back from the land of mickey ears

we’re back from our vacation! and therefore, hopefully, ends my 2 weeks haitus.

not that it was a planned haitus, but the week leading up to our trip to disney world was not onlyy chaotic due to all the packing and planning… but i had a pretty bad and stressful week at work. that week began with ten lay-offs… three of them from my team alone.

i had the unfortunate task of being involved with these three layoffs since i was their team lead. not something i ever want to do again. having said that, i reminded myself that no matter how terrible it was for me to lead them to the meeting room, sit in on one of them, and then having to escort them out, it was 5 times worse for them. the shock, anger, fear, hurt and sadness was all elevated because they were on the otherside of the wall.

the “why me?” side.

i can not even begin to mask how bad i felt for them.

anyway – there’s more to write. about these lay-offs, as there are things i feel i need to get off mychest, and these past several days we spent under the warm sun.

but today, i have the lovely pleasure of doing 4 or 5 loads of laundry. and only 3 hours now to finish all the unpacking and organizing before my parents come over. fun times!

finally… happy lunar new year to all those who celebrate it!

the countdown begins

i’m not oppose to advent calendars but really can do without more chocolate sinch we still have 80% of our loot left from halloween.

not to mention 50% of our loot left from the easter bunny and about 15% left from valentine’s day.

note to self: go through and chuck whatever might be on the staleness-side of things.

this year, we opted for lego’s city advent calendar. each day, chaeli will unfold a character or small lego vehicle to the city collection. we liked that this one had firefighters in it.

better than chocolate!

and the bonus? we had a scratch and save card – doug’s card was the maximum reward. a nice 50% off!

i just finished wrapping most of my in-law’s christmas gifts. there’s just two more items that i forgot to pick up – a calendar of chaeli photos i made for the grandparents and cat nip for my SIL’s two cats.

after wrapping 10 gifts, i’m done! it hurts me to think of how many more just with doug and chaeli alone. but it may not be so bad. i tend to use gift bags for at least a quarter of their presents. and with my side of the family, it’s all gift bags!

still, doug’s and especially chaeli’s, will take up the most time. all those little stocking stuffers are small items but they do sure add up!

i’ve made my list – i’ve checked it twice!

as of today, i’ve completed my shopping for christmas presents. at least for family – both doug’s side and mine. which is, really, 98% of our list every year.

i always feel a sense of relief that they are done. especially as i was able to find pretty much everything on sale. black friday and cyber monday pretty much helped with the last group of items which i held off on because i was hoping for a price-reduction.

of course, now there’s the wonderful task of wrapping the presents.

i start this weekend for my in-laws. since they all have to be shipped north.

we also start baking this weekend too! which isn’t so bad – it means we get to sample what we bake!

tis the season

tis the season – again

it’s been several days since i lasted posted here. not intentional. in fact, there’s been many times where i’ve wanted to write up a post about something but i’ve been so busy, it’s just been difficult to make the time.

anyway, it’s mid-november which means we’re gearing up for christmas! i asked doug if we could start decorating earlier this year (next weekend, actually). obviously, since we buy a live tree, that will be the last decoration to go up, which will be two weeks before christmas.

but there is the need for me to be surrounded by the christmas decorations this year. it always helps. it’s like they give off a warmth and helps to bring much more peace and tranquality to my soul.

plus, we’re preparing to bake a lot of cookies as a way to make little care-packages to all of chaeli’s teachers as well as some family friends. it’s great to get into the mood of baking when you’re surrounded by the holiday decorations (and maybe some christmas tunes, too).

anyway, usually i am near done by christmas shopping by now. this year, i’m a little slower but pretty much have an idea of what i need to get. just a couple of more stops at specific stores and a few more clicks online and i should be done.

it’s booked!

so it’s been booked.

during the first quarter of next year, we will be staying inside disney world at their new orleans’ french quarter resort for one whole week. we are taking advantage of their special invite for returning customers only who will receive a free dining plus package plan. in other words, for the whole week we are there, we will have 21 each of snacks, quick-service meal (fast food style) and table service (restaurant) for each of us paid for.

if anyone’s been to disney, they will understand how much this will save – most likely close to a grand for the three of us!

i knew we were aiming for a disney vacation some time early next year but dates were not confirmed until recently. still, i went ahead and booked restaurants for weeks we were most likely going to be there. disney restaurants take reservations up to 180 days upon arrival with or without a vacation reservation. which meant that all the popular restaurants get booked up pretty fast.

i learned this the last time when we planned way too late and couldn’t get reservations within the 2 months we booked our vacation. i managed to get reservations to only 1 character dining, 2 fine dining and 1 casual dining. but everything else was booked so i couldn’t take advantage of this dining plan we will be experiencing for the first time. even with a free dining plan, it still saves the average family 15-20% while dining in disney world.

our choices should we choose to keep them (i booked one extra which we may cancel, depending):

• Tusker House Restaurant, Disney’s Animal Kingdom: brunch buffet, character dining – characters include mickey, minnie, goofy and donald duck.
• Akershus Royal Banquet Hall, Epcot: brunch buffet, character dining – 7 disney princesses will be present.
• Hollywood & Vine, Disney’s Hollywood Studios: dinner buffet.
• The Crystal Palace, Magic Kingdom Park: brunch buffet, character dining – characters include winnie the pooh, piglet, eeyore and tigger.
• Chef Mickey’s, Disney’s Contemporary Resort: brunch buffet, character dining – characters include mickey, minnie, goofy and donald duck.
• Kouzzina by Cat Cora, Disney’s BoardWalk Area: dinner fine dining – restaurant owned by american iron chef.
• 50′s Prime Time Café,  Disney’s Hollywood Studios: lunch casual dining.
• Liberty Tree Tavern, Magic Kingdom Park: lunch casual dining.

 

all the above restaurants will be a first for us – except for Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. this was a huge success the last time since chaeli got to meet and pose with 7 disney prinesses during our brunch.

another tip – character dining is a like killing two birds with one stone. gone are the days where characters roamed around the theme parks. there are designated places to meet and greet certain characters. all of them involve line-ups. the first time we went, we lined up for an hour or more just to meet mickey. when we finally were 2nd in line, chaeli fell asleep.

character dining isn’t cheap so we’re definitely taking advantage of the free dining plan to use on some of these types of dining experiences.

and the list continues to shrink…

i wish all my life’s to-do list would shrink like this one. even though it’s a slow process, i’m just glad it’s moving forward.

sadly, i haven’t touched this list since a year ago. not that i’ve left it alone – i just forgot to cross things off as i did the tasks.

today, i ended up tackling the horrible storage space just outside our kitchen. we mainly keep things like serving plates, small appliances (that we don’t regularly – like our waffle maker) and other things like our punch bowl. but it was so messy – chaotically stuffed with little things. some things that i dug out went to the trash. others, we will most likely donate to the thrift store.

anyway, it was one of those ‘i don’t want to have to do it’ sort of deals. but today, as i was looking for something, a small bowl slipped off the shelf and broke to a billion pieces. the problem was that it was so jammed pack that anything could of easily fallen out if the ‘pile’ was disturbed.

yes – it was that bad.

so, i’m relieved to say it’s just one more thing to cross off! yeay!

phase I:

• front closet
• guest powder room – medicine cabinet and under sink
• chaeli’s bathroom – medicine cabinet and under sink
• under master bathroom sink
• linen closet
• wine cabinet
• revisit the shelves of chaeli’s closet
• fridge
• kitchen sink storage space
• kitchen cabinets – one cabinet and one drawer to go
  
• revisit my walk-in closet
• sort through some drawers in our master bedroom that’s gone a tad crazy

phase II:

• storage closet by kitchen
• office – like all of it
• laundry room – doug has started this process
• revist basement & storage space – doug is working on some
• ice box

the italicized ones are tasks done in 2011.

solitude vacation

last week, i took four days off (five days really, since it was attached to our thanksgiving monday).

it’s amazing how fast the week goes, though. and believe me, if i had more vacation time left, i would have done two weeks. one week is too short. i wanted to rest, which i did, but i also wanted to get some things done. which i did:

• cleaned house
• extra load of towels for the laundry
• re-organize front closet
• go through chaeli’s old winter coats/jackets
• take hobbes for his vaccination and annual check-up

i did get all the above done – only two things on the list never got touched:

• go to toys ‘r us to get some christmas presents (yes, i plan to start and finish early)
• go shopping for my wardrobe

the wardrobe part really was more important but i slacked off. why? i’m just not that into shopping. some one said to me that i might feel differently if money wasn’t the object. true – it cuts down on all the decision making since a good portion of my shopping is adding up the price tags in my head and trying to justify buying anything that isn’t on a sale (or a good enough sale). but even still… i could come up with a list of many other things i would much rather do then go shopping.

in fact, let me shop online if money wasn’t an object – i could do it at anytime of the day without leaving my house.

anyway, point is, last year, i used a sad belt to hold up most of my pants. it worked – sort of. but this year, that belt is sadder and while i’m tempted to just go out and replace that belt, doug’s voice rings true in my conscience, “it’s not the belt – GO BUY NEW CLOTHES!”

it’s true – the pants are now bigger even and there’s no way i can get away with cinching them up with a belt anymore. i do plan to get at least two of them taken in only because they are very nice dress pants and i’m not at all sure if i can find ones like them anymore. still, that’s just two pairs of pants. plus, i’m now needing new tops – most of the ones that i own are just getting too baggy – making my fashion statement, “the frumpy look.” which… well… doesn’t exactly spell out ‘professional’. ugh.

i did attempt to go shopping a couple of weekends ago. really, i did! i spent what felt like forever looking for more professional wear. and what did all that shopping amount to? one pair of pants and one blouse. that’s it! which brings me up to 2.5 wearable work pants for winter.

the 0.5 is for a pair of new-ish black slacks i bought the end of last winter that are starting to get loose on me. i can pull it off but for how long, i’m not sure.

what i need is a personal shopper.

no… wait. i don’t know if i would like that. to have some one so intimately close to my body which would include every curve and dreadful bulge. no thanks.

as for the rest of the week, i watched three movies, got together with a good friend for a girls’ night in, read a bit, worked out everyday and then on saturday, while chaeli was with my parents, doug and i had a belated 8th wedding anniversary celebration. we went to niagara on the lake and visited five wineries. i packed a lunch and we came back for a steak dinner at home – that way, the money was splurged on the wine we purchased. photos to come…

a walk by the creek

lazy sunday

aside from all the organizing, sorting and chucking that i did this past weekend, we did manage to head out for a quick hike sunday morning.

which turned out to be more of a lazy stroll and hanging out by the creek, throwing rocks and basically just being out for some fresh air. the trail ended up being only 250m. not at all a true hiking trail – more of a scenic outing. still… it was fun and the weather was quite amazing.

a short 250m

when we found our way to the creek, hobbes jumped into the water immediately and frolicked over to the other side. all was fine until he looked back and realized we were still on the other side. panic set in as he paced side to side nervously, looking down at the water and then back at us.

it took us a good 5 minutes of verbal encouragement to get him to cut back across the same way he did going out.

he finally figured it out and headed back – though in a more frantic state. silly dog.

“ah ha! i CAN go back the same way!”

the secluded area was quite enchanting in it’s own humble way. i took care to look at all the different wild flowers and plants, knowing they would be withered and dried up in the next few weeks.

a view of the creek

tall medeow flowers

chaeli has a few sunglasses – everytime we go out hiking, she tries to pick one that matches her outfit. yes – it starts that early. anyway, i was able to snap a lot of photos of chaeli (seen here) and just had to post this photo. it sums up her personality pretty well.

autographs, anyone?

near the end, we found a cool tree with some very low branches jutting out sideways. chaeli wasn’t too thrilled at first but once doug hoisted her up to a secure, thick branch, she laughed and thought it was pretty awesome. later, her and hobbes found some fallen trunks to crawl around on.

nature

the closet monster

i spent the majority of my afternoon cleaning out and reorganizing my walk-in closet.

thankfully, i don’t have a very large one. but it was looking pretty sad. in fact, there wasn’t much space to actually ‘walk in’ so yeah. it was that time again.

i made a little over one garbage bag of old clothes that were either too worn out or oo big for me. and i made about 1.5 bags of junk to toss. i do still need to go through a few small drawers of my bedroom while i’m on a roll.

next… switching seasonal wardrobe for chaeli.

when it’s all done, i can enjoy the beautiful autumn weather!

grade two – thus far…

alright. i know i’m about to jinx myself big time. but comparing this time to last year, it’s so far the complete opposite. as in around this time last year, i was having an anxiety attack everyday with the big changes into grade one. last year, i desperately wanted to invent a time machine to relive preschool and JK because i didn’t know how good we had it in those easy-peasy years.

grade two isn’t necessarily easier but it’s going a lot smoother. way more then i expected. i don’t know why exactly.

maybe because we are now familiar with the system. or maybe we’re just more relaxed about – rather then feeling like we had to get everything in all at once.

i know one thing, grade two is way more organized. which is saying a lot because i honestly thought grade one was extremely organized. i mean, it seemed SO organized that i wanted to marry it. so of course, i couldn’t imagine a more organized system.

enter grade two. the superior or superiors of awesome organization. this is as good as it gets.

last year, all home work was done on loose-leaf print outs, stapled together. i would get it back after the teachers checked it off and the paper would pile up. of course, when i saw that if i didn’t do something soon, our house would be covered in homework paper. so i scrounged around the house for binders so that there were one binder for each core subject and all the other subjects shared a binder – two secondary subjects per binder.

the binders were small though so by the end of the year, it was getting pretty tough to open/close the three-rings in the middle.

this year, i was ready. i set out to walmart and picked up bigger binders. a different colour for each one but of the same style, making sure to pick up extra dividers and some lined notepads for chaeli to use when studying for tests and/or working out her math problems.

what i miss about school the most? binders!

but i didn’t know that the teachers would give her exercise books and workbooks for everything. math is still on loose leaf but they haven’t handed any of it back (maybe they do collectively). and they even send these loose-leaf homework assignments in a clear plastic cover with her name clearly printed on the front to protect it during the commute.

when i get to school, rather then having her academic planner, workbook and/or exercise book crammed into her cubby, they have a low but long shelf against one wall where everything can be distributed into a neat and organized pile. when i pick her up, the essentials of what is needed to be brought home is in the cubby, ready to go.

those binders that i bought sit empty in her closet shelf, waiting to be filled. and they will be filled as we start to collect past homework and assignments back.

but for now, i’m totally enjoying my time letting some one else do that extra work for me.