two nice shirts.

After all that was done I went to my mom's for our Christmas get-together. I hope everyone liked what I got them, I know I like what I got! My mom gave us a microwave!!! She also gave us some casserole dishes and a circular glass dish for baking stuff in the oven (I don't know what it's called...). Lisa and Matt gave us a gorgeous pole lamp and she gave me a cool wrap sweater thingy.

The food was awesome (as always) even though I had to chew carefully and drink through a straw (the right side of my mouth and a good chunk of my face were still very frozen at this point). I love going to my mom's too so that I can see my Tiny. I miss her sometimes!

Anyway, I'm off to bed, have to work at 9!

Day 27 - Post Christmas Laziness

Does anyone else not feel like doing anything? Seriously, nothing at all? I don't know if it's because I had to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, but I just don't feel up to doing anything. Christmas is supposed to be a break from everything and I guess since it was only one day for me this year, it just didn't feel like that at all.

I didn't feel like being at work yesterday or today. I don't feel like doing laundry or making my bed. I didn't feel like putting the gift bags away or doing to dishes (but I at least did those two!). I don't feel like putting away all of the new stuff that we have now (I did put away at least half of it though). I don't feel like putting the board games back in the very top of the closet or cleaning out my old purse.

I'm looking around and there are a million things that I could be doing right now, but you know what I want to do? I want to sit down and watch I'll Be Home For Christmas with Jonathon Taylor Thomas, so that's what I'm going to do.

The rest of it can wait until tomorrow for once.

Day 26 - Risk

I bought Tyler the board game Risk for Christmas - awesome we love it! The only problem is, we were a little rusty on the rules and the instructions that came with the new version that we have now are very confusing and try to explain the three "new" ways to play all at the same time.

I googled more detailed rules and found a very interesting wikipedia article (linked to the title). I found the rules, most of which were familiar and some of which we didn't know existed. This wasn't the most interesting thing that I found. The most interesting part of the page was the list of all of the different versions of Risk.

The game came out in 1957 and was originally called La Conquête du Monde (The Conquest of the World) and since then there have been a whole lot of different limited edition and collectors versions. These include more than one Star Wars and Lord of the Rings versions. There is also one that is Ancient Greece where all of the territories are from Greek Mythology. There is one called "Castle Risk" where each player is guarding a castle rather than individual territories.

I think the coolest ones, and the ones that I would like to get are Risk Junior: Narnia and Risk 2210 AD. The Narnia one is based on the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The other one is a futuristic map that includes moon territories and water territories.

Tyler and I love this game and will definitely be looking into getting these other versions. If anyone has like...eight hours of spare time, feel free to come over and play!

Day 25 - Merry Christmas!

Totally short blog tonight. It's been a long day and I am exhausted. It's also 2am and I have to work at 9 tomorrow.

Today was awesome, as Christmas always is. The best thing about this year is how spread out Christmas has been for me. I've been listening to Christmas music and doing baking for the last few weeks so that felt Christmassy to me. I also spent time with my family when my dad was up last weekend and then time with Tyler's grandparents and the rest of his family yesterday and then dinner with my family tonight. We also still have a Christmas get together with my mom on Tuesday night.

Tyler put a lot of thought into the gifts that he got me this year. My stocking was full of candy and hair elastics (which I definitely needed!). He got me a gorgeous purple housecoat that I absolutely love. He also bought us a Nintendo Wii that came with Wii Sports and Super Mario. It's awesome, I know I'll love it even though I haven't really had time to play it yet. I think my favourite thing of all of the gifts that he got me though were the necklace and earrings that he bought me. He said that when he went out he was looking for diamonds. He got me amethysts instead! I love them, the amethyst studs and necklace are very me :)

I bought Tyler the board game Risk, I know he has been wanting it forever. Lisa and Matt came over and we played it. We actually didn't even finish it, we would have been here all night if we had!

Anyway, good night everyone! I hope your Christmases were as awesome as mine. :)

Day 24 - Christmas Christmas Christmas!

Ok, so it's actually officially Christmas now even though this blog is for Day 24, I got home late!

I love the Christmas season. I love remembering the story of the birth of Christ and listening to the hymns and carols all through December. It helps me to remember the real reason that we all celebrate at this time of year.

I think that most about Christmas though I love spending time with my family and the good moods of all of the people around me. Today, at work, it was so busy. By all accounts it should have been a terrible day, but it wasn't. Everyone was in such a good mood, all of the staff and all of the customers too. It was great.

After work I went to Tyler's grandmother's house. This is the sixth year that I've been there for Christmas Eve and I love it. They have always made me feel so welcome and it is always a good time being there and seeing all of them.

After that we went back to Tyler's parents to exchange gifts with them and with Brittany since we won't be seeing them on Christmas day. That was fun too, we all just sat around chatting and watching TV.

I also delivered some gingerbread today, I hope that all of the people that got some enjoy it!

Merry Christmas!

Day 23 - Fresh Prince of Bel - Air

Is it just me or is The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air the best show of all time? Seriously I don't care if it's twenty years old and no one even watches it anymore. It's the best ever.

The entire cast is so hilarious, especially Will Smith and the guys who play Uncle Phil, Geoffry and Carlton. The jokes are classic, the clothes are so 90s and it's awesome!

Tyler and I have the first three seasons on DVD. Last night Tyler unhooked the cable wire in the living room and put it in the bedroom so we could watch TV in there. Rather than hook the cable back up while I was icing my cookies I just threw Fresh Prince in and watched eight episodes in a row.

One of the other things that I love about this show are the serious episodes. Most episodes are absolutely hilarious and are just full of jokes one after the other. There are a couple of episodes though that are so serious and so sad that they will make you bawl, like the one where Will accidentally gives Carlton drugs. Oh man! It's amazing that the cast of this show can switch from one to the other so easily.

I could (and do!) watch this show for hours. I think it is one of the greatest shows ever and it is definitely my favourite!

Day 22 - Resting and the Novel

I am so excited for Christmas! I am also quite excited for it to be over. I feel like I have been going non-stop for the last two weeks or so and I'm looking forward to a well-deserved rest afterwards.

Between decorating, shopping, wrapping, baking and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, I feel like I haven't had much time to do the things that I actually want to do. I haven't written a word of my novel since I hit 50,000 at the end of November.

To be honest I'm looking forward to Christmas and BEDD being over so I can get back into my writing. I'm glad I took this break from it though, it makes me even more excited to get back to it. The characters and the story are still fresh in my mind, but not so deeply engraved that I can't think of anything else the way they were in November.

I feel like I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with this novel so far. I feel like the concept is good, I'm happy with the way the plot is going. On the other hand, I'm worried that there wasn't enough character development at the beginning. I don't think you really get to know my two secondary characters until to far into the story. I also feel like it jumps around a lot. There are boring parts and then there are action! parts, I need to work on the stuff that's in between.

I haven't decided yet how I'm going to tackle my novel yet once January gets here. I don't know if I should go through what I have written so far and try to fix all of that or if I should just keep pushing through until the end and then go back and fix it after. I think it will probably be easier to finish it and they go back and edit it all at once. On the other hand the crap that is in what I have written so far could drive me insane before I am able to finish.

Any suggestions?

Day 21 - Gingerbread, Gingerbread, Gingerbread

The gingerbread that my mom and I made last year.

I can't tell you how glad I am that gingerbread is a Christmas cookie and that this is the only time of year that I have to make it! Don't get me wrong, I love gingerbread, everyone that I know loves gingerbread and it is totally worth it to make it. It is just such a time-consuming cookie to make.

First you have to make the dough, then chill it for four hours. Then you have to roll it and cut it and bake it. Then you have to wait for the cookies to completely cool. Then you have to make the icing with milk, icing sugar and food colouring. Then you have to ice all of the cookies and leave them laid out so the icing can harden. The whole process seriously takes at least ten hours.

This year I am making three batches of gingerbread for various people. Tyler and I don't have a lot of money, but we do have all of the ingredients to make gingerbread. Some people are getting gingerbread for Christmas or as part of their Christmas gift this year.

The first batch that I made I did all in one day last week. This batch was given to my mom, Tyler's dad, Catherine and Lisa. This week I am making two batches to give to my grandparents and aunts and uncles and Tyler's grandparents and aunts and uncles. Instead of doing it all in one day though I am going to spread these two batches over three days.

I made the two sets of dough tonight and I'm going to leave them in the fridge over night. Tomorrow night I am going to cut and bake all of it. On Thursday I am going to ice all if it so that it is ready to go on Christmas Eve when we go to Tyler's grandparent's house.

I love baking and I love eating cookies, it certainly can be time-consuming though!

Day 20 - The Vlogbrothers

A lot of people probably don't know that I am addicted to watching youtube videos, especially Vlogbrothers videos. The Vlogbrothers are John and Hank Green (brothers who live across the country from each other) who started posting daily vlogs back and forth to each other in 2007. The challenge was that they would eliminate all kinds of 'textual' communication between each other and only communicate through the vlogs (or on the phone). If they did accidentally communicate through text, they would be punished by having to do something awful as voted for by their fans.

The year was a huge success and they gained so many fans that they decided to keep vlogging. John is an author and Hank is a musician who has released four albums, but youtube is their fulltime job now. These brothers don't just make silly videos back and forth though. Their videos are fun and informative. They are also hugely involved in charity.

From the beginning they have used the community (the nerdfighters) to raise money for various things. One of these things is the Uncultured Project. Their friend Shawn went to Bangladesh and John and Hank and the community raised funds for him to go and to help the people there. Shawn posted his own youtube videos to show the donors how their money was being used.

The Vlogbrothers also teamed up with the Harry Potter Alliance after the disaster in Haiti. These two groups, along with many others, managed to raised almost $125,000. This was enough money to send five fully loaded planes to Haiti to help the people there.

If those things weren't incredible enough, the Vlogbrothers did something even bigger. They started the Project for Awesome. The P4A started in their first year and was practically a hacking of youtube. The Vlogbrothers and their fans each made videos about their favourite charity and posted them to youtube at the same time on the same day. Each video had the same P4A thumbnail. The nerdfighters then spent the day all over youtube commenting, watching and favouriting other P4A videos. This made these videos all get to the top of the most watched list and all over the front page of youtube.

They have done the Project for Awesome every year since and it has just gotten bigger and bigger. This year they had huge support from youtube and did a fancy live show the whole day. They ran a raffle with a lot of awesome prizes from other youtubers. Some of the prizes included guitars from youtube musicians, signed copies of John's books, a copy of an original, never-to-be published book by John, having Hank's next able named after you, Dan Brown's crocs, tshirts signed by youtubers, Shay Carl's beard and so much more. Each different prize can be one by buying a ticket. Each ticket is bought by making a donation to the charity of that youtubers' choice. The raffle is not over yet and they have already raised $130,000.

I think it is so incredible. When youtube first started a couple of years ago, it was really just a place where people went to watch music videos or movie trailers or clips of kittens doing silly things. I think it's so awesome that these people are using their fame and this website to do something so awesome.

Anyone that reads this, I highly suggest you go to youtube and search for the Vlogbrothers!

Day 19 - Fail

So I didn't post a blog yesterday...I guess I'll have to post two today! I was exhausted yesterday and passed out on the couch watching TV really early. I staggered into bed a couple of hours later without stopping at the computer to write. So this will be blog one of the day.

Most of my computer time over the last few days has been spent looking for free books to put on my Sony Reader. I haven't bought any yet, but I have found a fair amount for free. I got Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Anne of Green Gables, Dracula, Grimm's Fairytales and a couple of other classics. I also found some on the Borders website that are new, but still free for some reason. The one I'm reading right now is called Bury Me in a Borrowed Suit. I'm about twenty pages in and is pretty good but a little strange.

I also went to the library's website, because you can actually borrow e-books right from the site. I'm a little unclear on exactly how it works. I tried to borrow a couple of books and the site told me that it would email me when the books were available. I didn't think I would have to wait for them, it's just a computer file, why would I have to wait for other people to finish reading them before I can? I dunno, I'll have to wait until they email me to figure it out totally.

I've looked through Google Books and the Borders website and I have about twenty free books so far. Yahoo has free books that you can get too so I think I'm going to head over their now to see what they have that the other two don't.

Blog #2 will be up later on!

Day 18 - Amazing Day

Today was an awesome day. I had to work 11 to 5 and that wasn't so awesome, but I don't even want to talk about that because the rest of the day was so awesome!

Right after work Lisa and Matt picked us up and took us to my Uncle Dan and Monica's new house in Stoney Creek for my Grandad's eightieth birthday party. We ate lasagna for dinner (so simple but so good!) and had cake and ice cream for dessert.

After that my Grandad opened his presents and Lisa and I exchanged gifts with my Dad and Catherine. Catherine loved the bird house and the bird feeder that we got her. My Dad also really liked what we got him. Lisa and I have been talking about it for a while, but we finally got it for him this year. We got a star named for him.

We didn't name it after him though, we named it Fred. When Lisa and I were little, we used to complain because we didn't have a brother. One day my Dad announced that we did have a little brother, his name was Fred and he lived in the closet. It became sort of a family joke, this brother that lived in the closet. My parents had to feed him flat things like ham and toast that they could slide under the door. So anyway, we named this star Fred after our nonexistent brother.

My Dad got me a Sony Ereader! It's a small electronic thing that can hold like 2000 books. It's awesome! The books range from free (!) to like ten dollars. Any book written before 1920 (I think it is) is considered a classic and is free, this means that I can get stuff like...Anne of Green Gables for free! I've been wanting one of these things for years, ever since the Amazon Kindle came out. They were like five or six hundred bucks back then though.

After that, we came back to Hamilton and went to Bottom's Up. Dan Dyer, who is a friend of my Dad's was playing. He is awesome and, as usual, invited my Dad up to play mandolin with him for a few songs. It was so much fun, we went with Lisa and Matt, my Dad and Catherine, my Uncle Dan and Monica and my Uncle Bill and his girlfriend Connie. It was truly a great evening.

My Dad also offered to drive me to work in the morning which is awesome since it is so cold! Anyway, I have to go because I want to mess with this Ereader thing for a little while before I go to bed (which I need to do really really soon!)

Day 17 - Christmas Visits

My Dad and Catherine are visiting from Georgia for the weekend. It's so nice to have them here, I just wish they were staying longer :(. It's awesome though that they were able to come for my Grandad's eightieth birthday and so close to Christmas.

They came over to the apartment with my Grandparents for tea and coffee this afternoon. It was a nice visit and I gave my dad the coco chews that Lisa and I made last night and I gave Catherine some of the gingerbread that I made yesterday as well. After that they left for a bit to go and see Lisa.

They picked us back up shortly before six and we went to Squires for dinner with my Grandparents. After that we went back to my Grandparents for ice cream. When we were done that Grandad pulled out his old pictures. It was amazing, like looking at a piece of history. At eighty years old he still remembers who all of the people are, even some of his childhood friends that were in the pictures with him.

The coolest pictures by far were the ones of his father, my Great-Grandad, while he was in the war. The pictures are so old, yet so clear and in such good shape. My Great-Grandad fought at Dieppe and the pictures looked like something that could have been straight out of one of my old history textbooks in high school. It was awesome.

Tomorrow we're going to my Uncle Dan and Monica's for dinner to celebrate my Grandad's birthday. Then my Dad and Catherine leave on Sunday afternoon. I wish that they could stay longer :(.

Goodnight all!

Day 16 - Etc.

Ok, extra quick blog tonight, I am right in the middle of icing my gingerbread cookies :).

Got my wisdom teeth out this morning, it was really no big deal. They were busy at the office so I had to wait a half hour to get in for my appointment. When I finally did get in, it took about five minutes to do the freezing and thirty seconds to pull the teeth. Seriously. I felt a bit of pressure and heard a grinding noise and they were out, just like that. One after the other.

My gums kept bleeding for a while after I got home and I went through the gauze that they gave me rather quickly. It finally stopped and I was able to make kraft dinner to eat around 3:00 (I was starving by then!).

After I ate I made the dough for the gingerbread. The dough has to sit in the fridge for at least four hours, so after that I took a nap. I didn't mean to take a nap since I absolutely hate taking naps, but I just fell asleep. Anyway, we woke up when Lisa got here to make Coco Chews for my dad. We made those feeling a little nervous. My Grandma told us that we had to measure very carefully or they wouldn't harden properly. She said that she ruined a batch once and she and my Grandpa had to eat the whole thing (Oh no!). Luckily, they seem to have hardened up just fine.

After that I baked the gingerbread. I was going to wait until tomorrow morning to ice them but I figured I might as well do it tonight so I don't have to get up early tomorrow. So that's where I'm at now. Hopefully these come out alright too!

Goodnight all!

Day 15 - Cookies!

This is the halfway point of BEDD for me! It hasn't been like I thought it would be. I figured I would be able to write a bunch of thought-provoking wonderful blogs. It has turned out to mostly be updates about my daily life. Pretty boring! Oh well, I don't have the energy to do anything else, so this is what we have.

I'm going to be having an eventful few days now. Tomorrow I'm going to the dentist (again!) and having a cavity filled and my wisdom teeth pulled. I only have wisdom teeth on the top and they are fully grown in. The dentist promised me that it would be quick, less than ten minutes, and that it wouldn't be any worse than having a regular tooth pulled. I hope he's right.

Tomorrow, after my appointment I'm planning on doing some baking. I want to make gingerbread for some people for Christmas...lots of gingerbread. Some people will be getting theirs on Christmas, some people will be getting theirs sooner. I will need to make more than one batch (bake more than one day) to get it all done. Tomorrow will be the first day.

I'm looking forward to it, I haven't done much baking since I moved in here. Just banana bread, sugar cookies, and the peanut butter eyeballs that I made for Halloween. Hopefully they turn out alright. If not I'll just eat them all myself!

Family Feud

Tonight's post is going to be extra short because Lisa and Matt are here :) Don't worry though, I'm gearing up for a good long rant some time in the next few days. It's also going to be a little silly.

I am totally addicted to Family Feud. I've been playing the game on facebook like crazy, I have the full version on my computer and I watch the show whenever I see it on TV. I'm not even that good at it, but I love it. Tyler and I play it together sometimes too, it's easier when there are two of us :)

Tyler always asks me why I bother playing it on facebook when we have the full game on the computer. I'm addicted to the interactiveness of the facebook one. I can try to beat my friend's scores, I can finish their fast money for them or I can use my family feud points to buy the stupid prizes and unlock more episodes. It's all so totally addicting and I can't stop.

It's a good way to spend a few minutes every day, especially when I'm able to unlock a few extra episodes. If anyone is reading this and you don't have the application you should totally add it because it is awesome :)

Good night all!

Day 13 - Snowy Days/Harvey's Funnies

Today was the first really cold, snowy day of the season. The first thing I did when I got to work this morning was announce that I really need to start taking the bus to work. It usually takes me 25 - 30 minutes to walk to work. Today it was closer to 40 minutes in the snow. And it was freezing! No way am I walking all winter. I've been pretty good so far, and I usually even enjoy the walk. But, if it's snowing and freezing, no thank you.

I wasn't the only one feeling the cold weather though. I was on drive-thru today at work and I swear at least a third of the customers had their windows frozen shut. These customers were the nicest ones though it seemed. The all laughed when they got up to my window as they apologized and explained that their windows were frozen. I even had one guy that came through whose whole door was frozen shut. I asked him if I could take his order and there was no answer. I peaked out the window to see if he was another one who was struggling with his window. I looked out in time to see him crawling across his front seat and out the passenger door. He apologized through the speaker and proceeded to order from the other side of his car. For some reason I had no problem understanding this guy, I don't know what is wrong with all these other mumbley people that I can never hear.

One other thing happened at work today. I think this is probably one of the most outrageous things I have ever seen. I had this lady that had a pretty large order. While I was handing her her change I heard her son (who was probably 3) calling that he had to go to the bathroom from the backseat. The lady asked me if our bathroom door was heavy, if her son would be able to open it himself. I explained that the bathroom door wasn't heavy but that the door to get into the store could sometimes be difficult to open, especially in the wind. She told her son that he would have to wait so she could go in with him. I turned around and proceeded to put her order together. I went to hand her the food and saw that he son was now standing outside of the van right next to the window. He was peeing! Right there in the drive-thru, probably on the wall of the store, this kid is peeing! I'm sorry, but what parent allows their child to just whip it out anywhere and pee? I didn't even say anything to the lady, I just handed her the food and told her to have a nice day. But, really! Who does that?

The things you see when you work in fast food, I swear I could write a book! Maybe I will...

Day 12 - Sun Rise

This picture was taken from my balcony - just not today

I absolutely hate getting up early. I don't know how Tyler can get up and walk to work in the dark every morning, it would drive me nuts. The way I see it, if the sun isn't up yet, why should I be? When I walked into the living room and turned the light on, even the cat squinted at me. I hate the early morning. It is always so cold. I know my walk to work in a half our or so will be freezing. It's also wet outside. So much for a snow storm, it's raining. On a normal day I would watch the sunrise, but today I don't think it's going to get very much lighter.

On the other hand, the fact that I'm up early has been helpful. The fact that it's dark let me notice as soon as I walked into the room that I left my battery-powered lights on all night (they are almost dead now, but not quite). It also means that I have time to write my blog before I go to work and now I won't have to worry about it afterwards.

Another benefit of going to work early is that I have an eight hour shift today, but it will feel like five or six because I'll still be half asleep for the first two or three :P

Time to wake up and get on with the day.

Day 11 - Lost

Tyler is terrible with surprises, he can never wait to give me presents after he's bought them. This year he insisted on giving me one now, even though Christmas is still two weeks away.

What he gave me is something that we've been talking about getting for months, "For Christmas" Tyler always said. It's Season 6 of Lost! We've been waiting months to watch it. We never watched it on TV because we weren't done with Season 5 by the time it started airing.

We were going to rewatch at least Season 5 before we started watching it, but we just couldn't wait. We're on the third episode now and it's awesome, a little confusing since it's been so long since we watched, but still awesome.

That's it for tonight's post since I want to get one more episode in before bed. Tomorrow - Something more interesting! I promise!

Day 10 - Sick Days

I hate sick days. It's ironic that Tyler had Greg and Jen over last night for drinks and to play cards. I didn't drink, yet I was the one who was up at 4:00 this morning throwing up. I guess the sausages that we ate last night didn't agree with me or something. After that, of course I wanted to just brush my teeth and crawl back into bed, but there is business to take care of first. I had to check my blood sugar.

As a general rule, puking makes your blood sugar go up and quite often makes your body produce ketones. Amazingly enough when I checked my sugar, it was 6.7 - perfect. I don't have ketone sticks to test but I wouldn't have bothered anyway with that blood sugar. So I crawled back into bed.

At 8:30 I woke up, still feeling sick I called in to work to let them know that I wouldn't be coming in. I very rarely call in sick and I always feel guilty about it. I always wonder 'did they find someone to cover my shift?' 'Are they short-staffed now?' 'Could I have managed to go into work feeling like this?' I dunno, I always just feel like a jerk.

I went back to bed and got up around ten. My blood sugar was still good so I had some breakfast. At this point I was feeling better so I sat around on the computer until Tyler woke up. After that I fell asleep on the couch for almost three hours. I woke up starving and found that my blood sugar was low, I hadn't had any lunch yet.

I spent most of the rest of the day laying around. Tyler made me take a bath, even though I didn't really want to. I hate bathes, but surprisingly it did make me feel better. After dinner, Andrea came over and we sat around watching old Christmas movies for a bit.

I slept away half of the day but I'm still pretty tired so I'm going to head to bed now :)

Day 9 -Company

Tyler and I love having people over. Even before we moved in, we knew that we wanted to make sure that our friends and family felt welcome in our place.

Whether it's having people over for drinks, for dinner, or for a movie night, we love having company. Tonight we had Greg and Jen over for cards. Last night, Lisa and Matt came over for a movie and the night before that they came over for dinner, pork chops. Tyler is quite a cook and I thought they were delicious.

We've had Lisa and Matt over a couple of times, his sister and his dad as well as my mom and Claudio. We had an awesome Halloween party. We had Tonya and Jodi over for game night, we had Tim and Sofia over for Visa Monopoly. We've had Andrea over plenty of times too, she even came to help us decorate our Christmas tree! Tyler's grandparents came over a few days ago to have tea. We love for other people to feel welcome in our home and to share in what we have.

I hope that none of my friends ever feel too shy to ask us to hang out, we would love to have you over anytime! We love to cook for you or to have you over to play a board game whenever you're available. Just let us know when you're free!

Day 8 - Christmas Shopping

Last year was awesome. I got ninety per cent of my Christmas shopping done in November. Every year I come up with ideas of what to get people and then can never find the things when I actually go shopping. Not last year, last year was Christmas Shopping Nirvana. Everything I wanted to get I found...on sale half of the time! Yeah, last year's Christmas shopping was awesome.

This year? Not so much. I've got my dad's gift bought, all of Tyler's gifts bought, his sister's gifts bought and...nothing else. Not even very many ideas. I dunno, this year it just seems harder for some reason. Maybe it's trying to budget more, maybe it's that I'm not spending as much time with my parents or Tyler's parents so I don't know what they need...whatever it is, this year is different.

I know that in the end I will find stuff for everyone that they will hopefully like, it's just a bit of a pain in the ass getting there this year!

Day 7 - My Doctor

My family doctor is an idiot, seriously, are all family doctors like this? Or is it just mine? The biggest problem with my doctor is that he is an idiot, but he thinks he knows it all.

I went to the office today for an appointment, I didn't even know what the appointment was for, just that I had to get bloodwork done last week for it. So I get there, the nurse weighs me, takes my blood pressure and then tells me to wait for the doctor. He comes in and immediately starts asking me what insulin I'm taking and how much (its not like I answered these exact questions the last time I was there a month ago).

Then he starts going on about some other long acting insulin that he thinks is superior to the one that I'm already taking. From what I could understand, the only reason that it is better is because I would only have to take it once a day instead of twice. He starts telling me that I could just start taking it and then upping it every day until my blood sugars are good.

I sorry but I just got to a point where I'm really happy with my blood sugars and the amount on insulin I'm taking. I've been on the insulin that I'm on since I was diagnosed six and a half years ago. This does not mean it is time for a change. It does mean that I know how it works, I know how it works with my body and I'm comfortable with it. I tell the doctor this and of course, he doesn't agree.

He says "Well, if you think you're doing alright fine, I guess you can keep using that one. I'm just saying, in my profession opinion and in my experience, this one would work better for you." I'm sorry, is this not the same person who asked me at my last two appointments whether I was taking insulin to manage my diabetes or not? In my personal opinion, I think I'll stick with the insulin I'm using until I decide to switch or until my endocrinologist recommends something different.

Then he says to me "I don't think you're doing as well as you think you are since your blood sugar was sixteen last week when you had your blood work done." When he said this I wanted to scream, I explained this to him last time I had blood work done. He is a doctor and I never expected that I would have to explain this to him, let alone explain it a second time.

So I say to him. "I had my bloodwork done at eleven in the morning, I hadn't taken my morning insulin yet." He just looks at me blankly and says "Yes, but you took your insulin the night before." Hello??? Yes, I took my insulin the night before...twelve hours before! How long does he think it lasts? He expects me to fast before my bloodwork, I am not going to take any insulin at all if I can't eat anything. If I take insulin and my blood sugar drops and I can't eat or drink anything with sugar, I'm screwed. I'll have to have something and then I won't be able to get my bloodwork done.

My a1c (which is a three month average of my blood sugar) has dropped almost 2% in the last two months. Does my doctor give a shit about that? No! All he cares about is that my blood sugar was high the morning I had my bloodwork done and that I didn't want to take the insulin that he seems to like so much.

This pisses me off to no end. My doctor has set me up with a diabetes nurse and a new endocrinologist at Mac. I've met with the nurse already and she didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with me, my bloodwork or the medication that I'm taking. If something works, why change it? I don't understand why, when I have these two other specialists looking after me, do I even need to discuss my diabetes with my family doctor? It makes no sense!

Anyway, rant over, I'm done for the day. Goodnight friends.

Day 6 - Hula Hooping

So I've been wanting to get a hula hoop for a really long time. I used to love hula hooping when I was a kid and I was always pretty good at it. I finally got one last week and decided to put it to use tonight. I moved the table over to make space and got to it.

The first thing that I noticed was that it was not heavy enough, it didn't want to stay up. I improvised, put some elastics on it, ran some bungee cord around the outside and filled the inside with pencils, it works well now :)

Anyway, hula hooping is fun, but its also really good for you. It is great for burning calories and getting rid of belly fat AND it tones your stomach muscles. But that's not all! It's also good for your internal organs because it massages them, it increases spinal flexibility, tones thigh muscles, gets your heart going etc.

I hooped for about forty-five minutes today and my muscles are already sore, my stomach, my thighs and my neck. I think I'm going to try and do it every day. It's fun and I can stand right in front of my tv while I'm doing it!

I definitely needed it tonight to burn off all of the delicious Chinese food that I ate at my work Christmas party! Yum!

Day 5 - Christmas Carols

Sometimes I wish that we could sing Christmas carols all year long. They are one of my favourite things about Christmas and they always bring back happy memories for me.

Today we went to my Grandparent's house for my mom's birthday celebration. My mom's birthday has always been tied to Christmas since it is at the beginning of November. We used to always put the Christmas tree up on, or around, my mom's birthday. The last few years we've gone to my Grandparents' and the evening always ends the same. We sing Christmas carols, do devotions, and then light the candle on the Advent Wreath.

Music is a big thing in my family, singing and playing instruments. I have wonderful childhood memories of my parents singing, alone and together, my uncles singing, all of us singing in church, and all of us singing Christmas carols together. I love the songs, the words, the familiar tunes.

To me, singing a Christmas song with family truly feels like...coming home. They remind me of my childhood, they remind me of awesome Christmases passed, they remind me snow and presents and good food. They remind me of the birth of Christ.

Sometimes I wish we could sing Christmas carols all year even though I know I will probably be pretty sick of them by the time Christmas gets here :)

Day 4 - Mom

What is a Mother?
A mother is someone to shelter and guide us,
To love us, whatever we do,
With a warm understanding and infinite patience.
And wonderful gentleness, too.
How often a mother means swift reassurance
In soothing our small, childish fears,
How tenderly mothers watch over their children
And treasure them all through the years!
The heart of a mother is full of forgiveness
For any mistake, big or small,
And generous always in helping her family,
Whose needs she has placed above all.
A mother can utter a word of compassion
And make all our cares fall away,
She can brighten a home with the sound of her laughter
And make life delightful and gay.
A mother possesses incredible wisdom
And wonderful insight and skill
In each human heart is that one special corner
Which only a mother can fill!
Katherine Nelson Davis

Today is my mom's birthday, so I'm dedicating this blog to her. My mom is the only mother that I could ever imagine having. She has always supported me and encouraged me in everything I do, whether it be getting good grades, moving out or writing a novel. Every thing that I do is important to her and she genuinely cares and wants to hear about it all.
I trust the advice that she has given me and continues to give over the advice of anyone else I know. I trust her opinions and her decisions in my life. I know that she would never force me to do something but she has no problem telling me what she thinks that I should do :)
My mom has been a shoulder to cry on and a strong back to lean on when I needed it. There are times in my life that I know I wouldn't have gotten through without her. Today on her birthday I want to thank her for everything she has done for me.

I love you mom! Happy birthday!

Day 3 - Cats!

So, when Tyler and I first moved in, we moved in his cat - Rocky - and my cat - Tiny -. From the very beginning they did not get along. You might even say that they hated each other. Anyway, last week I made the very difficult decision of taking my cat back to my mom's house. Tiny is looking healthier and happier than she ever did living here with Tyler, Rocky and I. She loves my mom and Claudio and gets along with my mom's cats, Mercedes and Finnigan, very well.

Also, Tyler's sister got a kitten, Misha, for her birthday, adorable little thing, we all fell in love with her. After Tyler and I moved out, they got another kitten, Dusty. To make a long story short, Dusty and Misha were not getting along. Misha started peeing on the floor in the kitchen.
Tyler and I agreed today to take Misha home with us for a trial. We already know that Rocky and Misha get along, they lived together for almost two months and got along very well. We put a stipulation on the deal that if she continues to pee outside of the litter box, she will have to go back.
So far, this doesn't seem to be a problem. Rocky hissed a little when he saw her, but now they're playing and terrorizing the apartment together. Misha has already used the litter box and she found the food and water dishes in the kitchen all by herself.
Misha is six months old and is a sweet and adorable cat, I think she will make a good addition to our little family :)

Day 2

One of the reasons I hate getting blood taken ^ I always bleed like crazy and end up with a bruise the size of a toonie :(

Going to be a short post today since I'm not feeling all that great. Tyler and I had brinner tonight (breakfast for dinner), I made pancakes from scratch which Tyler loved, but have left me feeling quite sick to my stomach. I'm not sure if I'll be making those again anytime soon! I also made myself scrambled eggs which were awesome.



Ugh, tomorrow morning it's off to the dentist and then I'm going to relax in the afternoon for once. Anyway, I think I'm going to have some crackers and peanut butter and then head to bed. Sorry again for the short post, hopefully more tomorrow!

BEDD!

So I almost flubbed out of my first day of BEDD (Blog Every Day in December) because we had some totally awesome dinner guests and got our curtains put up this evening, but I have twenty-five minutes left of December 1st and I'm going to get cracking here :).

This blog is going to be mostly random (as I'm sure a lot will be this month), but here goes :).

Tyler and I had my mom and Claudio over for dinner tonight for the first time since we moved in. They also helped us put our curtains up, it was a little late though by the time we got to that (sorry to our neighbours for the drilling!!). I am so pleased to finally have curtains in the bedroom though. When we first moved in, it was so hot in their in the mornings it was absolutely impossible to sleep in. It's still pretty hard to sleep past 9:30 or 10 with the sun baking in. I know I will be sleeping much better now!

Unfortunately, I won't be sleeping in any time soon. I worked this week Sunday - Wednesday and have a busy next few days ahead. Tomorrow I need to get up relatively early so that I can get to my doctor's office and get some of my blood stolen. I have to fast for twelve hours before hand so I can't go too late in the day. I have to do my insulin in the morning and I can't go too long without eating something after I do my insulin, I also can't wait until it's really late to take my insulin. This means that I will probably have to get up around 8 or 8:30 and get out of here shortly after, I'm hoping to get to the clinic for 9 or 9:30.

After I get my bloodwork done, I'm going to head over to the dollar store to get my Christmas cards, then I just need to get some stamps and I can mail them out! I'm excited, but I need to get going on those soon or they won't be out before Christmas. After that I'm going to go home and do nothing for a little while.

On Friday I'm off work as well, but no sleeping in for me. I have a dentist appointment at 9:00. Since my health coverage will be ending with my twenty-first birthday at the end of January, my dentist's office is going to try to get as much work done on my mouth as possible before then. This means that I have a two hour dentist appointment on Friday. I'm not even sure what they can possibly do in my mouth for two hours, but so be it.

Then on Saturday I'm back in to work 12 - 8 and Sunday 8:30 to 4:30. I'm seriously hoping to be off on Monday because I have a doctor's appointment on Tuesday to go over the results of my bloodwork. No rest for me these days, it feels like every time I have a day off, I've got some kind of appointment. In the last two months I've been to the dentist once, the doctor's twice, the eye doctor once and my new endocrinologist once. It's crazy and then I have these three appointments as well. I'm looking forward to when they're all over :P.

But yeah, today was a good day. Tyler made a roast again with roasted carrots, potatoes and...parsnips. Tyler is colour blind and sending him to the grocery store to get carrots can come with interesting results. We cooked them anyway even though he stopped in today to get carrots as well and they came out pretty good. They kind of just tasted like carrots. We also had mashed potatoes and corn, delicious. Apple danishes, cheese cake and nuts for desert really made the meal as well.

By the time we were finished with a late dinner and an even later desert it was 9:30, ahh! Time to put the curtains up! After we put the curtains up we hung around for a while. I showed my mom some funny videos on youtube since she currently doesn't have sound on her computer at home while Claudio relaxed on the couch. My mom helped me do the dishes and then headed home. It was a great visit and I hope that we can have them over again sometime soon.

Anyway, I guess that's it for tonight, I don't want to run out of steam on the very first day. Tomorrow I'll probably talk about my novel or something :P