5 things you don't know about me

I was tagged by Katz for this one...
let's see what I have been hiding from ya'll:
1) I was valedictorian of my highschool graduating class.
2) I am a science SciberMentor to a junior high school girl in Alberta.
(I get assigned a mentee at the beginning of the school year, we correspond through emails all school year, and finally meet at the end of the year.)
3) I was one of two females in class during my final year of college.
(I graduated from Mineral Engineering Technology in 1997)
4) I have a serious spending problem, especially when it comes to fitness clothes, anything beads or bead related, or Dollar Store items!!!
5) My resting HR is 65... Collin's is 80.
(Can you tell I got a HRM for Christmas? :)

Tagging IslandArtist, Suz, Squirrley, BadaBing and RainbowAnnie!

Let's see your lists! Have fun!

Holidayz are great!

Hey Everyone!
Sorry for the lack of posting, but I've been holidaying (still am, actually) and loving it! I don't go back to work till January 2nd, 2007, so I've still got some time to myself, which I'm very excited about! (I'll spend it jewellery making, learning new fitness routines, doing some yoga, sealing the grout on my tile... etc... you know, things like that! )

Santa (and my friends and family) treated me very well this year! (I mustn't have been as naughty as I thought, hehe!) Collin got me a bottle of Miracle perfume (I have been out of this for over a year... I LOVE how it smells!) and a Polar heart rate monitor (the wrong model, so we are exchanging it tonight for the right one.) I got a bunch of little things from Collin's Mom, she likes stocking stuffers! It was nice to spend Christmas with Collin's and my family this year. (note to self for next year: buy my parents a new bed for their guest room!!! The one they have now is definitely a lot less plush than my new bed!)

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! And all the best for this holiday season!
Here's to making 2007 an even more amazing year then this past one!

PS... for photos of my Christmas: Click here

win some and lose some.

Well, like I mentioned in my post yesterday, I was given a bottle of red wine yesterday.

Then last night I managed to smash a bottle of red wine all over my kitchen floor! (Oh, yes, I said SMASHED!)

We had bought another bottle of wine and placed it on top of the fridge a while ago to keep till we were ready to drink it. (This is NOT the best place for a bottle of wine.) With all the opening and closing of the fridge the wine bottle had managed to shake it's way to the edge of the Fridge and of course, on my next slam of the fridge door, the bottle comes crashing down! Unfortunately I was on the phone at the time, otherwise I could have caught the bottle and avoided a really BIG mess!!!
(I sure hope the wine didn't stain my grout! (I have a tiled kitchen floor... Luckily, it was the bottle that broke and not one of the tiles on the floor! That would have really fired me up!!!) )

I'll take some pictures when I get a chance...

PS... I don't even like red wine!

Last Full Day of Work before Christmas!

Today is my last full day of work before Christmas! :) Tomorrow I am NOT expected to come back to work in the afternoon... isn't that nice? :) Yay! More time for me to relax before the big day!
And today I got a parcel at work. I thought it was the Avon I ordered, but it turned ou to be a bottle of red wine from my salesman at the Mazda dealership where I bought my new car! They have treated me so well at this dealership! WAY better then the Honda Dealership where I bought my Element last year. I think I'll be sticking with a Mazda for a long time! :)

Today seems like a great day to take off :)

Yes, and it was! I decided to take a day off on the last week before Christmas, and I decided to make it today! Totally off: to sleep in, run around doing a few errands, make some jewellery for friends as gifts... just things I've been neglecting because of the hustle and bustle of this time of year.
I really enjoyed today! I woke up sore this morning because of the yoga I did yesterday, so it was nice to get a few extra hours of shut eye in. I went and paid my registration and insurance today, which I've been meaning to do for a month now and at the same time I sent the parcels of Christmas gifts to my sister on the island. (I know they won't make it there in time for Christmas, but the kids are getting tones of gifts from Santa and Mom and Dad anyways... it'll be fun for them to have to wait for Aunty's gifts, Don't you think? LOL) I also took out the recycleables (which seem to pile up so fast around here) and returned a few things I've been meaning to return. ("Return Queen" in action! Haha!) I feel like today has already been a successful day, even though I didn't get to making any jewellery yet... I still need inspiration for that!

Modiface

Anyone ever wanted to look like a model? Now you can get a glimpse at your potential beauty at a place called "Modiface". Upload you current picture and the picture of your favorite model and get a glimpse at how beautiful your beauty if you had her facial features instead of your own!

Check it out, I modified my face with one of their sample models and this is the NEW ME:

(note: I took the picture down so no one else had to look at it unless they really wanted to scare themselves! LOL)

*shudder*


...uh... I don't think the software worked for me! LOL

Zoom, Zoom! and Happy Feet

I love my new Zoom, Zoom! I have been driving it to and fro all weekend! I normally hate driving, but my new car has definitely changed that! (I think my Element really got me used to thinking driving had to be boring and uncomfortable.) I'm soooo glad I took the plunge to finally get this car!!!!

I think I'm pretty much ready for Christmas. I do still have a few gifts I want to hand make, but I'll take Wednesday of to do that. Otherwise, I think I have everything ready to go... but my parcels might not make it to their destinations on time for Christmas though... :( This is what happens when you procrastinate. Oh well... I'm sure it won't ruin Christmas for anyone. Getting gifts after Christmas is just as fun too. (I should know, my birthday is 12 days after Christmas!)

Last night Collin and I went to the IMAX theatre to see the animated film "Happy Feet" (We had just finished watching "Ice Age: The Meltdown" and I was a little less then impressed with that cartoon, so i kinda of went into Happy Feet thinking it would suck)
On the contrary!!! It was one of the cutest movies I've seen in a long time! I was dancing in my seat at some points! (and I wasn't the only one, I saw lots of kids heads bobbing to the music too!) It was a really great movie!


I totally recommend anyone with kids to BUY this movie! It's one you'll gladly let them watch over, and over again! :)

too much vino!

For pictures of my Christmas party, check my Flickr. It was a great time! Started out with a magician, who made our CEO appear in the place of a female employee that he grabbed out of the audience (you know the "turn the assistant into someone else" trick?) It was pretty damn cool! (I didn't get pictures of him though, I was too busy being mesmerized watching him!) Then we had a little bit of role playing and opera singing throughout the meal... it was like the three tenors, but they were actually called "The Three Waiters". Pretty neat. Finally the musical guest turned out to be Blue Rodeo. I have pictures in my Flickr of them. I think they played a decent set... honestly, by that time in the evening I had drank more then my share of wine so I really don't remember much. What I do remember is taking out my camera and getting a little snap happy! (so enjoy the pics, they are quite hilarious actually!) I don't think Collin was too impressed with me for trying to take his picture every 5 seconds though... LOL

Packed day tomorrow

Tomorrow I get to sleep in (but I shouldn't) then I get to finally go pick up my BRAND NEW car from the Mazda dealership! Soo pumped! Then I NEED to squish a workout in there SOMEWHERE! (I've had 2 big lunches this week, that have displaced workouts...) Finally the day ends at my Corporate Christmas party, which I want to be ready to get there for 6pm! It should be a fun time, as always... not sure who the band is (if any?!) this year... but I guesss I'll find out soon enough. (I'll remember to bring my camera :)

... just thinking about tomorrow is making me yawn! I need to hit the sack! I'm getting old! LOL

Back to square 1

We returned that damn Ikea wardrobe last night... like my Dad said "Those companies have DEEP pockets, they'll swallow up the loss to keep you happy" and they did. The guy behind the counter was like "So, would you say it was just too flimsy?"... In my head I was like "No, it's just a piece of SH!T.... but instead I said "Yes, it's too heavy for the amount of screw locations allotted." And no questions asked, my money was refunded! Yay! At least that made me feel better... no we just need to find a good quality armoire to replace it with... any ideas of where I can find one?? I was looking at Totem, but they all seem so short! I was hoping for something at least 7' tall. (to the roof would be even better!)

I'm going for lunch with my colleagues from my last group. It should be fun. It's just the girls, and we all got along great! (Only thing that I hate about this, is Christmas lunches = no mid-day workout for Jessica :( Boo!)

Digital Photo Prints

I know... it's probably been a few years since I've gotten actual photo prints... But I figured for Christmas this year Collin and I would send a picture of us as a couple with our Christmas cards...

(yep, we're that cheesy! LOL) So I submitted my digital photo via Black's on-line Uploader and voila, my photos are being processed as we speak. It was SOO damn easy! I will do this more often! At $0.39 per 4X6 print, I can afford to get all my favorite shots printed out in hardcopy to share in a coffee table album! What an idea! (Kinda feels like I'm going back in time! LOL)

I can't wait to pick up my photo order :)

Getting excited!

My new car is but a mere day away from being officially MINE! :)
Today is just finishing up the paperwork so that everything runs smoothly tomorrow.

I'm kinda nervous actually.

I think I'm really going to love driving a car again :)

Ikea furniture HELL

We broke the wardrobe already!
Piece of SH!T!!! AGGHHHHH! I was crying last night and yes, Collin and I fought a little. But seriously, how the hell is anyone supposed to build this damn thing??? They didn't make half enough screw locations to support it's weight... so when we had the frame of the wardrobe built, and tried to lift it up to the wall, we heard a splitting of wood sound and immediately stopped lifting... I don't think we actually BROKE it, we just pulled out their cheap method of securing the wood peices together. So now, Collin and I have decided to MacGyver the thing to hell, and drill holes through it to secure these huge heavy side peices to the frame... otherwise I see this damn thing falling on top of me one day... not my idea of a good time, that's for sure!

If my Dad was here... he would have known what to do! I miss having my Dad to help me with such tasks! (I live a 3 hour drive from my parents... at times like this I hate the distance!)

PS... Ikea furniture is crap! LOL

Christmas Shopping

Last night Collin and I did some Christmas shopping... we went to Ikea first so we could get some gift certificates for his mom and sister but we also bought ourselves a new wardrobe.
(this is because I have NO closet space in my room as it is, and Collin wants to start spending a lot more time at my place... so having clothes here for him to change into would be nice!)


Of course we have to assemble it ourselves... (this could end up being an interesting task!) I will be at the gym tonight till 7:30, so I'm not sure if Collin will get bold enough to start the project without me or not. I recommended he NOT start it... but he can be difficult sometimes.
I just hope he doesn't break anything if he does... including himself! (Damn, those boxes of the parts to this thing were HEAVY!!!!)

Happy B-Day Seezee!

... This blog post was supposed to be a rant... but I deleted it cause really I don't think anyone wants (or cares) to hear it.

Luckily work is slow so I don't feel guilty at all about taking my extended lunches to work out! :) I've been quite tired this week from my workouts so hopefully that also means my body is also getting back into the swing of things. (The trip to Nanaimo set me back both diet and fitness wise :(

But more importantly... Today is my sister's Birthday!!! :) (Her son Nolan calls his sissy, seezee! LOL)

Happy Birthday Jenny!!!!!

May this year bring you all the joy and love that you deserve!
It's already turning out to be a great year for her, career wise and I know now that her head is in the right place everything else will fall into place as well. Staying positive is the key!
I'm so proud of her for following her passions! I knew she could do it!!! (We all did!) Enjoy your day to the fullest! We LOVE you!

Hard to understand

My boss is.
He does things in a weird way. He likes to get you all exctited about a task then leave you hanging on it for a couple of days. Like today he jets into my office "Jessica, are you really busy?" Of course my reply is "No, what's up?" He's all, "Well, I have this spreadsheet that I'd like you to set up. It's got all the maps that are required for the PDR (oh, my boss is the KING of acronyms... you should hear him in meetings!!!) and I want you to find out who will be responsible for creating them and posting the list sometwhere that people can get access to it and keep track of their progress. I'll send you the list to get started on!"

Ok, simple enough task.
He asked me to do this task at 9:00am this morning... it's now 4:00pm and I still have not seen the speadsheet.

Why does he bother telling me about work that I cannot get to till he get's his act together???

Celebrity look-alikes

Who looks like me?

Before Braces:

http://www.myheritage.com

With braces:

http://www.myheritage.com

After Braces:

http://www.myheritage.com

Now YOU try it!!! http://www.myheritage.com

more beads to clean up & a recipe

Last night while sitting on the couch with Collin beading, I managed to knock over another vial of beads! DAMN!! This time it was a combination of me being tired and a lack of hands. Collin just kept saying "Poor Baby!" but he did nothing to help me pick up the beads! LOL (typical man!) I thought "I'll just sweep them up like last time. It won't be so bad... I swept the floor yesterday!"
I was way wrong on that last account!
I think my floor creates dirt.
I managed to collect just as much dirt and other crap (you don't want to know!) in the dust pan as I had the day before. Unfortunately these beads were bronze colored size 8 seed beads... which made them a bit more tricky to collect. I think I managed to find at least half of the ones I spilt.

(I can't wait for the day I move my couch!
...The treasures I will find under there!)

********************************

I've been asked by my sisters neighbor and best friend to partake in a "Recipe Exchange"... The theme for this week is "Holiday Treats". (I'm sure you all know how good of a baker I am, but for those of you that forgot, click here to see my botch job at making "Almond Toffee" last year... It turned out more like an Almond brick! lol)

This recipe I haven't tried yet but seems so simple and so tasty!

Rolo Pecan Candies (original source)
2 bags rolos
1 bag mini pretzels
bag of pecans

Preheat oven to 250oF degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Spread pretzels over baking sheet in one even layer. Add one rolo to each mini pretzel. Bake for 4 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately add a pecan to the top of the rolo, squishing down. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer baking sheet to fridge to chill for 10 minutes. Remove and store in a sealed container or EAT them NOW! LOL

Bead-tastrophie!

katz, you know what I'm talking about...

I was making a multi-stranded necklace tonight (photo to left... 4 strands to be exact, 2 of which were size 15* seed beads!) and I wasn't using enough temporary crimps on the ends of my strands after I finished stringing beads on them. As I was checking the necklace for size, I happened to drop one of the strands and... *eeek!* ... beads flew everywhere!!!


(I tried to sweep them up as good as I could, but I'm sure I'll be finding these beads here and there for months to come!)

(*Size 15 seed beads are tiny little buggers!!!
If I spilled a container of those, I would chalk it up to experience and just vacuum the SOB's right up, forget about saving them!)