Monday, August 6, 2012

Where have I been?!?!

That is a PERFECTLY legit question, and my answer to that question is.... I was busy!  This summer has been such whirlwind of wonderful events that I haven't really spent much time online at all. I have done so many different things this summer and we still have SO many more activites. Some highlights have been driving to Montreal for a romantic weekend with my hubby, white water rafting, cliffing diving and body surfing down a rapid! swimming in a river, horseback riding, 3 day camping/music/corn fest! my mom coming for a week. visiting an outdoor spa (previously spoken about in an earlier post). We've also visited lots of festivals and parades and oodles of other fun things. This past thursday I went to a concert held in a friends home. Basically we've been busy bees! All of this on top of working a full time job has left us with not much time for anything else!  I've completely given up tv because it was a time waster (i still watch and download movies but only for evenings when i'm free. Sadly and happily the summer is almost over (it's been SO FREAKING HOT!) and winter is right on our tails. With winter coming means lots more baking/cooking (i only grill in the summer months) also gourmet donut making (i'll go into detail once that project is back up and running) also planning our almost 3 week trip to France this coming April! So, be patient and within a couple of months i'll be back and hopefully much more loyal than I have been.

How is your summer?

Thursday, May 10, 2012

moving forward

This whole working 40 hours a week is something I have to get used to again. That's right! I started my job and considering it's been almost a year since I lasted worked, I'm pretty impressed with how well I'm adjusting. On top of that I get my first full paycheck today and that feels AMAZING!
Lee also started a new job last week that is paying more and finally giving him a full time position. We've been "celebrating" our new found income and finally decided what to do with it. We've been looking at houses...well condos and town homes and we found a couple that we really liked. We wanted to go see them and thought it would be a good idea to maybe get pre-approved for a mortgage! (just in case! hehe) we had our appointment on Tuesday and it didn't go as planned. Basically we need at LEAST another year of credit to qualify for anything reasonable  :( I  was pretty upset to say the least and we decided NOT to book the viewings for the different places we wanted to see. WE DID, however decide that we'll get our second year of credit AND we'll save up enough for atleast a10% down payment in the next year. By that time I'm SURE we'll find some better places than we found right now, it's just sad to think that my idea of the perfect home will be in someone else's hands :( oh well. i'll get over it. So, what does this mean? Basically it means that even though we have the combined income to live comfortably I'm going to be placing my paycheck straight into the saving account and live off of Lee's salary for another year (which is possible since we did it with less last year!) And then hopefully by our 3rd wedding anniversary we'll be closing on our new home!
Other than that, not much to talk about. I haven't seen my girlfriends on a regular basis since starting work which is super sad. I'm hanging out with my bestie Jessilynn tonight and I saw Miranda last night but it's just not the same. I can't let the fact that I have a job ruin things for me. I guess it just takes some getting used to...

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

6 years down....

and forever to go!

6 years ago (tomorrow) i found this really cute guy while browsing through myspace. i messaged him on aim and a couple of hours later i received a simple reply of ....."hello" it was so smooth and after that clever opening we talked for about 4 hours. 4 hours of everything and nothing. 4 hours of real LOL's and secret behind the computer smiles. Did I think I'd fall in love with this guy? I think I was always open to that possibility. Either way here we are and I oddly enough have to thank myspace for their browsing options! without which I might have never seen this photo....


we don't have much planned for our 6 year anniversary and also for our 2nd wedding anniversary mainly because we're going to France in February next year (i'll explain later) but i do have a spa trip planned for next sunday which includes a couples massage and a Scandinavian Spa experience!



also, i have a photoshoot planned with one of my girlfriends to do some boudoir shots IF i can find the right place to do them, if not then we'll just take some pretty shots of me. LOL  and also we'll finally have our couples photoshoot throughout Old Quebec next month when the plants are in full bloom! I'm super excited to celebrate this year with my husband in our new city.


...

With a new job in my pocket I have been shopping like a MAD WOMAN! I've been to Old Navy 3 times this past week because I caught them on like a super sale or something! I bought 2 dress pants (1 of which are these beautiful navy wide legged trousers for $2.99) 2 dresses and 11 tops for about $55! I also scored 2 dresses and 1 dress top on the $7 rack at H&M! After my first pay check I promised myself some swanky new heels and I'm terribly excited about those! I've been looking all over and I found a pair at Zara I'd really like to own. They're not expensive ($30) so I'm thinking I could buy these and still get another pair hehe kinda like a bundle package  :)
cute right?!

I'm pretty sure they're going to be mine along with another pair that I can't seem to find on the website.


another fun photo of my ladies and me! we stayed at the beautiful Chateau Frontenac for a little girls night and it was SO much fun. i love these pretty gals and i'm so sad i will not be able to see them everyday now but we have to move on. i'm planning a little girls night at my place this weekend since the hubby will be in florida. :)

other than that not too much going on. we've finished painting our apartment and it's looking so good. it was originally this awful robins egg blue in the living room and this egg yoke color in the kitchen. it's been driving me crazy since we moved in and this 4 day weekend i decided to do something about it! it looks SO goooooood. luckily we did it just in time for lee's mom to come along with our babies. that's right, we're getting our 2 kitties back! it's been almsot 1 1/2 years since we had to bring them to florida and this weekend they're coming home. we've been slowly cat proofing the house and it's almost done! we're so excited. 

alrighty, i've gotta get to school. have a great day and start looking for ootd posts that should be coming along with the warmer weather!


Sunday, March 25, 2012

great week!

So, we didn't win the playoffs this dodgeball season but that's ok. in 2 weeks we'll have a chance to do it all over again. :)

i got the job! she called me the next day and offered the positionn!!! i was so ecstatic and i start in 3 weeks. also they're cool with taking my vacation with the hubby which is also pretty dang awesome.  :D

my 25th birthday was absolutely amazing! i had the best people around me and so a supportive family with my dodgeball team. i couldn't have asked for anything better <3

i'd post a longer ramble but we're getting ready for game day at our place  

ciao

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

time flies


i cannot believe that march is almost over! We're going to have summer here in absolute no time and I'm am SO ready for it! This month has been very good to me as far as socially and educationally. lol I've been moved up to French 2 and am seriously considering studying up and moving to French 3 within 2 -3 weeks. I've been busy with my gal pals and boy toys. lol. I've made another AMAZING friend named Robert. He's an older gentlemen and absolutely Fabulous lol. Right now I'm missing him terribly because he's been in London for a week but he'll be back in time for my Birthday Sushi Night! I've been able to start shopping again and it felt wonderful. We have beaucoup d'argent (lots of money) coming from our taxes in the states which has allowed me to buy some summer staples. Also, I just had one of the best job interviews I've ever had! The interview was for a real grownup job too! I work in an office and have a desk and there's no cash register or selling or dealing with customers of any sort. The lady interviewing me loved me and I'm seriously hoping I get the position and that they're ok with me taking 2 weeks off in May to go on vacation cause yeah I need a vacation from my vacation! lol For vacation we're planning on going to Cape Cod, Boston, Maine and if we have the time and energy Niagra Falls. We've found some great deals on Living Social and Groupon so it's also a super affordable trip. Dodgeball playoffs are this week and I'm proud to say that my team is going into the playoffs in 2nd place out of 8 teams! Hopefully we'll pull a 1st place victory like we did last season.  hmmm what else can I  put in this ramble of a post?  I guess that's it. I gotta go pick up the hubster  I'll leave you with some photos from this weekend...


top: julia, mirand
bottom: jessilynn, me



miranda, hubby, jess


Monday, February 27, 2012

etc...

Finally! I've been cleared for sports and and exercise! The recovery wasn't as long as originally thought and thank goodness for that! I don't think I could have handled 3 weeks of no Dodgball. We're in the middle of the season and I need to be there as often as possible.

March is just around the corner and there is so much happening the month. I'm still amazed at how much has changed since meeting the girls a new comers event a couple of months ago we've become a group of 5 and it's so freaking awesome! I've never had a group of friends like this. We can all hang out together or we can hang out separately and we just have fun. It's fascinating. We have lots of plans for March, inlcuding Miranda's 26th birthday party, my 25th Birthday dinner, OUR birthday hotel night for just us girls which will be taking place at the beautiful Chateau Frontenac and so much more! It's intense but so freaking awesome.

We've started looking at houses! We're not rushing into anything but we've definitely started looking. We have a lease until next year but we found out that we can pretty much get a mortgage with nothing down and we qualify for a good amount. We're just waiting until we find the perfect place :) I, of course, am obsessed with looking at places but I'm being reasonable. There are a lot of things on my hubands checklist which makes it pretty hard to find something for him to be interested in. But, like I said, we're in no rush. Though, I am hoping that we have something before next summer! I'd like to use some of the money from the mortgage to visit our friends who will be moving to France for a year! Shhh....

Baby talk has not been uttered out of my mouth for quite some time now and it's SUCH  relief! I think because of having a life and friends again it's really really helped with that. I think the whole baby thing was about filling a void and now that void has been filled (for the moment) it's a lot of pressure off.

Me and the hubby have been doing AMAZINGLY well! We've kind of gotten back into a honeymoon stage or we're just truly, madly and deeply in love with eachother! I'm not sure but I LOVE IT! We have so much fun together and it's just so great. We're going on 6 years this year and 2 years of marriage which I know isn't a LONG time but it's special to me. I love him <3


That's about it for now. I gotta meet the girls for dinner very soon. ciao and HAPPY MONDAY!

Monday, February 13, 2012

karma?

shortly after that last post my appendix decided it was tired  of being inside of me and went into attack mode. I had emergency surgery and spent the weekend in the hospital. I'm on bed rest for the next week and  cannot play dodgeball for atleast the next month! all I can say about this is that Thank Goodness it happened here in Quebec and not while I was in the states! My insurance paid for EVERYTHING. So, all we have to worry about is getting better. that feels good. i'll keep you posted.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Progress

We go in expecting everything to work out the way it's supposed to. In a perfect world we expect to always be happy. If only life were that simple.


I've experience a lot of emotions in that past 8 months and even MORE throughout the last 6 years and it's been hard and impossible sometimes but that's because as humans we seem to focus so much on the bad and we let the good slip right by us. I'd like to think that if there was a chart of my life the good would more than out weigh the bad.

I've met some amazing people in the short time span that I've been living in Quebec. I've started going to school, I've made some amazing girlfriends and I've become a part of a community. I've made a life for myself here. I feel at home.





Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Lots going on these past 2 weeks and so much more to come!

We finally moved out on our own!!! It's been a little over a year of living with family and friends but we've finally bounced back and have our own apartment! It's really an amazing feeling and its SO nice to have our own stuff again. We've been unpacking all week and we keep finding little items we forgot we owned.  it's awesome. : )

Dodgeball starts back up tonight. I'm excited to have my team back minus 1 player. The games have been moved to Wednesday night and it just doesn't work with his schedule : /  luckily we might have another couple join our team which would bring us to the official ratio of 4 guys 2 girls. I'm working on having shirts made up before mid season. I'll post a preview of the design as soon as I have one worth posting.

Starting this week we're taking a small business coaching course on Thursday nights. That's right, we're looking to become our own bosses! It's something we've wanted to do for a while now and we've finally come up with an idea that might take us exactly where we want to go. I'm not mentioning too much just yet because it's something that isn't in the area and we don't want competition just yet! lol  Again...once we get started I'll bring you in on the big secret!


thats all for right now...;




Thursday, January 12, 2012

we got it!!!

we got the apartment! I cannot even begin to tell you what we`ve been through these past 8 days and it`s not even over with yet! we`re signing the lease at 6:30 pm and we can move in this weekend. now we have to figure out how to get our things.....long story and i`ll explain once we`re settled into our new place!!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

waiting game...(updated)

this waiting game is killing me! the landlord is running a credit check and lee says that they don't run credit unless they're interested in you and usually only do it if:  A we're first in line for the apartment or B the first guy didn't pass his credit check and we're next in line. I don't really care which one it is as long as we end up with this place. i can't seem to think about anything else. it's seriously consuming me.





I made Julia Childs Boeuf Bourguignon today. When I need to stop thinking about something...I cook. It came out delish and the wonderful thing about this recipe is that it's actually better the next day! So, dinner tomorrow is set  :)




This is the 7up crate we bought. Isn't he awesome?!?!



i love thrifting.

we have a couple of apartments to see today. 1 is again in the desired area and the other is in THE HOLY GRAIL aka Old Quebec. I've wanted to live in Old Quebec for EVER and the only reason it wasn't an option is because parking is either expensive or impossible. Well, the apartment we found actually has parking and for a very decent price! I'm excited!

Anywho, this post is called I Love Thrifting. We went to 5 of best thrift stores around us and came out with some awesome finds. We found a cute little garlic terracotta garlic holder for $1, we found this really cute wooden dining room set for $90 (it's on hold for us) and we found a stove for $75 (apartments don't come with appliances) at another thrift store we found THE COUCH!!! she's gorgeous and everything I hoped for. We didn't buy her yet because we're not sure if we got the first apartment and it might be too big for anyother place. We told them that we were very interested and if anyone came to buy it to call us and we'll come and purchase it ahead of them! (sneaky sneaky). At 1 of the other places we found this awesome 7up antique crate. Other than it being a cleaning project it was in pretty good shape. Lee and I looked at eachother and because it had no price walked up to the counter. We asked the teenager (yay!) what the price was.....she looked it over.....looked it over.....and then said the magic words .....$5!!!!! We bought it right there. It's so freakign cool and was a breeze to clean up. We now have 2 awesome antique crates and hope to add to the collection over time.  :)

so yeah... I love thrifting. end of story.

lol

Saturday, January 7, 2012

apartments!!!

So, some things have come up and we're leaving our friends home sometime this month. It's obviously a wee bit soon than expected but it's also for the best. They've been having serious problems for months and lately we've been brought into those problems more than we would like.  So, the hubster and I started looking at places. At first we were looking at renting a room because we really didn't want to have to spend so much money on an apartment. That only lasted a day. We finally realize that you CANNOT put a price on privacy!!! We found this great 1 bedroom not too far from where we're living now and the price is freaking AMAZING. It's seriously what we were looking to spend for room with roommates. There are 2 other people who are seriously interested but we're hoping that they pick us. We have a couple of other places to see today. Two of them are in our desired neighborhood but they're going to cost us a little bit more. Anywhose, we're waiting and we're packing because if they choose us, the move in date in Jan 15th! I'm insanely excited because I can finally go through all my pinterest folders and pick out stuff that we can actually do to make our apartment the super gangster apartment it can be!

 I'll keep you posted on the details 

Monday, January 2, 2012

2012

Bonne Année!!!

Happy New Year!!!


parliament building in Old Quebec

grumpy carriage horse

my favorite place


i'm really enjoying the whole panoramic setting on my camera!

my school friend julia and her fiance freddy

julia is a face schmoosher!





our yearly photo <3