Relieved it's Friday

November is crazy. It's going by in about 4 seconds. I am constantly exhausted, I have been eating terrible, sleeping terrible and barely exercising. What is going on? Maybe I'm booking too many fun events in? Nah, that can't be it! I haven't cleaned my house properly in ages. Things just seem to be sliding. I need to give my head a shake and get things back on track. I think I need to cut out my computer time and force myself to do other things. It's tough when you're tired though. It's so easy to just zone out and look at the screen.

So besides going to see Margaret Atwood, I want to do the following this weekend:

• Clean the apartment- bathrooms, floors, kitchen

• Finish reading my book- Falling Angels by Barbara Gowdy

• Give myself a pedicure

• Floss

• Grocery shop

• Cook and eat something nutritious

• Write out a Christmas list (both for what I want and what I need to buy)

• Get Matt a birthday present

• Put our new mixed CDs on the computer

Okay, I will check back on Sunday and see what I managed to accomplish. Hopefully this will motivate me and keep me accountable.

Party Preparation

Through some sort of miracle I had Halloween weekend off. Since it's possible I haven't complained to everyone in the world, my work schedule sucks a lot. Need proof? I work until 11pm on Christmas and then I get New Year's Eve off but work at 7 am on New Year's Day. Yeah.

Anyway, I don't want to open that can of rage right now. Asia doesn't really celebrate Halloween (other than in a watered down, bastardized form) so I was pretty excited this year and decided to go all out. Steph and Alisse hosted a party at their place and I helped with a lot of the preparations. I carved a pumpkin, helped decorate, decorated a gingerbread house, helped make a million orange and purple (they looked black) jello shots and I made a spooky Halloween themed appetizer for the party. Here's a slide show of all the hard work.

I'm not dead...

I have just been really busy. My schedule for work is a bit unbalanced so I was working a lot last week. I've had some time off and that has been used to frantically prepare for Halloween. I am really excited! Asia doesn't really do Halloween so it's been awhile since I really celebrated it. Steph is hardcore into stuff like I am so we're being pretty ambitious. Maybe it will backfire? Anyway, look forward to some updates about our Halloween tasks soon!

Another Attempt at Cooking

I had the Tuesday after the Thanksgiving weekend off from work so I decided to try using the crock pot again. This time I tackled beef stew and made some baking powder biscuits to go along with it.

I had fabulous ingredients since Mom had loaded us up with fresh potatoes, carrots and beets from her garden. I bought some nice beef and trimmed it carefully. The stew turned out pretty good- it tasted nice. I should have added the potatoes later so they weren't annihilated and the beets made the whole thing pretty red. Oh well. The biscuits were nice but pretty filling. I used half whole wheat flour and half regular when making them. I also substituted skim milk for regular and margarine for butter.

It was an especially good idea since the weather was crappy outside. I am glad that the snow is finally gone but I am sure it will be back soon.

Peanut Butter Pork

So I decided to try and be domestic and made supper the other night. I used the crock pot since I love that you can dump stuff in it and leave it alone. I decided to try an unusual sounding recipe that had great reviews: Asian Peanut Butter Pork. Overall it turned out pretty tasty. The pork was moist and tender and the sauce wasn't really that peanut buttery, it was more like an unusual sweet sauce (but not in a bad way). I went all out and even picked up the recommended garnishes and I'm glad that I did since the lime really helped add some lightness to the dish. The sauce is really heavy. Everyone liked it, however, it's not really the type of thing you'd want to eat everyday. The website I found the recipe on looks pretty interesting. The writer made all of her family's meals in the crock pot for an entire year and blogged about it. Lots of good ideas! Does this mean I will be cooking all the time? No, sorry folks. I still dislike it immensely!

Otherwise...

Life has been busy. I don't know where August went, actually. You can see from the picture that Matt has started to study again for his LSAT rewrite. He's started his new job and really enjoys it too. My job is going well but is pretty crazy these days. I'll be relieved once the other two new full time workers start because right now all the casual workers are going back to school so there are a lot of shifts that need covering. I work a lot this weekend and really cherish my days off so I'm not too keen on picking up extra shifts (especially since they would be paid out at a lower wage). I guess I am a bit selfish but I need my down time. Tonight I am hoping to do something fun but I'm waiting for Matt to get home from work before we plan anything.

Moving Day!

The next morning was a little bit rough- Steph didn't get home until 7 am! But we all managed to get up and going. We picked my stepbrother, Jules, up in Vegreville and I yelled at my other brother who was clearly doing nothing and was just being a selfish ass and refusing to help. Karma's a bitch and he will get his. We got everything from the trailer into the apartment (which is on the 3rd floor! Groan.) in about an hour and we were both so grateful to those that helped us out. Honestly if Jules hadn't come we would have died. Matt and Jules carried so many large, heavy items (often working as a team) and it would have been a nightmare if he hadn't come out. Thank you so much Jules! You really came through when we needed you. Everything was pretty dusty since it had been sitting idly for 3 years. You can see the dust all over my face and boobs in the really unflattering picture of me and Steph.

We've been in the apartment for a week now and most things are unpacked. It was interesting seeing what we decided to keep. So far we've thrown away or donated almost as much as we've kept. I feel like I'm starting fresh. I think things should be settled by the time Leah comes around.

After we finished unloading everything we took all our helpers to Boston Pizza for a thank you lunch. Thanks again Steph, Jules, Mom and Tom! We couldn't have done it without you!

Quick Hello

We are great but things have been extremely busy this week! I am using "borrowed" internet in our new apartment!! That's right, we are in and it's a huge mess so I'm really glad Leah won't be here for a few more weeks. She would be frightened away, I'm sure! I still have to update about the wedding, a bit about starting my new job, maybe about my government job interview (although I think I will avoid work related stuff on here since I've heard people get fired for that sort of thing), the V-town fair and moving day, of course. Wow. I am exhausted just typing this and I still have to clean a bunch of stuff up before I go to work for 8 hours this afternoon. I can't wait until Thursday and Friday when I have a couple days off to really deal with unpacking. Hopefully this internet will stay available (and the magical free cable TV that we have at the moment!) so I can update some more!