Oddly enough Blake is getting New Years Eve off this year. We flirted with the idea of going out with friends but seems that most people already have plans. Our friends Lynn and Robbie invited us to go with them over to a friend's house but the owner of the house did not invite us personally so we don't feel like crashing the party. I do know the girl from high school but we are by no means close friends or ever were. So we decided to be a good boy and girl and stick within our $30.00 budget and...
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Dear New Next Door Neighbour...
I understand how excited you are too be on "holidays" but please don't be a douche and play rap music until 2:00am on a Monday night. I will not be so understanding 2 nights in a r...
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas Recap
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas this year. Ours was nuts as usual but not as bad as I expected it to be. I survived my in-laws house and the turkey ordeal, (probably because there was plenty of wine) but it was nice to catch up with my sister-in-laws. The kids got really nice gifts and we both got some good stuff too. Afterward we dropped off Jenna and still made it home early enough that the kids stayed awake in the van. Blake and I spent about 1 1/2 hours playing Santa and putting away all...
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without Drama
AAAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!!!I am super pissed. Here's why:Every American Thanksgiving (end of November) my mother goes to the States to purchase a turkey for stupid cheap for Christmas. A few years ago I decided to go with her to get the turkey for my husband's Christmas dinner and I bought this huge turkey for about $14.00! That Christmas Eve as we were waiting to sit down for dinner I asked one of my sister-in-laws who was cooking how she was making out with my turkey. She confided in me that she did...
Monday, December 21, 2009
In A Funk
Ever have those days where you wake up and realize your life is not anything like you imagined it to be years ago? I'm having one of those days. And no I'm not PMSing. I'm in a funk. I'm itching for a change but I'm stuck as I don't know what the change is that I want. Make sense? Maybe I'm just tired of the same old, same old, you know? I hate the town I live in, its full of old people and their stupid cats that like to shit all over my yard. There is nobody here my age, except the neighbour next...
Friday, December 18, 2009
Survivor Fans?
I am so excited for Survivor Finale this Sunday!!! I am in a contest for this season's Survivor and Jaison is my guy. I really don't think he will win it overall, but I am predicting that he will make it to final 3 along with Russell and Natalie. (I personally don't think he should win either!) I think that Russell has been the all-time greatest player of Survivor ever, but I'm not so sure the other cast-offs will see it that way as he really screwed over a lot of them. If you are a Survivor fan...
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A Surprise Visit
So yesterday as I was beginning to clean my kitchen, someone knocks on the door. We live in a small town of about 1000 people 45 minutes each way from the nearest big city so this is very rare. Usually, if someone knocks on the door its someone selling something so I hesitantly answered it. Much to my surprise it was my sister-in-law and niece who live 1 1/2 hours away! Wow, I was surprised but delighted at the same time. They presented me with coffee (Tim Hortons, mmm), a very beautiful gently...
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
House Cleaning Schedule
How do you clean your house? Well, I have tried 2 methods. Method 1- Clean each room of the house all in one dayMethod 2- Pick 1-2 rooms and divide over 5 days (Monday-Friday)Pros of Method 1- Entire housework complete in 1 day- Flexibility on which day to cleanCons of Method 1- Very exhausting- Frustrating as children constantly interrupting - Frustrating as one room gets cleaned and then someone messes it up while I'm cleaning another room- Cleaning not done as thoroughly due to lack of energy...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Christmas Plans
What are your Christmas plans? Every year we travel lots as we live in between our two families - about an hour each way. On Christmas Eve we go to Blake's family's house for dinner where we each picked names at Thanksgiving and exchange presents between the adults. Everyone buys for each of the kids. We always provide the turkey as I get it from the states when they have their Thanksgiving sale. We usually have Jenna too and have to drive her home which is about 45 minutes from Blake's dad's house...
Monday, December 14, 2009
On A Roll
Well we are on a roll with our home renovations! We are almost complete with my storage room/office, it should be complete in the next few days. All we have left is to cut, paint and install a bit of ceiling trim and do some minor mudding and paint touch ups. Last thing to do is purchase and install a mini blind but I am planning on buying more blinds for other rooms in the house and plan to do that all at once. Other rooms in the house need simple things done too and its awesome we are almost finished....
Friday, December 11, 2009
Money, Money, Money!!!
I guess tomorrow we are taking an unexpected trip to town. Blake's vacation pay cheque is in (they always pay this by cheque instead of direct deposit) and also his Christmas gift from his boss. Every year his boss gives 3 $50.00 gift certificates to a local butcher shop but this year he hired a whole whack of employees and its now only 2 $50.00 gift certificates :( however we are grateful for this generous gift regardless. This butcher shop is expensive but the meat is super yummy. We are purchasing...
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Mail Bag Goodies
Over the past week I received some awesome goodies in the mail:-$11.85 cheque from Glade Mail In Rebate-$40.00 in President's Choice gift cards from Glade promo-3x Chapman's calculators-1x Chapman's Notepad with Pen-1x Today's Parent magazine (free with Air Miles redemption)-1x Neutrogena Men's Face Lotion Sample-Save.ca coupons including a FREE Glade Sense & Spray-FREE Alberto European Hair Product couponI love getting the mail...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Offical January 2010 Budget
As I stated in a previous post we established our January 2010 budget. Since our income is variable each month we have to base each month on our previous month's income. We chose to use November 2009 figures instead of December 2009 because December 2009 we will have a lot of unusual income coming in and we want to stay honest with our budget. To start we figured out what "Money Surprises" might come our way in January and budgeted for them. If the money is not spent, great! If it is we are covered...
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Update Continued
So Sunday we went to the states to finish up our shopping. We went to Kohls to each get an outfit for Christmas and also bought a vacuum. A Dyson to be exact. I love this vacuum! We have drooled over this magnificent piece of machinery for about 6 years and finally we bought one. Our current vacuum was over due to be replaced about a year ago and with installing carpet in 2 more rooms as part of our renovations we needed to buy a new one. I did forget about having to replace our vacuum until my...
Monday, December 7, 2009
Update
It's been a very busy and productive weekend *pats self on the back* as we finally accomplished many things. First, Blake and I discussed our 2010 Budget plans and realized we had 2 different perspectives on this goal. We both agreed that paying off the credit line is very important but its not likely going to happen in 2010 *pouts*. However, we have set a very great plan in place and I'm excited...
Friday, December 4, 2009
What I've Learned in 2009
I've learned several things about myself this past year.1) I DO NOT want anymore children. I love my kids with all my heart and soul. I have a boy & girl and a stepdaughter and that's enough for us. Crap, these 3 cost a fortunate and yes we are saving for post secondary education too here. Besides they all FINALLY sleep through the night. I don't want to sacrifice my sleep anymore, call me selfish but I like sleep.2) Although I stay at home, I still have a job. Before kids I used to work as...
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Mail Call
So yesterday afternoon I received my refund cheque from Reliance for $790.06! Can you believe these guys charged me that over 6 years when I own my own water heater. When I first bought my house I called them to see if my water heater was in fact a rental through them and they told me it was - all the while they had the wrong address. I remember calling them back after my first bill as the address at the top of the bill was for a different city but the bill part came to my correct address. They...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2010 Goals
Talking about my financial plans in yesterday's blog post inspired me to write out all my goals for 2010. So here we go:FINANCIAL -PAY OFF the Credit Line ($23,900) - This is going to be the hardest challenge for us for 2010. We should be able to knock off a good chunk over this next month and then its going to take some discipline (more on my husband's part). Blake gets restless and likes to spend money on a whim more so than I do, however he has no idea about our finances usually as this is "my...
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
1 Month Left!
Ah, it's December 1st. 1 month left to a fresh new start, a new year. I'm particularity excited for 2010 as this is the year we are going to *pay off* or pay down significantly our credit line. After this month we will be implementing our new budget for 2010 which I'm very excited about. Ever since I turned 18 and got my first credit card debt has been adding up with zero intention of paying it off until a few years ago when we decided I would be leaving the workforce to take care of our children....
Monday, November 30, 2009
Christmas Shopping
So we got the camera at Shoppers for $59.89 (tax was charged on the full price of $229.99 before $200.00 redemption). Stupid thing requires us to buy a memory card and this is also a Christmas gift so I can't post any pictures until then. I would however like to give my husband's head a shake as he forgot to use his Shopper's Mastercard to pay for the difference so we lost out on a lot of points. Oh course this is MY FAULT that he forgot because I didn't tell him to use it. Idiot. The only reason...
Friday, November 27, 2009
Weekend Plans
So our weekend has officially started since Blake works midnights and has Friday & Saturday nights off. He sleeps for a few hours Friday morning and then gets up and at 'em. Today is different though. I have a dentist appointment this afternoon so he is going to take Avelyn to pick up my stepdaughter Jenna and Zachary is in school until 3:30pm so after my appointment I am kid-free. Ah, to be kid-free again - those times are so few and far between for me. Blake gets to remove himself from the...
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Christmas Came A Month Early
Thanks to my Father-In-Law Christmas came early for me this year. Right now I am writing my blog on my brand new laptop connected to the internet by my brand new wireless router. You see my Father-In-Law forwarded us a virus which buggered up our computer so badly that my options were:A) No internet or computer until Christmas B) Wait around for my husband to fix the computer (which probably would have taken longer than waiting for Christmas)C) Open new laptop and wireless routerD) Punch Father-In-Law...
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Weeoooo!!!! It's Wednesday!!!
Hooray it's Wednesday! Why am I so freakin' excited? Because this week "Wednesday" is my "Friday" meaning I'm done work for this week. I babysit a little girl Lisa who is the same age as my daughter Avelyn 2-3 days a week. Being the same age is about the only thing they have in common. Avelyn is a sweet, mostly quiet, well-mannered child and Lisa is a loud tornado that rips through my house and looks at me like I'm stupid if I ask her to pick up her toys - who gets worse with age. Why don't I just...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Renovations Suck!
For the past 6 years we have been living through renovations. Yes, 6 YEARS! When we first purchased our house it was a complete disaster and they were necessary throughout the ENTIRE house. We have always seemed to take an "all or nothing" approach when it comes to renovations and they completely consume our "free" time. During the past 6 years we have had 2 children so naturally we have to put projects on hold. Well the time has finally come where we are getting close to the end of the interior...
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