Tzatziki recipe

For Chrissa. I don't actually make my own dip, but if you want to try this recipe is from About.com Home Cooking.

Ingredients
1 container (16 ounces) plain lowfat yogurt
1/2 English (seedless) cucumber, not peeled, seeded and finely chopped plus a few thin slices
1/1-2 teaspoons salt
1 to 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint or dill plus additional sprigs (use dill preferred)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper


Instructions
Spoon yogurt into sieve lined with cheesecloth or coffee filter set over bowl; cover and refrigerate overnight. Transfer drained yogurt to medium bowl and discard liquid.

Meanwhile, in colander set over bowl, toss chopped cucumber with 1 teaspoon salt. Let drain at least 1 hour at room temperature, or cover and refrigerate up to 8 hours. In batches, wrap chopped cucumber in kitchen towel and squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible. Pat dry with paper towels, then add to bowl with yogurt.

With flat side of chef's knife, mash garlic to a paste with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add garlic, chopped mint, oil, vinegar, and pepper to yogurt and stir to combine. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 or up to 4 hours. Serve chilled or at room temperature, topped with cucumber slices and mint sprigs.

Yield: about 1-1/2 cups

Per tablespoon: about 17 calories, 1 gram protein, 1 gram carbohydrate, 1 gram total fat (0 gram saturated), 1 mg cholesterol, 182 mg sodium.

A to Z(ed) Meme and other things

A - Available/Single? Married
B - Best Friend? Hubby
C- Cake or Pie? Pie, apple please
D - Drink Of Choice? Coke
E - Essential Item You Use Everyday? Touthbrush, if you don't ... ewww!
F - Favorite Color? Red
G - Gummy Bears Or Worms? Neither, but bears if I have to choose, the sour ones preferrbaly
H - Hometown? Thornhill (borders Toronto on the north side)
I - Indulgence? Poutine
J - January Or February? February, it's short and then it's March.
K - Kids & Their Names? None yet, but I have a high fever
L - Life Is Incomplete Without? Hubby
M - Marriage date? October 23 2004
N- Number Of Siblings? 1 younger brother
O - Oranges Or Apples? Apples, baked please :)
P - Phobias/Fears? I don't like spiders, a baby sitter told me that they could bite me, lay eggs, and a red welt would appear and get bigger over time and the doctor would cut it open and baby spiders would come out. Now I imagine baby spiders that some of those baby spiders would get into your veins, how gross!
Q - Favorite Quote? I love you - anyone
R - Reason to Smile? Hubby and puppy cuddling
S - Season? Autumn
T - Tag 3 or 4 people? Chrissa, Val, Jenn, Karen
U - Unknown Fact About Me - How about a little known fact - I have 3 moles I want to remove because they get pulled by my clothing sometimes.
V - Vegetable you don’t like? Mushrooms (They usually make me throw up)
W - Worst Habit? Not flossing every single day (getting better though)
X - X-rays You’ve Had? Teeth, once a year. Feet, once when I broke one, twice for orthodics. Abdomen, gave me x-rays instead of an ultrasound for the gall bladder, stupid med centre.
Y - Your Favorite Food? Currently Dante's pizza
Z - Zodiac Sign? Virgo accurate for me, I'm also a Rat in the Chinese zodiac, similar to Virgo, so I'm doubly blessed with being detail oriented.

Well to end off my vacation I have a cold, I don't feel too awful right now, just under the weather and weak.

Personality Traits

Hmmm, mine sounds a lot like Laura's

Your Five Factor Personality Profile

Extroversion: You have low extroversion. You are quiet and reserved in most social situations.A low key, laid back lifestyle is important to you.You tend to bond slowly, over time, with one or two people. Conscientiousness: You have high conscientiousness.Intelligent and reliable, you tend to succeed in life.Most things in your life are organized and planned well.But you borderline on being a total perfectionist. Agreeableness: You have high agreeableness.You are easy to get along with, and you value harmony highly.Helpful and generous, you are willing to compromise with almost anyone.You give people the benefit of the doubt and don't mind giving someone a second chance. Neuroticism: You have low neuroticism.You are very emotionally stable and mentally together.Only the greatest setbacks upset you, and you bounce back quickly.Overall, you are typically calm and relaxed - making others feel secure. Openness to experience: Your openness to new experiences is high.In life, you tend to be an early adopter of all new things and ideas.You'll try almost anything interesting, and you're constantly pushing your own limits.A great connoisseir of art and beauty, you can find the positive side of almost anything.

The Five Factor Personality Test

Eight Things Meme

These are eight things about me:

1. I've never been passed out drunk, came close to falling down once, I had to hold the walls, it only lasted about 15 minutes, but I found it very funny. No hangover the next morning, felt like I hadn't had a drink 2 hours later. Don't you wish you were me? Until I tell you it took 1/2 a mickey in an hour to get there, and another 2 hours from consumption to process it enough to have to hang onto the wall.
2. I've never smoked a cigarette, and I'm still not sure what MJ smells like, although I know I have smelled it on more than 1 occasion.
3. I don't drink coffee for the caffeine or the taste, I drink it for the sugar hit and cream, take that away (as I have over the last month) and I only drink it to ward off the withdrawal headache. Really should get myself off coffee, maybe on my next vacation.
4. My favourite colour is dark red
5. I love animals and wish I had a cat.
6. I need to get a library card to a decent pleasure reading library, I've been reading a lot lately, and it's becoming an expensive habit.
7. I would love to try more home improvements, but 2 things hold me back - one, the time, I'm afraid I'll take on something too big and it will take too long, two, that I won't do it perfectly enough that it will bug me to no end :)
8. I miss my mother's backyard garden, it's very lush and green. I never appreciated it while I lived there, but it really lifts my spirits to spend a few minutes back there with the dog when we visit.

I tag Jenn, Hope, Laura, Karen and anyone else who wants to that hasn't already done this meme.

Tackle it Tuesday

By request, my tackle today shall be something for me, I'm not really sure what yet, but here's where my thinking is right now:
Relax
Do not take the laptop home and think about doing work
Watch Doctor Who (taped it last night)
Either go to the gym and workout and/or take the dog for a walk

No cleaning, no fixing, no organizing :)

Back to 5 minutes for mom for more tackles!

Menu Planning Monday

So didn't get through all the meals I planned for last week, and I still have to do a grocery shopping.

Meal 1
Salmon with mustard sauce (mustard, mayonaisse, vinegar, sugar, I think I might throw in a few capers). Rice and veggies

Meal 2
Honey mustard chicken, rice and veggies

Meal 3
I think I'll make another spinach and ground beef dish, but this time I think I'll use ground tofu. (Heat tofu in large pot, add spinach, cooked rice, pasta sauce of choice and pine nuts, stir until well blended, serve as a hearty stew).

Meal 4
Tofu tomato and pork with rice and veggies (a little olive oil in the skillet, cook meat of choice, season as desired, add soft tofu cut up and tomatoes cubed 5 minutes towards the end, sorry there's not much more detail than that, I usually make it lightly flavoured with garlic salt and paprika).

Meal 5
Cajun chicken stew (Cajun chicken, or regular but then add paprika and chili powder, 2 cans of cream of anything and the corresponding water, frozen veggies and egg noodles).

Menu Planning Monday

For more recipes, head on over to Laura's blog.

Monday: Ground Beef and Spinach stew (Ground beef, frozen spinach, rice, pine nuts, something tomato based and garlic salt - basically a clean the fridge of leftovers recipe, everything can be substistuted for something else).

Tuesday: Tofu tomato and beef (cook beef strips add tomatoes and tofu at the end)

Wednesday: Honey mustard Chicken and snow peas (honey mustard is 1 part old style dijon, 1 part honey, 2 parts regular dijon, spread over chicken before baking, reserve some for meal)

Thursday: Salmon with mustard sauce and veggies (bake salmon sauce is equal parts dijon mustard and Miracle Whip, white vinegar about 1/4 cup, sugar to taste).

Friday: Pizza or leftovers

Saturday: Anti-Hestivus (Girls whole day out, while the boys do Hestivus - eat junk and watch Charleston Heston movies).

Sunday: Chicken Rouge (in a casserole dish combine chicken fillets, canned, diced tomatoes, green pepper, onions, spices of choice, cover bake I think it's about 50 minutes at 350F - Dr Bernstein recipe). Serve over rice if desired.

House Keeping

An hour ago I was telling hubby that I appreciate that he swept and dusted the dining room yesterday and I'm sorry I didn't tell him then. Also how I wish I could keep the house as clean as my mother did, but I'm not that kind of woman (yet) and perhaps my eyes are now more critical than they were as a child to young adult, it's not until I had my own home that I started noticing. Although my apartments were cleaner than this, although I think in part I kept my mess and disorganization confined to my personal living space and not the common areas which helped alot. Anyway, I've been feeling lately not only do I eat like a pig, I live like one, so I've decided to add a daily cleaning challenge to my kick the pig blog. Today's shall be cleaning the master bedroom and bath, which will include doing the laundry, although since hubby's downstairs I'll take it down, he can do the switching.

Promised Before & After Pictures

Ahh, ladies here they are the promised pics, bigger if you click on them:

The Basement Bedroom

Before

After (yes it's a slightly lighter colour, I was going to do it the same colour as the living room, but it ended up problematic around the door frames for the closets, so I tried to match the original colour)

The closet in the basement bedroom with the gift area for Laura (left side only, right side is Laura's wonderful odds and ends solution, I have tape, lightbulbs, pest control, power bars, and child safety electrical outlet plug covers in mine. Looking for more items to fill it).

The living room for Chrissa (so she can see the Ikea rug) , you can see where I'm in the process of finishing this blog on the left there :) well not me obviously, I'm taking the photo, but the laptop and water bottle.

Today I've actually been hanging a lot of pictures, like our wedding pic you see in the living room above. Most of them are gifts we gave each other for various anniversaries (dating and wedding). Monday is our second wedding anniversary, we'll be going out to dinner tomorrow, but seeing, framing and finally hanging a lot of these beautiful momentos (2 of which hubby drew himself) has made me feel rather sentimental and romantic today.

Sunday Funday

(Updated with rug pic below for Mrs. Happy)

So this morning hubby and I went to Ikea for breakfast, and we picked up a rug for the living room. Drake, like a lot of little ones, wanted to explore the new item before hubby and I had finished placing it down, so imagine us moving the rug around with an 80lb golden retriever on the rug. Eventually I did put him outside for 5 minutes where he barked to let me know hoe thought it was unfair that I tricked him into going outside by going out first myself. Hey, whatever works, and I didn't pretent to say hi to Soup, the neighbours dog who sticks his head under the fence to say "hi". They are digging holes under the fence to one another, but I think they've reached some roots or hard earth, because they haven't dug any deeper for about 6 months, and it would need to be pretty deep to get Drake or Soup under there. Soup is about 10 pounds less than Drake, but a better digger, he's husky and black lab.

Anyway, have about half the room in the basement back together. It's painted and the bed, side table, lamp and phone are back in. I do have to empty out the closets and hang some shelves and decide what else is going back in there before I take a picture. Hopefully later today I'll update this post with pics. In the mean time to avoid doing the work, I think I'll start the story board with the old pic :)

Hahaha, Drake's doing the baby thing with his rope toy where he lies on his back and holds the rope in the air over his mouth and chews on it. That's one of my favourite things he does. :)

It's beige (seisel like) rimmed with dark brown. When I take a pic of the basement bedroom, I'll also take a pic of the living room so you can see the carpet there.

Inspiration

So many inspiring and heart felt posts today, I feel the need to share them.
Hope in frustration
Julie in Beauty and Prayer
Laura in recognizing your limits

I feel so much love, hope and peace flowing through me and from me. Have you felt the empowerment? What can I say? I often have the heart to reach out and to stand with the others, but not always the written word. So this is me, taking to you, something wonderful, so that you can participate too and have your day uplifted, and feel united with people across the world. If only we could all feel so united across the miles, maybe there would be more peace and love and understanding in the world. If we could remember that everyone has a story, a hurt, something to share, value. We are all equal, may we put principles above personalities and love each other in a very special way, even if we can't love ourselves yet.

Reach out to someone today that maybe you wouldn't have reached out to before, let your heart and soul move you, not your head. Commiserate with your fellow traveler whom you might overhear speaking of a hurt they've experienced, because we are all responsible for those hurts, even if we didn't directly commit them, the survivor may need to hear, an apology or that not every person that fits an archetype is like their experience, to break down barriers that separate us. There is more that unites us, than separates us despite what our natures may say.

Update on my Tackle

So yesterday what I did for my Tackle it Tuesday (I was going to use the acronym and then decided against it). In the first picture, see the white Beaumark box in the lower right and the brown cardboard box beside it? I went through those 2 boxes and tossed stuff. The white box actually contains all of our manuals for things. The manuals and warranty cards were filling up my fling cabinet, and I wasn't good about filing them, so now we just throw them in here, works for me (i.e. my Works for me Wednesday - unofficially of course). The other thing I did was to quickly look into every drawer and cabinet and box and if I saw something that I didn't want, need, or recognize, it was chucked out (don't worry hubby I can at least recognize it as being mine, if I wasn't sure it was mine I kept it). I also finally took the clothing donation to the local pickup station and dropped it off as well as doing the grocery shopping.

Tackle it Tuesday

My Tackle it Tuesday will be organizing one dresser, box or bag in this room:



It actually looks worse now because I brought all my sewing, crafting, candles and Bible Studies into the room, the rest is to go out. That little bit of floor space you see in the middle of the second picture, that is now stacked with my stuff and the only remaining space is maybe a discontinuous strip of 8 inches width on each side of the bed. This room will be many Tackle it Tuesdays and weekends. I'll take pics of exactly what I tackled when I do it tonight.

P.S. Yes that is a life size Darth Maul to the right of the first picture. His light sabre is somewhere else in the house, I think probably the room next door to this one known as "the office" that room is another week long project.

Cleaning Day

Today is cleaning day, and hubby is going to help me clean at the same time that I am cleaning. We've never done cleaning at the same time (or at least the same amount at the same time), so I'm wondering how we'll do it. Often I tend to break it out using Julie's 10 minute regime. i.e. I'll do something for 10 minutes. Here's what I have:

Tidy every room (bedroom, master bath, kitchen, dining room, living room, TV room
Sweep (kitchen, dining room, living room)
Wash Floors (3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, dining room)
Vacuum (2 stairs, 2 halls, TV room, bedroom)
Clean 3 washrooms
Clean kitchen counters and stove
Dust (living room, dining room, TV room)
Vacuum furniture in living room and TV room
Wash laundry
Wash walk out window (muddy paw marks)
Wash front door (muddy paw marks)

I'm tempted to get started with the bathrooms and washing the 2 doors while hubby sleeps, but maybe I'll go ask him how he wants to clean first (by floor or by task), then I can get started on mine. Well hubby's too sleepy to respond, so I guess I'll just pick. I think I'll go by task. Usually when he helps he sweeps and mops, I hate vacuuming, and it's kind of like sweeping and mopping, so I'll leave him those three things and get started on the rest.

I shall begin with tidying.
Tidied kitchen, cleaned kitchen, cleaned bathroom, cleaned front and back doors, dusted dining room. THis took me 2 hours, and hubby actually did the dusting part. Now I'm taking Drake for a long walk while hubby does the washing of the floors.

So the main floor is clean, I might do the bedroom and bathroom while getting ready to go see my in-laws. Then that will be all for today most likely, but it will just leave vacuuming, the basement and laundry to do.

A meme from Ravenbajan via Mrs. Happy

I can't sleep, so I thought I'd fill out this meme. Why is it called a meme anyway?

I am thinking about: This meme, and why I can't get to sleep, my to do list for tomorrow and the one I came up with for my whole vacation (wishful thinking).

I just said: Nothing, in the last 10 minutes, although I did ask the dog if he wanted to come curl up with mummy. He doesn't, he's not the cuddly sort. Good thing I suppose because he weighs 80 pounds.

I want to: go to sleep and organize the guest room by pulling every paper, book, box and empty all the drawers into the hallway, hubby would freak :)

I wish: the filing would do itself and the dog could be trained to do chores. I know I can teach him to put away his toys and sort laundry. I'd love to teach him to vacuum, I hate vacuuming, I think he likes it though, he tries to jump on the vacuum and then when it goes near him he barks and jumps away. He also tries to chase the broom and mop and eat them and with the broom he'll grab his piles of hair that come off the floor.

I regret: That I'm not asleep because mom's coming over to help me paint tomorrow and I'll be too tired. That I didn't do better in university, but I think I would now because I know better how to apply myself for longer periods and what to apply myself to.

I sing: When I'm very happy, I make these silly little la la, da bum bump sounds when I'm happy. Hubby laughs at me, I only noticed that I did that when we started dating, I guess I wasn't really really happy before that :). My brother does it too, only much much much louder than I do :)

I hear: the dog sighing and the laptop humming and my keyboard clicking, and huuby just burped.

I am: mindwarp or warpie or war pie. I think I need a new nick, my mind isn't as warped as it used to be.

I dance: in my living room

I'm behind: on cleaning, as usual, I hate cleaning, domestic goddess I am not.

I cry: at movies and books. I cry cery easily at these things, so if a movie doesn't elicit tears from me, it must have really sucked (unless it wasn't supposed to, but most have the hero go through a down part)

I am not: a guy. One of my male friends in university thought I was just one of the guys, made me choose whether I wanted to be one of the guys or a girl. I choose girl, since I know all about that.

I forgot: What day of the week it is, a good vacation should be like that :)

I confuse: the dog I think. He still doesn't get excited at the words, "walk" or "car ride", and he's just started responding to treat in the last few months. I think it's because I take so darn long to get ready that until I get the leash he doesn't respond, and then, he usually actually jumps away like a game when I try to hook up the leash, or he rolls over and shows me his belly if he was napping on the floor.

I write: when I'm confused about something, or it's on my mind. I'll write out my thoughts in a journal.

I need: Food, tummy is growling still.

Today's Goals

I figured I'd better blog about my daily goals or I'll never get it all done. So today's goals are:
Eat healthy
Walk Drake (the dog)
Sand Basement hallway
Replaster where needed
Resand the newly plastered areas
Prime the basement hallway
Clean up the TV room
Take a picture and post the TV room for Chrissa
Empty the basement bedroom so it can be painted too
Empty the laundry room of stuff from the TV room and get it organized
Move the one dresser from the master bedroom to the basement and use for storage.

Here are before pictures of the hall and basement bedroom:




Progress Update
Walked Drake
Finished first round of sanding and vacuumed
Took pics of the TV Room, which is in the basement and I painted last week, you can also see the new desk we bought last month.

View from the back of the room (standing beside the desk)



View from the front of the room (standing in front of the TV)



View from the doorway (so you can see the desk better)

DIY: Painting

You know, I like painting, I like the sense of accomplishment, however, what I don't like is the rest of it. For instance, to actually get started painting you have to move furniture, prep the walls by filling holes and dents you made while moving the furniture, sand it, prime it, lay the drop clothes, tape off things you don't want to paint, get the painting gear out (cans of paint, brushes, roller, cloth for wiping up mistakes quickly) change clothes. Then you can get down to painting. Afterwards, there are the washing the brushes, pickup the drop clothes, move out the painting gear. Once dry there are touch ups to bare spots, fixing where you might have laid the ladder for a second and it left a black mark on the wall, touch up the trim and ceilings where you got a little careless (i.e. tired from painting), dust tables, vacuum behind that furniture you haven't moved since the last time you painted/moved/rearranged the furniture. Might as well organize while doing this and not put back stuff that doesn't belong there.

I'm currently at this second round, where you do touch ups and paint the trim (yes I do that last, many people do it first, makes no difference to me because I end up having to redo, even if taped once I've painted the wall). So I suppose I should get down to it, although first I'm going to walk the dog again and pick up those pina coladas :)

Tagged by Hope

OK, Hope tagged me here is the first thing that comes to mind about the 4 words she gave:

Stinkbomb - Actor Jack Black letting one rip.
Pie - American Pie (the first movie)
First Base - kissing
Favorite - colour red :)

I tag Jenn (Tales of a mom of boys), Julie (The World according to Julie), Helen (What lies beneath)and Laura (org Junkie).

Your words are:
Telescope (because I couldn't spell kaliedescope)
Flower
Dune buggy
Sherway

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Roman Pan Fried Lamb
Italian Chicken Packages
Lentils and Mixed Vegetables
Chicken Couscous
Chicken Pepperonta
Salmon with Caper Sauce
Wine and Herb Salmon
Pasta in creamy tomato vodka sauce.

We won't necessarily eat them in this order, it depends on what I feel like cooking, today is the lamb though as it's already on the stove. Hubby's home today and he likes lamb, I've never cooked or eaten it before, so we'll see.

Oh the Joy of it

It's so nice to be able to share the joy of the Lord. Today's sharing is like a soft glow, peace welling up inside making you smile and cry a few tears of joy too.

Works for me Wednesday

This is actually a tip from Jenny the Milker. Shopping only the perimeter of the grocery store. It means I get healthier food and it takes less time. Fruits, vegetables, bread, meat, juice, milk are all around the edge, not in the middle aisles. Have a great Day.

Mommies

Julie's post about mommies inspired me to write mine. My mommy is finally retiring this month. She actually officially retired 8 years ago, but has been working part time in her field because of the level of knowledge and expertise she has. In my field we would call her a knowledge expert, or subject matter expert, and I think she's fully deserving of that title.

My mom taught me a lot about work ethic. She works in pay & benefits for the government, which has a lot fo rules around pensions, pay and benefits. Mom has always been a conscientious worker in that she digs deeper into the rules, and the rules effective at certain times that would apply to a person so that she can help them get all that they deserve. It irks me a little bit about what some people say about government workers, because I know how hard my mom worked, and the pay for the most part was less than fair. I also used to work in the government as a research assistant and I know how the researchers worked diligently for often only a third of what they could have gotten in the states. The next time you see that government worker taking a break when there's a huge lineup. It's not true of all the workers behind the scenes that you don't see. I thank my mom for what she taught me about work ethic, maybe at times I learned it too well and put work first, rather than where it belongs, somewhere down around 5th in my books.

Happy Retirement Mom, you totally deserve it!

Drake's first picture

For Chrissa: Drake, age 4 months



He's a golden retriever

My favourite picture:



Hubby sent me the above as an email subject line "Hello from Home" and just the attachment. I call it my window to home and it's my favourite. I have it as my desktop on my laptop.

Works for me Wednesday

This works for me. I'm putting together a box of mementos I've gotten over the years, ones I've purchased and don't want anymore, or have gotten from secret santas, or just don't work in my home. Then when I need a little gift for something I have one, so I'm not running out last minute, because I often forget. Works well for those neighbours that give you something for the holidays and you're caught off guard. I plan to keep little gift bags and homemade cards in another drawer right next to the mementos.

Point to note, if you're going to re-gift, tape a note to the gift to remind you whom you received it from in the first place.

Woohoo, it's finally happened

Yes ladies, after almost 2 years of marriage, it has finally happened. Congratulate me! I finally have my china and crystal put away in a dresser :) It's safe and accessible :)

Today I received another partial delivery of my bedroom furniture. Now let me explain how my china got put away in my bedroom furniture. The dresser doesn't fit in the bedroom, but I wanted it for the day when we lived somewhere that it would, so we bought it. Well it just happens to match my dining room table, so it's in the dining room and now filled with my china, crystal, and soon linens :) Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!

Tomorrow's organization goal is to tidy up the room downstairs prepping it for it's final organization when I get the last of the bedroom furniture.

100 things about me

This is my 100th post, so in tradition of the 100th, here are 100 things about me. Hubby might not even know some of these.

100 I'm between 5'9" and 5'10"
99 I have brown hair
98 I have green eyes
97 I once got blue contacts, after about 6 months sitting in an English class I realized everyone had either blue eyes or brown eyes. I was the only one with green, and I was hiding them, thinking I would be prettier with blue, within a couple of weeks of that I accidentally ripped one of those contacts, the other had a small nick from my nails that had become larger. Coincident, I doubt it, subconscious though.
96 I have long skinny feet, makes it really hard to find shoes, size 11AAAA (or 11 AAA, depends on the shoe)
95 I have a lot of birth marks, I wasn't born with them all, I was born with only 2 one on each side of my torso at the waist.
94 I was 8 pounds at birth and 24 inches. 2 feet tall already :)
93 My favourite colour is red
92 I was raised to be proud to be Canadian.
91 I love learning and experiencing traditions from other cultures
90 I love languages, but I'm not very good at them
89 I like crafts, latest ones are needlepoint and quilting
88 I used to have a navel piercing
87 My motorcycle license expired last month, never did upgrade it from a learners to a full fledged rider
86 I'm almost 34
85 I feel the biological clock ticking and after this weekend, it's even louder (sorry honey)
84 I don't like my birthmarks and wonder why they are called that because I didn't have so many at birth, or even in early childhood.
83 My favourite body part is my fingers
82 I think my toes are neat because they remind me of my fingers (length & dexterity), but they are not very attractive due to the shoe problems I have (they get squished).
81 My joints in my legs pop
80 I get a lot of headaches, but I'm trying to control them non-medically now
79 I'm a business systems analyst (don't ask)
78 I'm not thrilled with my job, it's tolerable though
77 I have a strong work ethic, which is why I want to be happy with what I do to earn money
76 I have a degree in biology
75 I also have one in environmental science
74 I can program, but not well
73 I like cooking new things
72 I like learning new things
71 I wish I was a better wife to my hubby
70 I wish I could fly
69 I wish sometimes I could see the future, but then I would have to follow it and how boring would that be to know every word and movement before they happened.
68 I wish I was more of a risk taker and adventurer
67 I wish I'd win the lottery, just 2-5 million up front please (although I would take the "win for life" too)
66 I like to swim
65 I like to walk
64 I wish I could run long distances
63 I want to get back on my bicycle, but I've never been a good rider
62 I never appreciated my mother's garden until I had a lawn of my own (it's amazingly beautiful and lush in it's simplicity)
61 If you know Meyers-Briggs I'm INFJ (Introvert, iNuitive, Feeling, Judging), but I'm also really close on sensing & thinking because I was taught that way.
60 I've been married almost 2 years, to a wonderful man that I've known for 15 years (we were friends for 9 before we realized we were meant for each other)
59 My hubby completes me
58 I like to travel
57 I want to go to Italy
56 I want to go to Greece
55 I want to go to France
54 I want to go to Mexico
53 I'm into historical ruins and architecture
52 I like visiting model homes
51 The coolest model home I ever saw had a kids playhouse built into the adjoining wall between 2 of the kids bedrooms (I was a pre-teen when I saw it)
50 I would describe my homes decor as modern but not minimalist.
49 My puppy is sleeping on his back with his feet in the air. He plays with his toys like this, like a baby holding a bottle
48 My puppy has also learned how to entertain himself by playing soccer. He holds one ball in his mouth and the other he passes from paw to paw as he walks around the living room/dining room
47 The chore I hate the most is vacuuming
46 The chore I like the best is cleaning the bathroom
45 I've worn glasses since Grade 7 (age 12)
44 I think about my breasts a lot
43 I'd like to be more comfortable with my breasts, I do think they are nice
42 I've never smoked
41 I have no desire to smoke
40 I'd like to run my own business but can't decide what I would like to do
39 I though I would be grown up by now, and it annoys me that I don't behave that way sometimes. Not that I have to be responsible and an adult all the time, but there is a time and place, and I forget myself at times.
38 I like my coffee "white" (lots of sugar and milk)
37 I prefer Coke to Pepsi
36 I prefer Crest to Colgate
35 I prefer Tide to all others
34 I prefer Second Cup to Starbucks
33 I love the Chai Latte at Second Cup (it totally sucks at Starbucks)
32 I need to take more time for myself, and recognize it as such when I do
31 I like blogging, and when I was away I missed my blogger buddies
30 I try to be honest with people
29 I try to be honest with myself
28 My favourite restaurant is One of a Kind Pasta and Grill (the salmon leaves me speechless)
27 Ruth Chris has the best steak
26 Dante's has the best pizza, Riveria comes a close second
25 My favourite alcoholic drinks are mixed drinks, both drinks and shots (like chocolate monkeys)
24 Warpie is a derivative of an earlier handle called mindwarp, I don't think my thinking is as warped as it used to be. It's time for a change
23 I like doing creative things
22 I'm glad I'm getting close to the end of this because I can't think of much more and it's taken me about an hour to write this much
21 I actually have 3 blogs :) but I've barely used the live journal one
20 Today's mood is relaxed
19 Current reading material is "Children of Dune"
18 Tomorrow I'm trying a new recipe - lentil stir fry
17 Get more new furniture tomorrow, which means more organizing!!!!!!!
16 I love animals (maybe I should find a job with animals)
15 I'd rather live in the country than the city
14 I prefer tea to coffee, but still like coffee for the sugar hit :)
13 Favourite breakfast place is Cora's (followed by Dim sum at Ruby's)
12 I don't currently have a favourite TV show since Friends ended
11 I like CSI and House
10 I don't like reality TV shows unless they are helping people. Extreme MakeOver: Home Edition makes me cry each and every time I watch it. I also like the cool things they do in the homes.
9 I cry at TV shows and movies
8 Books will make me cry too
7 Hopefully my brother is getting married this spring (destination wedding)
6 I gave the engagement rings I inherited to my bro so that he can give his intended a ring (though she has never asked for one).
5 I have a small family
4 I wish I was closer to my family at times, even though I'm not a quality time person, so perhaps that's not a wise wish ;)
3 I love my family
2 I love my dog (but would still like a cat)
1 I love my honey bunny very very much

Well past my bedtime, time to go to bed!

Cool org ideas

I like this site: http://www.getorganizednow.com/

In fact I'm trying to follow their calendar, I forgot until today that I was going to do August, so I'm 3 days behind :(

http://www.getorganizednow.com/cl-month.html

Tackle it Tuesday

Well I actually wasn't going to tackle anything today because it's so hot, and hanging shelves is hard work. Then I realized that tomorrow someone is coming over to quote a window replacement and Thursday the furnace ducts are being cleaned. So basically I want to tidy the whole house. So I cleaned up the kitchen, or at least put the bulk of the disorder where it can't easily be seen. I sanded and primed the walls where I made mistakes trying to hang the shelves. I've brought the paint colours upstairs (3 different ones), I'll see if the primer is dry in an hour. In the mean time I have the basement to tidy up, and I really really hope they won't be going into each room to vacuum out the vents. I called mom to find out and apparently they don't vacuum out each vent. Whew!

So the primer was dry so I painted the spots in question, now I'm waiting for it to dry, then I'll hang the shelves, but that will probably be tomorrow since it's almost time for bed now.

Well so much for a quiet Tuesday night relaxing at home.

Organizing

So I didn't quite get everything done I wanted to, because I forgot I still had things on my list from earlier in the week, and I got distracted.

So for this week, I have to complete the things I started last week:
Finish the kitchen handles
Finish hanging the shelves
Finish reorg of the laundry room
Finish cleaning the 2 storage cupboards in the basement
Find something for the bathroom storage, because the other one didn't fit.
Cleanup

Menu planning Monday

Here's my menu plan for the week:

Monday: 2 mustard chicken, zucchini, broccoli
Tuesday: Veggie Dahl
Wednesday: Chicken Fajitas
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Not my problem, going away for the weekend!

Today's Challenge

My OCD (Organizational challenge of the Day) is:
* Go to Canadian Tire and get baskets for the miscellaneous stuff, and for the makeup and hair accessories in my dresser for under the sink.
* Fill said under sink baskets.
* Start filling the miscellaneous baskets
* Clean out the old end table into the new end table so I can take the old one downstairs and put my sewing and quilting into it.
* Do the laundry

But before I do all this, I need to finish up some documentation from work, so I will do that until noon.

More on the household front

I love the furniture, I absolutely love it. To me, bedroom furniture and dining room furniture are things you will probably never change. So when hubby and I were looking there were items we liked, but when I asked myself the question: "Will you like it in 30 years?" More often than not the answer was no. So needless to say it took a long time to find the furniture we could both live with, and I hope hubby just didn't decide to agree so that we'd be done with it, but I am very very happy, and glad we kept looking rather than just buying something.

Last night I did something that I've been putting off for the better part of a year. I finally changed the handles on the cupboards in the kitchen. Well almost, I still have one pair of cupboards and 4 drawers to do. It actually only took me about 3 hours to drill new holes and hang the new handles. I still have to fill the old holes and repaint the cupboards, but that's a weekend job as the paint takes 24 hours to dry and I need to do both sides of the doors and all the shelves and inside and outside all the cupboards. I'm going to wait and see how long it takes hubby to notice, it might be only until he has to pull a spoon fork or knife out of the drawer, because he'll probably do that before I get the new handles on the drawers. I also found out, that using a drill is A LOT of fun, I really enjoyed it. I was a little concerned at first about getting the drill in the right spot and accidentally splitting the melamine, but hey, it was great! (Update: it took hubby on 10 minutes to notice).

I have to say though I did clean all the cupboards before putting the new handles on, and diluted liquid TSP is a wonder cleaner. You see I've painted my kitchen -- twice. And where I put the painters tape along the top of the hanging cupboards there was a little residual glue and it got quite sticky and dirty. Well that TSP removed that gunk in no time flat. I swiped the top of each door once with the sponge, then went back to the start and wiped it again and off it came. FABULOUS! Mr Clean wasn't nearly so fast. Mind you, TSP works great on that kind of stuff, but it does leave residue, so you have to wash it again with a typical non streaking cleaner (I wrote no steaking, I must be hungry, it was hard work). I also only hurt myself twice, not bad for me because I'm such a klutz. I drilled my left thigh, and stab/scraped my thumb with the screwdriver when it slipped. I like Ikea, but they never make their holes into metal big enough, just this little hole and a big screw. So annoying, but now I can fix that with the drill rather than killing my poor hands and arms trying to turn the screw.

Here are my organizational challenges for today:
In my dresser I have 2 drawers taken up by non-clothing items, I would like to be able to put clothing in there, but first I need some way to organize these things so that it's neat and not visible.

Drawer number one contains makeup, I have a small container for my everyday makeup, but my moisturizer and foundation don't fit, also I have a few more eyeshadows and eyeliners than the case can hold. There is also the nail polish. I'd like to organize this with the items I use to remove makeup and nail polist, so how can I get this neatly into my bathroom (I only have a vanity in there, so it's all below the sink storage at this point).

The other drawer contains my hair dryer, curling iron and rollers.

Actually now I'm thinking perhaps under the sink I install 3 stacked bins that can be pulled out like drawers and put it all in there. Just need to leave enough room for toilet paper and cleaning products. Anyone have better ideas?

Then Organizing Junkie says I should make a list of things I want to organize and break it out into small pieces, so here's my list:

My underwear and sock drawer
My makeup
My beauty routine accessories
My cleaning products
My clothes
My keepsakes
The filing cabinet
The pleasure reading bookcase
The technical reading bookcase
The comic books
The computer accessories
The computers
The computer storage disks
The guest bedroom (it's currently a storage area)
The kichen pantry
The kitchen pots and pans
The kitchen baking accessories
The plates and cups
The leftover food containers (for lunches)
The first aid kits and bandaids
The china and crystal
The serving dishes
The cookbooks and other recipes
The laundry room
The electrical/storage room
The under the stairs storage
The CDs, DVDs and tapes and games
The sewing and quilting

Garage sale?

Well we finally received some of our bedroom furniture, and it is sooo beautiful (to me anyway). So I took the old furniture to the basement and started using it for storage, like CDs. I also purged about 25% of our CD collection. Fortunately hubby and I haven't been married for so long that I can't remember which CDs I came into the marriage with, so it's those CDs I purged. I mean I haven't listened to Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon, Weeping Tile, Seven Mary Three or James in 10 years. So hence the garage sale, I'm going to wait until fall so it's cooler, and I'll hopefully have purged more, in the mean time I can box these up and put them into the rafters in the garage. I'm sure I'll have lots and lots of goodies to sell once I'm done cleaning.

Here's pics of the furniture from the manufacturer. The chest will be the same dark espresso colour as the night stands and table. The manufacturer is "Lane" and the line is called "Regency".

The nightstand




The Dresser




The Chest

Jump on the bandwagon

Well with Julie's comment, I now know 3 of us keen on getting organized. Organizing Junkie, you're rubbing off on us. Perhaps we can encourage each other with what we accomplish from time to time. I know I need it because I have a long haul ahead of me :)

Org tidbit

Here's my org tidbit for the day, admitted I saw this on "Neat" on the Home and Garden network, but I liked it.

This is for organizing your papers that you need in immediate reach (for an average household, not a business). Get a small hanging file holder, insert 15 hanging files.

The last 12 in the hanging file are the months of the year, put into these folders things you need to do each month, i.e. showers, weddings, property taxes. Move each month to the back of the group as it passes.

The first 5 folders are "Pay", "Read", "File", "Mail", "Shred". This is for your incoming mail so that you don't lose anything, and you're up to date, you just have to remember to review daily and file regularly.

Mine is actually not hanging files, it's just the first 5 and it in a magnetic holder attached to the fridge (because the kitchen is the first room as you come in the front door, and the fridge is the closest thing). OK OK, it was attached to the fridge, it's now on the filing cabinet in the office and we don't use it, I should repurpose this and start using it. Works pretty well if you have a desk and file cabinet in the kitchen... or your office is accessible (mine's not, it's on the eventual org list).

New furniture yippee

So we're supposed to get about half of our new furniture tomorrow, I'm excited, but it means I need to do more tidying up tonight, I don't want our house to look like a pig sty when they come to deliver the furniture. So tonight I want to drop some clothes off at the donation box near the grocery store. I just need to find some bags that are big enough so that I don't have to make five trips to load it all in the trunk. Sure running up and down the stairs all those times would be good for me, but, well, I don't feel like it :)

I did go through the cabinets in the 2 bathrooms, and cleaned them out. Mostly it was moving all the first aid stuff into one place, into the powder room. Then I "organized" by putting cleaning stuff on the right and first aid or beauty products on the left. Not great organization I admit it, but it works and it's easy to maintain. Also I put a set of cleaning products into each bathroom, so now I don't have to carry all the stuff from floor to floor, it's there where I need it, and I can use it when I'm in there.

Next organisation projects

I've been inspired by Mom of 2 (Mrs. Happy) and Organizing Junkie. I really do have to get my stuff collected, I'm soooo tired of not finding things, and having a hard time walking around some rooms (OK, 4 rooms to be exact, and it's only an 8 room house, I'm in big trouble). Half the problem is not enough storage, and some of that should be relieved for 2 of the rooms by the end of August. In the mean time, here are my goals by next Monday:
* Upstairs bathroom
* main floor bathroom
* basement storage closets
* laundry room

Wish me luck, I may just become a domestic diva yet.

Closet cleanliness

No the title doesn't mean that I keep my cleanliness under wraps, it means I cleaned out my closet. Well, I now know to be true what my mom has been saying for a few years now, I have trouble remember things. I figured it was just remembering things she wanted from me, or maybe that there was too much stress at work, and things I needed to remember there that left no short term memory for other things. But recently I've lost my books, and it only took me a week to lose them.

Long story short, I found the books in hubby's closet, I blame 'The Bay' for losing them, and Mrs. Happy inspiring me for finding them. OK OK, I lost them. On Tuesday the aforementioned Bay phoned me to tell me my bedroom furniture was going to be delivered the next day (you have a scheduled day, so they only give you a day's warning). In my excitement and haste to get the main and top floors clutter free so the new furniture could me moved in, I was busy shoving things into closets and drawers. So I shoved my new books into my workout bag, and that bag into hubby's closet. The furniture never came, apparently, it's on back order, but also on the truck delivery manifest for that day *shrug*. I now have a new date of Aug 12, and believe me if it doesn't come the 12th we're requesting our money back and starting again looking elsewhere for furniture.

Well on the upside, I have a lovely organized closet, pens where pens go, receipts where receipts go, jewelry where jewelry goes, makeup where makeup goes. A spot for cleansers, hair accessories and various rechargers. I'm very happy, and I have a new book to read tonight, woohoo! I did take before and after pics of the closet, but the batteries were running low on the camera and the pics didn't save. That or I don't know how to use the camera properly (never had problems before, so I don't think that's it).

Date night

Tonight was date night, I almost forgot! Every fourth Friday night I take my little love out on a date. We go to the pet store where Drake plays with any dogs that might be there, flirts with every cashier, and usually gets a Milk Bone from all of them, and he flirts with the customers too. I usually buy him a treat too.

I almost forgot tonight though, hubby works nights every fourth Friday, so the pup and I go to PetSmart. We had only 15 minutes in the store, but he got to greet another golden retriever, and 2 cashiers (only 1 milk bone) and every customer in the store (4 families or couples). We picked up some liver treats, his favs. I had coupons, so we got 3 packages of them!

Drake is passed out in the foyer now, because the ceramic tiles are nice and cool with the AC on. It's good going to PetSmart, it tires him out and that leaves me free to "chat" with his daddy online :)

Karen's Baby Born

Quinn Sharon Joy Bellows was born on Monday, June 5th at 1:25am. Weighing 7lbs 9ozand measuing 50cm long.

I'm sure Karen won't be posting for at least a day or 2. (http://pddmommyof3.blogspot.com/)

Hallelujah

The Spirit moves mightly tonight, been praying for my loved ones, He's heard, will wait and see the fruit. It's coming, hope it's soon, I know the answer has been a long time coming. Think I'll spend some time in praise now, because singing gospel music at the top of my lungs is always fantastic.

Reasons I appreciate my hubby

I decided to write about why I fell in love with my hubby:

1) Because his hands are so gentle when he plays with my hair or rubs my back.
2) Because that first kiss was beautiful (5 years ago today).
3) Because being with him makes me sing
4) Because he used to smile so much when we were together that it would bring tears to his eyes.
5) Because he's very laid back and when he gets mad he doesn't yell.
6) Because he always carries the bags and packages when we go shopping.
7) Because he took care of cleaning up a major womanly accident when we were dating.
8) Because it was fun sneaking around with him before we told all our friends we were dating.
9) Because he's very patient and listens to me and I feel I can talk to him about anything.
10) Because he was my good friend then, and my best friend now.

Happy Anniversary darling. I love you.

6 Quirks about me

Julie tagged me to reveal 6 quirks about myself:

1. I make funny sing song like noises when I'm happy (hubby discovered this, another reason I knew I wanted to share my life with him).
2. I have an addiction to glassware. I like to buy cups, mugs, dishes, vases. I especially like interesting martini glasses and vases.
3. I have weird toes, they are a lot like fingers, in fact my second toe is almost as long as my pinky (on my hand, that would be weird it I meant my pinky toe).
4. I like funny clothing, my favourite article of clothing is a green hat with pompons on long strings, so I can swing them around. I see people smile at me when I wear it and it makes me happy that someone smiled at my silliness.
5. I think I'm psychic :) I had a dream about marrying my hubby about 7 years before we started dating (we were just friends at the time). I have the sense of deja vu occasionally
6. I'm a nut, or from another planet at times :)

Honey, Drake's barfing

Wouldn't it be nice if you could say that and have your spouse take care of it. I did, although I didn't expect honey to take care of it. I just needed him to help Drake, give him some water, comfort him (no one likes barfing, not even a dog). Mostly I wanted Drake to feel comforted because if there's just me, I'm afraid he might eat the barf (he hasn't done that yet, but a lot of dogs do, Drake just eats poo apparently, more on that later) so I push him away when he comes near while I try to clean it up, which might seem like he's been bad, and I can't communicate and explain to him what I'm doing and why. I wonder if he barfed because he ate an entire box of Triscuit crackers. It was the whole box, bought it yesterday and it hadn't been opened yet. Good think it wasn't "jumbo" or "bonus" size, he's probably going to have binding and bloating from the wheat and salt.

We started Drake on a pill from the pet shop that is supposed to help stool smell less, and one of the side effects is the dog is less likely to consume the stool, I figured for $12 it was worth the purchase. He's been on it for about 2 weeks and hasn't consumed any of his own stool. Yay! Although note the "any of his own", he has consumed cat stool, which apparently is like candy for them, and another animal's on a walk a few days after he started the pills (we can't see them under the snow, but he can smell them).

Let go and let's have fun.

The other day my puppy wanted to play with me, he kept bringing me toys and putting them in my lap to throw for him. As soon as I'd reach for it, he'd grip it, take it away and whip it around, sometimes hitting himself on the head with it. I'd recline again and he'd bring the toy back and put it in my lap with his mouth still on it and looking at me with longing eyes to play with him.

God is funny that he put into my head, "see what you do with your problems, you want me to take them and throw them far far away from us, but as soon as I reach for it you grab it away and whip it around, often banging yourself on the head with it. I'll recline back and when you're truly ready to let go, then we can really play".

My puppy is like that too, once he remembers he can let go and I'll throw it, he brings it back and lets go sooner the next time, and each progressive time he brings his toy back to me until he's done playing. He has lots of fun when he remembers to let go and let me be part of the game.

Thanks God for being part of the game.

Proud mummy?

So Drake was really awesome in class on Saturday, he really impressed me (and the trainer) with his ability to stay (sit, stand and lie down positions) with distractions, and distance. I'm very proud of his accomplishments and how far he has come in his training.

So is this general glow what it feels like when your kid accomplishes something beyond what you thought they would be capable of at that age and they just amaze you?

On another note, I have an urge to go snow tubing. One of my co-workers keeps mentioning it and it sounds like a lot of fun, and apparently there is a place about 10 minutes from my home. Thing is I don't have snow pants, or kids to take. Maybe we'll borrow some by convincing friends it's a good idea to take their little one(s). Either that or the neighbours have a 7 and 9 year old who would probably enjoy it. Here's the place: http://www.ski-lakeridge.com/

Pendulum

Well Drake, my hyper little puppy, was actually very sweet and kind of cuddly last night while I was watching TV, normally he tries to jump on me and head butts me in his exuberance, but last night he sat beside me on the couch in the basement (the only one he's allowed on) and occasionally put his head on my lap. This morning he was being sweet to, until I went to iron my pants and he ate my lunch. Well I suppose it was partially my fault, I forgot to put a lid on the container and left it on the counter, you just shouldn't do that with tuna. So he knocked the container off the counter and of course it fell open part down, he pushed it across the kitchen floor slowly licking up the tuna as it came out bit by bit from under the container. When I saw this I said "Draaaaake" in the discipline tone I use and he went straight to his crate for a time out and stayed there until I finished cleaning up. I hope the kitchen doesn't smell too much like tuna since I didn't have time to pull out a mop and thoroughly clean the floor (sorry honey, but now you know why it smells if it does) the dog continued to "clean" the floor after I'd finished so I probably didn't do a very good job.

Adventures in dog training

So I've decided to blog a little bit about the funny things our puppy does. Firstly I should mention that at least in some training books dogs can be generally categorized into 6 different personality types, and although like people your dog will have traits of all of them, one will dominate. Drake is known as a joker, and was voted class clown in his puppy training classes, so it's not just me who thinks he's a nut.

Last week when I was home sick Drake was playing with his towel by taking the end and swinging it around his head, now he does this probably a couple of times a week, but I thought it was funny that day because he did it facing me the entire time, it was kind of like he was dancing or performing like little children do in gymnastics with the streamers on a stick.

Drake also often chews his toys while lying on his back and holding them to his mouth, similar to how a baby might hold a bottle. He also sometimes tries to play with 2 toys at the same time, always a ball and something else. Last night he learned control over the ball and was playing with it between his paws around the floor like soccer (football for the non-North Americans).

Lately Drake's not been feeling well, he's not eating, well not eating his food anyway, he ate my oatmeal then drank a lot of water, I bet that made him uncomfortable as it was instant oatmeal (Peaches & Cream) and he ate about 5 packages of it. He also ate one of my cell phone manuals, so he's been barfing over the weekend, strangely unlike most dogs he doesn't eat that, just everything else, including poo, tore his dog food bag of the new food we're trying and ate that, so we presumed he liked it, but he hasn't eaten much of it since, although I'm sure manuals are quite filling.

Drake loves to play with empty 500 ml water bottles (about half a quart for the Americans) we can use those to entice him to do just about anything, including bedtime which he doesn't like because he'd rather be up playing, but we try to keep him on a reasonable schedule so he's not up barking to play in the middle of the night.

Well that's all I can think of but there's pretty much something weekly, if not daily that he does, so you'll probably hear more in the future.

Wittle Puppy

I thought I'd try posting some more old pictures of Drake (he's 4 months old in these pics). So here's 2 more. Drake stretches all the way down my legs now he's such a big boy (he's 8 months old now). You know the interesting thing, holding him on my lap like that makes me look thinner (yay).

I did try posting the pics several months ago, but blogger just kept copping out on me during the upload.

What makes you happy?

Yesterday I read an email from an email pal who had spent many years trying to make his wife happy, after much trial and tribulation he finally asked her what made her happy and she responded with "I don't know" which surprised him. Anyway, it got me thinking that I can't definitively say what makes me happy either, and I don't spend time thinking about it, or trying to fulfill that, and I really really should, it's very important, how could I have possibly let that slide all of these years!

So I decided to look up happy and happiness in the dictionary, just to make sure my expectations were aligned so that I wouldn't get resentful.

Happiness: a state of well-being and contentment : JOY b : a pleasurable or satisfying experience

Now since happiness is ones own responsibility these are things I can do for myself to make myself happy:
Dancing - I always find dancing a great stress reliever
Singing songs of praise - Always good to thank and worship the Lord for all he has done for me
Walking - Another way to get the endorphins pumping
A clean house - cleaning again gets the endorphins going and when done you have a lovely place to be
Cuddling a kitty - I just like fluffy kittens
Flowers - because they're pretty and a bit of a luxury, although it doesn't have to be an expensive one, you can go to the grocery store and get 3 carnations for $3.99 usually. I just need a smaller vase.
Sitting in the sunshine, or by a fire, slipping tea and maybe having a couple of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies
Thunderstorms - I love watching thunderstorms
Swimming - I just like being in the water
Hot tubs - I like the soaking in hot water with jets massaging my muscles

Well that's a pretty good list for now. I'll see if I can come up with some more later.

Three Things

I was tagged by Jenn, yay, so I don't have to come up with a unique post just yet:

Three names I go by:
1) Honey bunny
2) Kim
3) Arf

Three screen names I've had:
1) warpie
2) mindwarp
3) phantasie

Three physical things I like about myself:
1) My fingers
2) My eyes
3) My bum

Three physical things I don't like about myself:
1) My tummy
2) My hair
3) My legs

Three parts of my heritage:
1) Canadian
2) Finnish
3) Candian

Three things I am wearing right now:
1) an engagement ring (wedding ring didn't fit this morning)
2) a watch
3) a suit

Three favorite bands/musical artists:
1) Gwen Staphani
2) U2
3) Amanda Marshall

Three things I want in a relationship:
1) Love
2) Companionship
3) Cuddles

Two truths and a lie:
1) I've done 3 major life events in 15 months
2) I'm pregnant
3) Puppy eats poo

Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeal to me:
1) tall
2) dark
3) handsome

Three favorite hobbies:
1) reading
2) crafts
3) learning

Three things I want to do badly right now:
1) sleep
2) pee
3) take an advil for my headache

Three things that scare me:
1) my familiy getting hurt/lost/killed
2) roller coasters
3) my mother seeing my very dirty house

Three of my everyday essentials:
1) sleep
2) water
3) food

Three careers you have considered or are currently considering:
1) Mummy
2) Teacher
3) Artist

Three places you want to go on vacation:
1) Greece
2) Italy
3) Hawaii

Three kids names you like:
1) Victoria
2) Isabel
3) Samuel

Three things you want to do before you die:
1) Make a difference
2) Blissfully enjoy a whole week
3) See the three places I want to vacation

Three ways I am stereotypically a boy:
1) I don't like to shop (much)
2) I like comfortable clothes
3) I like to do things myself

Three ways I am stereotypically a girl:
1) I cry during movies and books
2) I like pretty clothes, just not shopping for them
3) I like looking at home decor

Three celeb crushes:
1) Antonio Banderras
2) Brendan Fraser
3) Patrick Swayze

Three people I am tagging:
1) I don't know enough bloggers to tag anyone :(

Wittle Drake

We don't have children, so I'd like to join the fun and write 10 things about Drake, our puppy.

10. Drake arrived home on Sept 8 2005, just shy of being 4 months old (his D.O.B. is May 15 2005). He's from PJ Pets, so I consider him a bit of a rescue because he'd been there for so long.

9. It took about 3 weeks to get Drake to eliminate outside, the longest 3 weeks of our lives. I figure it's because he'd hadn't been eliminating outside for the first 4 months of his life.

8. The first time Drake peed in his crate in defiance was hilarious. The crate didn't have a wire bottom like at the pet store, so rather than go through it started spreading. Drake started backing up and putting his paws up on the sides of the crate to avoid the pee.

7. According to a training book I read dog personalities can be categorized into 6 main groups, I think Drake would be called a "Joker" because he's funny, sometimes hard to control and train for a golden retriever, and he was voted class clown.

6. Drake has passed his first level of training and starts the intermediate level in late January.

5. It took him 2.5 months to get excited about the word "walk".

4. He still doesn't get excited about the words "cookie" or "treat" (he gets lots since he trains daily).

3. He likes fetch, but doesn't play indefinitely at it, usually he'll only fetch between 5 and 10 times and then leave you alone.

2. Drake sleeps on his back, it's funny seeing his paws floating in the air.

1. He's fustrating at times, but we love him.