Do you remember where you were?

It's one of those pieces of history that was so important that you recall exactly where you were and what you were doing at the moment that you heard the news.

I was 15.

I had a paper route.

I remember getting up at 5am to open the bundles of newspapers that had been dropped off on my front porch a few hours earlier.

I remember cutting them open and reading the huge headline that seemed to punch you in the face: "DI DEAD".

It seemed completely surreal to me at the time, and in some super-cheesy way, i felt that it was my duty to let the 100 people on my route know the sad, horrible news. I felt i was playing such an important part, delivering such news to people's doorsteps before they were even awake. Before they could know the outcome of the night before when she was still in hospital.

Obviously i didn't know Diana. I dont' think anyone did. And i suppose it was all of the attention the media still paid her even in her death, but i was glued to the tv for the entire week leading up to her funeral. Would it be a state funeral? Would the Queen have something to say? What would Charles be doing? And most importantly, what were her boys feeling? I tried to imagine myself in their shoes especially since my sister and i are the same age as the princes.

Like everyone else in the world, anything Diana interested me and got my attention. I went to the Diana exhibit at the ROM, i bought magazines with her picture on it. She was fascinating and so much like the rest of us, that it was hard not to want to know more about her.

As you all know, Diana loved fashion and always looked stunning no matter where she was or who she was with. My favorite image of Diana is of her in this dress. It is my favorite dress of all time and whenever i think of Diana, this is the image that pops into my head.

So, do you remember where you were when you heard the news exactly 10 years ago?

I DON'T WANT TO BE ON AN EFFING DIET

i just want to eat and enjoy it all.




:'(

WW so far

So it's been let's see...(counting on fingers) one, two, three, four, five....

Today is my sixth day on WW.

I'm sure you're all wondering how it's been.

Let me tell you, it's been a rough start.

Day one (Wednesday) was the day i signed up, so i didn't feel like exactly starting that day.

Day two (Thursday) was tough. I was sooooo hungry and kept telling myself i didn't need to count things like fat free mayo on my sandwich. I also tried to make this recipe and couldn't believe how bad it sucked! Do not make this. You will end up eating something that tastes like very un-chocolatey, floury, tough, stale Tim Bits. I don't care if they're only 1 point each. They are not worth even that. This recipe, on the other hand, is a-w-e-s-o-m-e :)

Day three (Friday) also tough. The dinner i chose to make took forever to cook and Mat who was being a good sport at waiting for the meal to come out of the oven finally got too hungry and ate hotdogs while i waited for the WW meal to finish cooking

Day four (Saturday) was better. I kept myself busy as much as i could and didn't exceed my daily point limit.

Day five (Sunday) Better again. Discovered these (so delicious and so convenient) and these (Hi, 6 cups = 2 points?? Deal!)

Day six (today) Decided it's time to "beef up" my sad little sandwiches with tons of cukes, tomatos and lettuce.

So all in all, i'm doing ok. Still hungry at times, and being at work makes things difficult because i can't run to the fridge to grab some veggies when i feel like it. But i find if i keep myself busy and not think about eating, i'm ok.

It's really weird how your mind works. When you know you can't have something you can't stop thinking about it. It's torture!

Haven't lost any weight yet, but i'm sure it's too early to tell. I'm used to the Bernstein's diet where you lost 10 lbs in 3 days lol.

New mantra: Keep on keepin' on....

co-sleeping

This post is the result of a comment i was going to post on Porters Ponderings. Let's just say i exceeded the maximum number of characters for a comment so i decided to post it here.

I was the EXACT SAME WAY when we got our doggies.

When we got Oscar (our first doggy) we were very adamant about him sleeping in his crate. Oscar didn't care, he liked his crate and happily retired at the end of the day to it all on his own. But that darn puppy was so cute and it wasn't long before i would snuggle him for 5 minutes before bed, then 10 minutes before bed, then i would pass out while snuggling with him. Then the whole crate idea went out the window and my fiance and i were sharing our double bed with our doggy.

Then when we got our second doggy, Bonnie, it started out the same way. She slept in her crate and was happy to do so until i felt bad that we were playing favorites with Oscar by letting him sleep on the bed and not Bonnie.

It came about that during the summer in our one-bedroom apartment with no central a/c, Bonnie would pant loudly in her little crate and the only thing that would let any of us catch any zzz's was to let her out when she got hot so she could sleep on the floor and cool off.

The next thing i knew, we were buying a foot stool for the doggies so they can climb up onto the bed on their own.

So now we have me, my fiance, Oscar and Bonnie all sharing a double bed every night.

I've gone through phases of being mad at myself for letting them start to sleep on the bed, but now i just embrace that i have two precious dogs who want to be close to my fiance and i as often as they can. Considering we both spend the whole day away from them, it's nice to know i have two warm little doggies sleeping at my feet.

They are the sweetest things to wake up to in the morning, all sleepy and wanting to cuddle. They are the perfect start to my day, and no amount of duvet-cover-washing can make me regret letting them sleep on our bed.

Oh, and the double-size bed? We just replaced it with a King size :) Hey, we needed a bed for the empty guest room anyway...

THAT'S IT!

I am committing myself to losing weight.

I am tired of looking this way, and worrying about picking something to wear every morning because i'm afraid it's going to be too tight.

And here's the really shallow part: I'm tired of seeing people i know who weigh less than i do. I'm horrible, aren't i?? I should be happy for these people, but instead i'm jealous, and i want to be skinny too.

So i'm going to start with WW online because i feel it will give me the flexibility to choose what i want to eat. I know i'll be miserable if i can't have my coffee with cream and honey in the morning and i'm willing to sacrifice other things for it. I also want to be able to eat out on occasion and not sit there eating a lettuce with lemon juice for dressing while other people are eating regular meals. I have enough time to do WW, so i'm going to do it.

On top of this, i'm going to attend some cardio classes. I'm very bad at going to the gym and doing a routine, but i don't mind going to the gym and attending a one-hour class. So that's what i'm going to do.

Now, i need all of you to keep me honest and on track, OK???

Sarah: good idea about being buddies...how do we do this exactly?

Mat: you better put your tough skin on, because i think there's going to be many-a-day with cranky Roz...

Apples 'n' Oranges

Warning: Product Promotion

This is long overdue *wink, but i would like to send a big CONGRATULATIONS to Lara and her business partner Vicky for the launch of their new online store, Apples 'n' Oranges.

Apples 'n' Oranges specializes in Canadian childrenswear for ages 0 - 5.

Now, i should let you know that by writing about Apples 'n' Oranges and putting their link in my sidebar, i have been entered into a contest....twice.

BUT this isn't a completely selfish blog.

First of all, Lara is my friend (right Lara??) and i really want to see her company get off the ground.

Second, all i read are "mom blogs" so i'm hoping those people visit my blog and find Apples 'n' Oranges fitting their need for unique clothes for their children.

Last, I am a huge supporter of small business as i once had my own small business. I feel that anyone who has the courage and willpower to start their own company and follow through with it is top-notch in my books, and for that, i support them.

So click on the button on my sidebar, and visit their site. If nothing else, at least you'll get to see some pictures of some really really cute kids!

Etiquette

Question for you folks:

As you know, i'm getting hitched next year (yay!).

My sister who's the maid of honour wants me to send her a list of people i would like to be invited to my bachelorette party.

My problem is....can i invite people to my bachelorette party if they're not invited to the wedding?

My first initial answer is no. It's rude to invite someone to one part of the wedding and not to the wedding itself. right?

But then i started thinking, and now i'm wondering if it's ok to invite them to one and not the other.

here's why:

1. We're trying to keep our guest numbers down as much as possible and i think most people can understand that
2. The bachelorette party isn't a cash or gift grab. It's a night out to drink and get silly with a bunch of girls
3. The bachelorette party is going to be in Vegas, so if someone wants to go, why not
4. It's not like me getting married is a secret so if they're not invited to the wedding they're still going to know about it anyway
5. I don't think i would be offended if i wasn't invited to a not-so-close-friend's wedding but someone invited me to their bachelorette party

What do you think? How would you feel if you were invited to an acquaintance's bachelorette party and not her wedding (keep in mind that obviously all close friends and family are invited to the wedding)

Come On In!

Welcome to my home. It's not completely finished yet, but i thought i'd give you a sneak preview. I know it took a while for us to let you in, so we thank you for your patience.


Welcome!


Oh, if you don't mind closing the door so the doggies don't get out...thanks.


So what do you think of the colour? I think it goes well with my Lawren Harris print.


That door leads to the powder room and the stairs go up to the second floor and down to the finished basement


If you turn to your left a bit, you'll see the door to the garage. I'm glad i painted the doors a darker colour than the walls and the trim white...what do you think? It was really hard trying to get a colour to look good with those tiles. The previous owner painted the walls a peachy-brown (yuck) and painted one of the doors the same red / purple as the tile *shudder* she painted the garage door and trim all the same peachy-brown...it looked really really bad, but now i don't mind the tile at all with the gray :)


And then right in front of you is the closet. Go ahead, open it...



Surprise! Baby Bonnie likes to nap in little corners :)


Oh, and just before we leave the foyer, take a peek in the powder room and let me know what you think of the colour. It's a greeny-gray. Yes, i love the group of seven...



Ok, i'll run you upstairs to see the 2 spare rooms we painted. First, the guest room...
It's hard to see in this light, but it's a pale gray-blue...i think it'll look nice once i get all the white and tan furniture and accessories in here.


And here's the office. It's a steely-blue colour. That desk will be gone soon as well...


The colour looks more gray from this angle...


Alright, we haven't done anything with the other rooms so i won't show you those yet.
For now, let's go sit outside on the patio. Pull up a chair with me...we'll bbq!




Oscar loves his yard :)


He loves watching the people and dogs who walk by occasionaly.


So thanks for stopping by my house. It's been hard work these last 2 weeks. Come back again soon!

It's Time

I need to lose weight.

20 lbs to be exact...

I was putting it off until October because then the wedding would be a year out. But now i'm a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding in June, which means i have to start N.O.W.

well that's just GREAT!!!

so, the question now becomes which diet do i do? I've honestly done every diet under the sun (no, seriously, i have). I've done WW, Bernstein, Curves and South Beach. I've also been to see a registered dietician and worked out like crazy. The only one that actually worked for me was the bernstein diet and that's because i literally starved myself (i lost 20 lbs in 7 weeks. i KNOW, i KNOW, it's not healthy, but it worked, ok?)

Anyway, I don't want to do the bernstein diet this time, mainly because it's too expensive ($150 a week) and because it takes a LOT of planning in advance.

So, i think my two options are either South Beach or WW.

I've heard great things about both diets (mainly that they do work). The thing is, i've tried both of them and never been able to stick with them. I don't know if my motivation right now is strong enough or not. I mean, it should be, but you just never know with my non-existant self discipline.

The thing that worries me about each diet is: On WW i'm worried that i won't see results fast enough and i'll get discouraged. But on SB, i'm worried that it'll be too restrictive or too complicated that i won't want to stick with it.

I'll have to really think about it. I guess i could start with WW and if it doesn't work, i could switch to SB. And if THAT doesn't work, i could revert to Bernstien's for an emergency weight loss.

Any advice?

Saturday BBQ

Edited to add pics of our prezzies :)

Our Saturday bbq was great. It was a lot of hard work, but it was well worth the effort.

Saturday started with me rising at 6:30 am (it's hard for me to sleep in with a crappy mattress and the sun beaming in the window). I made my way downstairs and instinctively made coffee (thank god i worked at Second Cup for 6 years because i can actually make coffee with my eyes closed which comes in handy at 6:30 am). Sat outside with the doggies while i drank my coffee and planned my day. Mat eventually made his way downstairs and helped himself to a cup of joe and sat outside with me. We discussed our plan of attack and i was out the door to get groceries and booze before 8:30 am. I quickly realized there was a problem: the stores didn't open until 9 am...crap!

I eventually got all of the groceries but had to run them home before i could get the beer and wine, especially since i was risking the frozen burgers (which turned out to be a good decision after all) and ice cream bars melting since the woman in front of me in line was arguing about a price of an item. For chrissake lady...i have 2 boxes of ICE CREAM BARS sitting here and it's already 25 degrees outside and it's 9:30 am!!

It also didn't help that the cashier was the slowest ever!!

So i raced home, ran two bags of groceries in the door. Yelled upstairs to Mat to "help me with the groceries PLEASE" and then ran back outside trying to get all the groceries inside without them melting.

Finally got all of the frozen food into the freezer safely and all of the other perishable items into the fridge.

FYI: i bought 40 frozen hamburgers and 24 hotdogs. I also bought 50 ice cream bars. Yes, we ended up with waaaay too much food and we'll be eating burgs, dogs and ice cream bars until christmas...

Then i was off to the beer store and liquor store to buy 2 2-4's of beer and 5 bottles of wine. I wasn't exactly sure how much booze to buy for 30 people. We already had a 2-4 of beer at home and another bottle of wine. I hoped it was enough. (again, we won't need to buy beer or wine for a good, long time especially since we got a ton of wine as housewarming gifts AND people brought their own beer to drink even though i said we would provide...sheesh!)

The rest of the day for me was spent making veggie pizza, making humus, cutting up veggies, cutting up the condiments for the burgers, and then stuffing everything into the already full fridge like a crazy woman trying to go on vacation for 2 weeks with only one suitcase. The hardest thing to do on my list was cut all of the corn on the cob that i bought (and i bought 12), into discs for a recipe i found on Martha Stewart.com. Ok, cutting corn on the cob is NOT easy!

Finally and miraculosly, everything gets done....except that it's 4:30 and i'm supposed to pick someone up at 5 and it'll take me 30 minutes to get there and i'm sweating like a pig! So...i hope into the cold shower, towel off, pull my hair in to a pony-tail (not how i wanted to wear my hair) and drive like a maniac. I'm late, of course....

And then, the party starts. The doggies are clean and got their nails clipped. People start pouring in. I give everyone a 10 minute tour of the house. They oooo and ahhhh and then i offer them a drink and shuffle them outside where there's appetizers and chairs, and immedately greet the next group coming through the front door.

I'm fortunate to have such a great bunch of friends! Everyone got along great and thankfully needed very little of my attention to make sure they were talking.

It was great to see people whom i haven't seen in too long.

It was also very nice to get a bunch of bottles of wine ;) we also got a gift card and a "cleaning bible" and a serving platter. Our friends are great.

And before you ask....yes i did take pictures! But only of the gifts because i was too busy to take pictures of the party.

I was going to post them today, but realized that i left the usb cable for my camera at home. I promise to post them tonight.

Oh, and i also took some pictures of the house and the rooms we painted so stay tuned for those too.

Needless to say, i spent almost the whole day on Sunday sleeping. I didn't mean to, but after i got up again at 6:30, went to church, had breakfast and strolled around Westboro, i needed a nap. I immediately crashed on my bed around 1 pm and didn't wake up until 5:15!! eek. I immediately felt bad for having "wasted" the day, but i think my poor body really needed the rest. There's not much else we can do to the house anyway after the last 2 weeks of painting etc.!

Now our house feels livable having finished the majority of the painting and having our friends over to give it their blessing :)

All of our housewarming gifts (not present in photo: homemade cookies from Bonnie (my friend, not my doggy) and a bottle of wine from Meg and David which we were given the day we moved in and - of course - consumed)

Card from Meg and David

Bottle of wine from Bonnie and Garry (again, Bonnie also made dee-licious homemade cookies but most of them were devoured at the bbq and then Mat and i polished them off at breakfast Sunday morning...)

Bottle of wine from Shannon and Justin complete with beautiful and luxurious wine cozy

Bubbly from Eric and Christina

Bottle of wine from Mat's co-worker Veronica and Husband

Bottle of wine from Mireille and Nicolas

Bottle of wine from Mat's cousin, Jeff


The Cleaning Bible, also from Mireille and Nicolas

Gift card to HBC from Phil, Helen and Tuan. Gift card hold hand-made by Helen

And a close up of the beautiful hand-made holder

Serving platter from Yasmine and Camila

The Story of Mat and Roz: How Mat Proposed

I was having a really crappy day one Thursday because it was like my 3rd day at my new job, and some stuff was just not good that day. Anyway, I came home pretty upset and was talking to Mat about it and he was trying to make me feel better.

Mat: what would make you feel better? Would you like to get some Gelato?

Roz: No

Mat: Do you want to grab a pizza for dinner tonight?

Roz: No

Mat: well, there must be something I can do to make you feel better

Roz: No, nothing (note: typical Roz would usually say something to the effect of being engaged, or getting a ring or the like, but I didn’t want to feel any worse than I already did by being disappointed, so I just kept saying “no, nothing”)

Mat: oh, c’mon, there must be something…

Roz: No, Mat, actually I would just like to be left alone…ok??

Mat: c’mon, there must be something. If I were a genie and you had one wish, what would it be?

Roz: (getting annoyed) look Mat, you already know what I would say, but I’m in a shitty mood and I don’t want to be even more upset, ok? So I really don’t want to play this game right now…ok?!

Mat: c’mon, just one wish….

Roz: FINE! You know what I want??? I wish we were engaged, OK?? (now quite mad)

Mat: oh, ok…(goes to bedroom)

Mat: (comes back with a small box)

Roz: what is that??! You better not be teasing me, because that’s NOT funny.

Mat: (gets down on one knee…) Roz, I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and I’ve had this for a few weeks now, but there’s been so much going on lately with your family and you traveling, there was never the right time to give this to you, but I think now is a perfect time because I want you to know that whatever we go through, it’s always going to be ok, because we’ll have each other.

Roz: *sob* *sob*, is this for real???? Is this really happening??? Serious??? *laughs* (probably delirious right about now), ohmygod…*laughs* *sobs* YAY :D

So that’s it…very casual kind of like us…Mat mentioned that he thought of planning a getaway, but knew I would be suspicious and didn’t want me to know when he was going to do it so I guess it worked…I certainly didn’t wake up that day thinking I would get engaged...

The Story of Mat and Roz: How We Met

Mat and I met in highschool. We were in the same grade and were about 15 or 16 years old.

Mat and i had something like 4 out of 5 classes together in one semester, although i didn't realize it at the time (Mat said he noticed from the very begining that we had almost all of our classes together).

So i didn't know Mat was in almost all of my classes, except for my science class. I remember our lab groups would always work next to each other. As well, Mat sat beside one of my best friends in science class.

One day, while i was in science class, there was an announcement on the PA system to please pray for Mathew P___ because his mother had just passed away (We went to a Catholic highschool).

I thought to myself how that name sounds familiar and i glanced over to where my best friend sat, and the desk beside her was empty.

I felt a huge wave of sadness come over me. I didn't really know this person, but for some reason i just felt pain. As i stood there listening to the national anthem and the morning prayer, i couldn't help but think about how i could help him, even though i didn't even know him.

All of my maternal instincts came out. I thought that maybe i could get his homework for him and look him up in the phone book and take it over to him. But then i thought that he doesn't need to worry about homework at this time. I wanted to do something for him, but i didn't know what. I also didn't know if i should because i didn't know him, and i was sure that his friends were with him and helping him.

A few weeks passed, and Mat came back to school. I was a bit shy, but i went up to him and told him how sorry i was for his loss. That was probably one of the first times i ever talked to him.

After that, i noticed him in all of my other classes and we became fast friends. We started talking more and more and eventually ended up sitting beside each other in all of our classes and working on projects together. We became very openly flirtatious but i didn't care who saw us. There was definitely something there between us.

However, we were still only 16 and when you're that age, you're still pretty juvenile and neither of us would tell the other our feelings. Our relationship at that time was full of mixed signals and i never knew where he stood exactly. At the end of the school year, he was dating another girl and i was dating another boy. I called him once during the summer because i was thinking about him, but except for that, we didn't talk for 3+ months.

When we returned to school in the fall, the first thing on my mind was Mat. I desperately wanted to see him. The first day back to school was the first day the teachers went on strike for 2 weeks. That day, we got out of school around 12 noon and my bus wouldn't be coming until 3:15. I was wandering the halls, wondering what i would do for 3 hours when i ran into Mat. I was so excited to see him i that ran up to him and demanded to see his school schedule to see if we shared any classes again. Then i told him about the current bus situation and wondered if he could give me a ride home (subtle aren't i?). He was already giving one of his buddies a ride home so i guess he didn't mind dropping me off too.

And that's where it all started again. We hung out all the time and when school resumed, Mat would come back to pick me up after school because he got out of class earlier than i did. We would go back to his place and eat and nap and then he would drive me home. We did this for 2 months before we were officially "going out".

Mat asked me out on November 5, 1998 and we've been together ever since. We went to separate universities and did the long-distance relationship for 4 years (NOT easy). Then Mat moved to Ottawa with me and 3 years later brings us to today.

Our wedding day is October 4, 2008 - we will have been together almost exactly 10 years when we get married.

There's so much more i could write about us in highschol like the girl he dated right before me and all of the sweet things Mat did for me in highschool....i could go on and on....

us in highschool

us today

Stuck

Hi!

I'm tired of blogging about the house, and i'm sure you're all tired of hearing about it. Problem is, there's not much else on my mind these days. Can you give me some ideas to write about?

p.s. we painted the guest room last night. It's waaaaaaaaaay better than the bubble gum pink. I think the room will look very restful and peaceful once all of the furniture and accessories are in place. See??? can't stop blabbing about the house....

I'm such a dork

It pretty much made my day yesterday that we got our blue box and black box.

My first ever recycling bins!!

Updates

Sorry this isn't a "real" post, but i will slowly expand on my mini-updates when i get a few minutes from painting...

• Had an extra long weekend. My boss gave us Friday off from work, and monday was a holiday...yippee

• Had my well-deserved massage on Friday. I helped my friends plan their wedding and the "deal" was that they would buy me a massage if i did a good job. It was time for a massage after all the wedding planning and then house moving. Also, an excellent start to a Friday-off.

• Bought paint for the new house. Originally, Mat and i decided that the first thing we're going to do is paint the two kiddie rooms which are bright pink and bright blue. However, as i mentioned before, i was having a hard time choosing colours. Somehow (still now sure how) i thought it would be a good idea if i "tested" a colour i had in mind in a small space like the downstairs powder room. I had envisioned this beautiful, creamy, off-white which had a hint of faint, faint yellow. I thought i chose a very classic, off-white, but by the time i had painted the powder room, it SCREAMED banana and i couldn't bear to look at it. I had to change the colour, but Mat was getting annoyed at the money i was spending at home depot. We re-painted it "squirrell" and it looks better. Still not the exact colour i had in mind, but it's much better than the banana.

• Also painted the foyer. This turned out better than the powder room, but when the first coat went up, i regretted the colour i chose. Our apartment was this beautiful grey. I know, it sounds dull and boring and gross, but it looked awesome with the white trim and doors and the black picture frames. I wanted to paint the hallway the exact same colour, but again, i chose wrong. It looked like cement. Cold, hard cement. I wanted to cry. After leaving it for a day, i decided that i actually didn't mind it. I decided that it had a blue tint in it, and that i was going to call it "slate blue" instead of cement. I think i would have preferred the grey with the brown tint like our apartment, but i'm convincing myself that it's much better to be different than boring like the "taupe" that was the apartment walls.

• When we bought the house i HATED the tiles in the foyer and powder room. They are purple-ish red / brown, and the woman who lived there before painted the powder room the same purpley-burgundy and painted the hallway a browny-peach. It looked horrible. However, now that i've changed the colours, i actually don't mind the tiles. Heck, i might even like them...

• We finished building the fence. Ok, my dad and Mat finished building the fence. It's awesome being able to let the doggies out free and not watch them or tie them up.

• I bought some hanging flower baskets for the front porch. I love them.

• We are having 20+ people over to our house on saturday for a bbq. I can't decide if i should make the hamburger patties from scratch or buy some frozen ones. My lazy self wants to buy the frozen ones, but my martha stewart self wants to make them from scratch

• We FINALLY bought a bed. Yesterday. We haggled the sales guy. i didn't think we had it in us. But we shopped around and got some prices and then took those prices back to the store where we wanted to buy the bed from (because of their warranties and deliveries etc. etc.) We got everything including delivery, taxes, frame, mattress protector, all for the cost of the mattress and box spring before taxes. We saved $700. I couldn't believe it. I will let you know how i like our new Natura mattress when it's delivered. I'm expecting to love it.

• This week i hope to have the two spare rooms painted...that is as soon as i can pick the colours...

• I promise to go into more details soon :)

I ain't complainin'...

But it's too hot to blog today....



you can find me here:






drinking this:

I'll be painting this long weekend and i plan on taking pics of the house and posting them...just hold your horses!

Oh, and tomorrow i have the day off work and i'm getting a massage....can't. wait.

I'll be thinking of all of you.