Dear Santa.... (A little late)

Dear Santa,

This Christmas I would like a pony, with a pink halter and blanket, and a matching brush set. And a groom/stablehand so that I don't have to do the work. And a puppy; a nice, big, smart puppy, and a very pretty kitty, with a pink rhinestone collar. And someone to clean up after them too.

Thanks, Sarah

Oh, and:

*Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, for PC, and the *Expansion Set (Collection of Downloadable Upgrades)
*UN-ALTERED Original Theatrical Version Widescreen Trilogy of Star Wars (IV, V & VI) (The old school ones)
*The Return To Snowy River movie... (I have the first one, and would love the second one)
*The best widescreen version of The Phantom of the Opera.
*A nice can opener
*A cookie/cake decorating kit
*Shakers (as in the topping shakers, to sprinkle choclate shavings, etc... onto drinks)
*3rd book by Dianna Gabaldon (continuing from Outlander and Dragonfly in Amber)
*Gift Certificates for: books, coffee, clothes, Christian stuff, "romantic things", movies, etc...
*Money towards awesome dream celing fan... it's $800.00 plus buckaroos, so we'll be saving for a while....
*Also, look at the registry at the Bay and Home Outfitters, under GAL, SA or CRA, RY, for more gift ideas!

P.S. I'll make sure to bake extra cookies for you... or atleast, to encourage mom and gramma to bake you lots of extra cookies.

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RYAN'S LETTER:

Dear Santa,

I would like a big screen TV; a really, really nice one.... Sony Grand Wega, 60', yadda, yadda, yadda... plus alot of fireworks for New Years, and all the best new computer hardware to make my computer awesome, and a Wii and the new Zelda, and a nice, new truck.........

Thanks,
Ryan

Oh and:

*DVD's, always WIDESCREEN, and the best versions of, if possible, of: MI:3, King Kong (though no model), metal cased (at FutureShop) of X-Men: The Last Stand, Pirates of the Caribbean 2....
*Money For (as I need/want specific ones): a new router, a new hard drive, the awesome fan, my dream TV..... etc...
*Enchanted Arms (X-Box 360 game)
*Mini-Fridge (black, sleek looking)
*Mini deep freeze (small and compact)
*4GB Compact Flash card (Ultra 2 or Extreme3 - Sandisk ONLY)
*Look at registry for more ideas... details in Sarahs letter.

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There's some ideas for anyone who might need them.....
Sorry that this is late.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

So I haven't written in a while...

Hey,
So I haven't written in a while, I know, and so here's a huge post...
I've been enjoying this new weather... feels more like winter/Christmas, and we got more lights up in the place, and are trying to decorate more for Christmas... later in the post I have pictures of our completed kitchen, FINALLY! :) Yippee.... go look at my original pictures of the place, the before ones, of the kitchen, and then look at those. It's amazing!So Ryan and I ventured out for a nice warm drink at Starbucks the day it started snowing (Sunday), before the roads got really bad. It was pretty warm out, even though the pictures make it look super cold.
My drink... a fave. A Double Tall Non-fat, with whip Pumpkin Spice Latte... sometimes I get caramel drizzle on the top, Mmmmmm...... Sorry Mel but I just can't stand eggnog anything... I didn't even like steaming it to prepare drinks. Chai is good though, sometimes. Still love my Pumpkin Spice though. And I do not like pumpkin pie. *Shrug* It was very good. Ryan had his beloved hot chocolate, and the lady was really nice and put extra, extra whip cream on his. He was happy.
Here I am. drinking my lovely latte, and wrapping my hands around the lovely christmas cup that they put it in. I LOVE Starbucks Christmas. It makes me want to go work for them again, except my schedule would certainly not be as nice and stable. We've put in our wish list to my brother, for him to pick up on his shopping week (Oh boy do I miss my discount sometimes...) I love the mugs Mel... a set is on our wishlist that we sent to Don... We have two of the regular ones. And we also put in for a travel mug, a bear, some Christmas blend coffee, mostly for the pretty packaging, and the small christmas tree ornaments... then we splurged and bought Ryan the advent calendar, seeing as it's re-useable, and a good decoration.
Look, it's starting to snow.... the snow is now piled up atleast 3 times as high on the deck, and else where... but I took this yesterday around noon...
Me again with my yummy drink. :)
This is our driveway... and it's gotten worse. We're going to go try and see if we can get out, pretty soon, maybe go get more Starbucks.
This is the lounge at the Howard Johnsen.... just a walk down the driveway and we can have a very yummy breakfast if we're feeling lazy.
Isn't it nice.... :)
The road to our place yesterday, before the snow got really bad.
My wonderful hubby being super and scraping off the truck while I stayed bundled up inside it.
Ah this brings back memories of Alberta.....


Ah winter..... this is in our neighbrouhood... .the shopping area near our place.
The new light, to replace the ugly lightbox.
The view of our kitchen from the livingroom.
Buried truck...
Slowly painting the dinigroom set from an ugly green to an almost black brown, but we're keeping the natural wood.
Our deck...

The new light....
Ah, it's SO pretty.... our lovely newly reno'd kitchen.
Ta-Da!!






Anyhow, there's some pictures!!

Last night we went and saw the new Bond film. Oh my goodness!! It's pretty amazing. Different, to be sure, but almost more Bond, in a way. Like he should be, kinda thing. The acting was great.

Anyhow, gotta go.

Getting ahead....

Hey...
Well, just got my first paycheque... I'm making $10/hr and should be up to $10.25/hr next paycheque. Yippee! And I'm already being put on Bagels and Sandwiches (food prep.) for Monday.... I just really started training full scale today, but I've already gotten pretty good at it, so the manager is making me the Monday Bagel person. It's a nice change from till and tandem. And Melanie, the other new-ish person, who has been there a week or so before me, who was just becoming bagel person for half the time, just became monday back prep. She makes sure I have everything I need for me to make people's food order. It'll be an interesting monday ;) I'm loving having weekends off, which has never happened to me before for a job.
Ryan has his buddy from work, Larry, over helping to wire the house with CAT 5 E wire, or something.... it's a networking cable that will allow me to send my music downstairs to the X-Box so I can play music downstairs, that's all I know :) This weekend we want to get most everything done, and the kitchen flooring and the dishwasher happen next week... then comes the after pictures. :)
Wedding pictures could be up at any time.... keep a look out.
Anyhow, just wanted to tell my good news about more money!!

A little bit of news....

Over the past little while we've seen a few movies.... just wanted to give a brief little "yay or nay" to them......

Saw this when it first came out... We liked it. It was clever. It was mysterious, well-acted and interesting, with the right balance of drama, so's not to be too weighty. I would suggest this to anyone wanting to see some good acting and a bit of mystery.

Borrowed the movie from the grandparents and watched it a couple nights ago. Definately not nearly as good as the first one. Shame.

Ryan spoiled me and took me on a date on Saturday to see Flicka, as I'd wanted to see a horse movie, and this was a new one. Though it is definately updated from the book the movie was good, and I enjoyed my horse flick. It was a good date night. :) Thanks hun :) Now I want a ranch.
This movie makes Wyoming look good Mel ;)

This we went and saw on Sunday... Ryan's movie pick, that I'd also been interested in.
It was dark and kinda heavy, but a very interesting story... Good acting. I'd suggest to people to see it, if they don't mind a bit of dark dramatic content. Just don't see it if you're in need of a pick-me-up.

Lately we've been watching Perry Mason episodes.... yeah black and white 1950's TV show!! It's alot of fun actually, and we now can't wait for Season One Part Two to come out in November... we've already advanced ordered it in for the grandparents... then we'll borrow it from them like we have the Part One. :)

We went and watched this film a while ago, when it first came out. It was well done. Didn't follow the true historic story perfectly, but then, what does now a days?? It was still good.

Other than that, the house is coming along great and I will be ready to take the after shots by the end of the month :) Bruce said he was loading the pictures onto the server tonight, so in 24-48 hours they'll be available. He apologizes profusely for the delay. Work is going alright, though I've been really tired this week 'cause my sleep is always interupted lately... but today I got to start learning bagels and sandwiches, which I like... it's a nice change. I like most of the staff, and even though I've only been there for, what, 3 weeks now, I've been pretty much solely in charge of training two new people.... so yeah.... met the owner... she tandemed (got drinks, etc) for me while my tandem person went on their break, earlier this week.

So lifes pretty good for the most part... we're doing alright, and work isn't that bad, though I'm still adjusting, and it's been a bit of a rough week.... tomorrow Ryan get's a day off to rest, so I'm guaranteed a ride to and from work. :)

Continuing from my other post.....

So yes, the new place and the new job...

These are pictures of it in it's un-altered form.... we've been working our butts off, with much appreciated help from the grandparents here, and mom (Cheri) and Shawn, to try and get this place up to our standards. The kitchen is our priority right now so that we can make food here. We've been painting alot, and sanding and and stuff..... there will be reno. pics coming... these are the before shots. I'll have the reno and after shots up at some point, after the work gets done.

The office/spare bedroom.... this is where Shawn stays when he's visiting Stephanie on the weekends. We don't mind, 'cause he helped us paint. :)
Our messy bedroom... it's already come along way. A dresser newly acquired helped immensly. Mel, I think you'd love this room. :)

Our living room is a disaster right now, all covered in plastic to help protect it, etc... but this is the general layout of it...
A better view of the layout of the livingroom.

Our biggest project right now. Just wait till you see the after pics!
The downstairs bathroom... this will be a project for later.

Another view of the former kitchen colours, etc.... can't wait till we're done. :)

The place..... an idea of what it's like. The banisters/railings are so getting updated.
Upstairs bathroom... one day we'll re-tile, etc...
Looking down from the bedroom into the livingroom.
Looking from the closet side of the bedroom....
Looking into the bedroom from the top of the stairs....

And the whole job story.......

I handed out 7 resumes last Tuesday, and had one interview that day as well, that led the way for a work interview the next day. So on Wednesday I had the working interview at Tim Hortons from 10-2. You basically work for 4 hours, see how you like it, and they see how you work and how the other employees work with you, etc... You get paid for those four hours. Then I went for an interview at the country grocer from 2:30-3:30, and it went well too, but I didn't like them as much. Then from 3:30 till 4 something I had an interview at Francelli's coffee, in which they basically just asked how to get me to work for them, and offered a dollar more than Tim Hortons and promised me Sundays off. Then Ryan picked me up, we got home, I checked my machine and the Howard Johnson wanted to interview me for a front desk/weekend night audit position, so I walked down the drive and had that interview, and they wanted to start me on Sunday, if I wanted the job, with a bit better pay than the other places, but still, two graveyards, Fri night and Sat night, and then two day positions Tues and Wed is pretty rough, though it would have been different experience. Then I had an interview with Subway friday, which took like, 3 minutes, where they clarified my qualifications (what I did for Starbucks) which covered most of the manager requirements for Subway, and they said they'd call me. I think I was over qualified. LOL So then Tim Hortons and Francellis coffee were fighting over me. I was leaning towards Francellis, so I went in there again friday after my Subway interview and just watched, but because it's a small family owned business, it doesn't have the organization and professionalism that I'm used to, and so I'd want to change things, and I don't know how that would go over... they want to learn from me, but a new comer in staff coming in and implementing more standards and stuff for the staff would not create the best team I think. So I called Tim Hortons back, and they have promised me $9.50 to start (matching Francellis) and a guarenteed Mon - Fri 7-3:30 schedule that won't change unless I ask it to be so I can have a day off during the week if we need to go somewhere... with a strong possibility of becoming Training Manager in not to long... I'd be in charge of training, and that's pretty much it... I'd get into a managerial position, get a nicer uniform, etc. And the uniforms are free, and they have benefits that start after six months, and my pay would go up probably after 3 months of working there. So I couldn't really hard to pass that up. So I sat and thought it out, and in the end I decided on Tim Hortons... Never thought I'd say that, but I started at Tim Hortons at the wage that my Shift Supervisor position was paying me. We get 30% off plus free drinks, when we work, and it's SO easy to learn. I had NO problem with the four hour shift I worked there as an interview, catching on to the drink aspect of things in less than a half an hour mainly. So yeah, I'm a Tim Hortons employee.... Weird huh? It's different and yet the same, as Starbucks, and I like bits of both worlds, and don't like bits of it, but that's life. I've already after 2 days gotten a pretty good idea of how the till works.... It's a little bit to get used to, especially the early mornings, but me and Ryan get up and have breakfast together (there 'cause our kitchen is busted right now) and then I work. It's not bad.

So like, yes, I know it's been a long time.....

So it's been a while... Meh! Atleast I'm here now. And now I'm not quite sure where to start...

We sold the place... it didn't go well, but it's over, and we won't have to carry two places, so I guess it'll be OK.

Went to Alberta for my cousins wedding last month (her wedding was September 16th).
The wedding went well... it was SO cold and wet out there though. It almost never stopped raining. Yeesh! My cousin was resplendant, and Kevin was smitten with his new bride. We had fun visiting and I got to help my mom with flowers. It was a long drive there and back though, and don't want to have to do that too often. :PIt was really good to see everyone again, and get some visiting done, but there was some bad news too. Apparently my cat got into something that made her sick... possibly got poisened by something, and so she quit eating, and my mom was gone for a week, visiting her friend, and when she got back, Sorka had lost alot of weight... because she hadn't been eating or drinking for a while, 'cause she felt sick, Sorka was in danger of liver failure, and we had to get used to the fact that she might not recover. She's was taken to the clinic after we left, but there was not much they could do. My mom tried to feed her and we gave her some fluids while I was there, and the clinic gave her some, but unless she had started eating and drinking on her own again, she was doomed. She's wasn't in pain, just feeling sick, like you would with a bad flu... you don't feel like eating, or moving much... you just want to be still and quiet and rest... so that's what she did for a week after we left, and my mom tried to convince her to get better, but didn't want to stress her either. But she didn't get better, and just got more toxic and more toxic, from liver failure and her body burning up fat without a way to flush it out of the system... so the friday before we moved (September 29th) my mom took her in and had her put down, by our former vet tech Fiona, before my mom headed back to China. That was rough on the whole family... Sorka was born on our farm, and had been a part of the family for 8-10 years. Mookie, the other cat, was looking for her for a while after she was gone...... So I had to deal with that and the move all in one weekend. Not fun. Oh well.....

In remembrance of Sorka (ba dorka) Gale ~ Beloved cat... pet, friend and head of the household.

And now for the new house and new job, etc....