The 12 Days of Christmas Recap

(a little late... but I've been busy this Holiday Season)

 On the Twelfth Day of Christmas my girlfriend gave to me...

A Twelve Pack of Beer

Eleven Pickled Pickles (heehee) 

Ten Timbits

Nine Lady Fingers

Eight Laughing Cheeses

Seven Shortbread Cookies

Six Scratch Tickets

Five Gooooolden Baaaalls!

 Four Funny Movies

Three French Toasts

Two Turtle Doves

And a Peanut Butter Cupcake from Crave!

30 Before 30... The List.

Last week I turned 29. Which means that I have one year to complete this list I created over the last few months. So lets get to it shall we? 

30 Before 30

1 – Host a dinner party for 6 people.

2 – Lose at least 30 lbs

3 – Lay on a beach in the sun while drinking margaritas

4 – Blog 30 days in a row

5 – Sing karaoke

6 - Have $_____ in savings (I know the number but I don't think I need to put it onto my blog) 

7 - Celebrate my 30^th b-day in style!

8 – Write a good chunk of my book.

9 – Host a theme party

10 – Have a completely Sober October

11 – Do something that is completely selfless.

12 – Do something that scares me.

13 – Send 5 people cards for no reason in particular except to make their day.

14 – Forgive my sister…

15 – Wear red lipstick (not on Halloween)

16 – Write a poem that I’m proud of.

17 – Fly a kite.

18 – Play hooky from work and get day drunk.

19 – Watch every movie that has won an Academy Award for Best Picture. (already started this one! If you want a copy of the list let me know) 

20 – Create a funny youtube video.

21 – Try 10 foods I’ve never had before.

22 – Sign up for a fitness class and attend all classes. No excuses.

23 – Cook a new recipe every month – one that I’ve never tried before.

24 – Go on a vacation, somewhere hot. 

25 – Put a tag/sticker on ALL articles of my clothes and shoes. If I don’t wear it by the end of the year, get rid of it.

26 – Try to only wax my legs for the whole year, no shaving.

27 – Buy coffee for the person behind me in line at Tim Horton’s.

28 – Teach someone something new.

29 – Figure out the “art” of liquid eye liner. 

30 – Drink tea everyday. 

I will let you know how it progresses! 

p.s. - I totes need to blog about my birthday... it was truly the most magical day! And about Christmas. And about my 2012 in review. Oye... I just need to blog in general! 

The 12 Days of CHRIS-mas...

The Boyfriends name is in the word Christmas (obvious...) so its even more fitting that I get creative and do a 12 Days of Chris-mas just for him!!!! 

Day 1 - A Peanut Butter cupcake from Crave 

(best cupcakes ever....!!! Check them out here.) 

Two "Turtle Doves".... get it. I'm so funny...

Three French Toasts!! Mmmmm!!!!!!!

Stay tuned for the days ahead!

That time when I cracked under pressure…

This past weekend was my company Christmas party. One of the “fun” things we did at the party was some music trivia. Little known fact about me (well… only little known to anyone who doesn’t actually know me in person… I LOVE all things trivia. I watch Jeopardy every day. Its just how I roll).


For the game, each table was given a piece of paper with lines to fill in the song title and artist for 10 different songs. The DJ would play a small blip of a song and we had to guess it.


Well, our team was AWESOME and we rocked at it. The bosses thought that songs like 100% Pure Love by Crystal Waters would be “obscure” and “difficult to guess”… come on now…


Anyhoo… it came down to a tie between us and one other table. Each team had to pick a representative from the table to go head to head in a tie breaker round. One song. First one to guess the song name or artist wins.


My team picked me. It was a smart choice.


So I got up there in front of my entire company and their spouses and shook hands with my competitor. It was on like Donkey Kong.


I was in the zone.


They started playing a song.


Nothing.


Both of us up there looked at each other and started laughing. We had NO CLUE. Apparently it was some Brooks and Dunn song but they didn’t even get to the actual singing in the clip and it wasn’t any Brooks and Dunn song I had ever heard before.


So the big boss man picked a new song with the DJ. They said “you guys will definitely know this one!”


I got right back in the zone. Hands on my hips. Eyes on the ground so I wouldn’t be distracted by anything.


Song started playing.


BOOM! My hand goes up. I knew it right away.


So I blurted out the first thing that came to me when the microphone came near me

“BIG WILLY STYLE!!!”


The Boss man says “yes… oh wait… no…. sorry, that’s not right!”


As he handed the microphone to my competitor I clued in to what I actually said and pulled one of these…

(at exactly 20 seconds... thats how I felt...) 

The song was “Gettin’ Jiggy With It” by Will Smith.

I knew that too. All the words floating around in my head were “Will Smith!! Jiggy!! Will Smith!!!” but instead I shouted out the album name.

Damn it. Five days later I’m still mad at myself for bombing.


After the other team got it right, I went back to my table. My adorable older coworker who knows how much I LOVE Jeopardy turned to me and said “you better not freeze up like that if you’re ever on Jeopardy now…”



*** As a side note, a very important side note, I would like to point out that one of the songs was “Hip Hop Hooray” by Naughty by Nature. I saw the other teams sheet after the game was over and they wrote “Hip Hop Away”. That is not the right song so TECHNICALLY we won. We don’t get the prize but I know we won and that’s all that matters… ***

It's the little things...

Like spending the afternoon with your Grandma putting up the Christmas Tree. 

Seriously, how cute is she? 

Cue all the excitement!!!

Having a birthday in December usually means you get shafted…

I am probably writing this a few weeks ahead of time seeing as my birthday is on December 20^th  and its not technically even December yet but it’s the same old story every year. With my birthday so close to Christmas it usually means 2 things: 

1 – I get a whole whack load of presents in December (thanks Mom! You never let me down) 

and 2 – A lot of people won’t be able to make it to my birthday party. Sad Panda.

When I was younger and in school everyone was already on holidays when my birthday rolled around. And now as I get older and make grown up friends, they are usually “gone back home” for Christmas. Or everyone already has plans because December is the busiest month for EVERYONE.

What’s a girl to do?

Have a party anyways when I want and whoever shows up shows up?

Wait until January to have a post birthday celebration? Meh… by then the excitement is already worn off.

Not have a party of any sort?

It’s always a dilemma every year. This year I thought I would think about it early to hopefully have people be able to attend. But now its just stressing me out earlier than normal.

This year will be my 29^th. So I will try my best not to fret about it too much. But next year… I’m sending out invitations in July…

Tis the season!

Now that American Thanksgiving is over and its only a few days away from December, I can put up my Christmas decorating with out feeling like I'm jumping the gun. 

I looked up some photos for a little inspiration... 

This is a little excessive... yet I still love it. 

I totally already made one of these a few weeks ago... 

Yum! Definitely making these! 

A cozy candle cozy.

Remember that time... in Italy... When the lights were out...

Get your mind out of the gutter. This isn’t THAT kind of story.

I told this flashback story to a coworker today and thought it would be a funny one to share on my blog. Always thinkin’ about you fellow bloggers!

Once upon a time (11 years ago), in a land far, far away (in Italy), there was a young girl. It was me actually!! I was 17 years old and on a Grade 12 Europe Trip with my school. There were 40 students on the trip and we went to France, Monaco and Italy. One of the most interesting and fun holidays ever!

This particular story took place at a hotel in Rome on the last night of the adventure. After dinner a group of us were hanging out in the hotel room (we may or may not have been drinking the 12 bottles of wine we purchased that day…) and we heard some noise outside the balcony of the room. We looked out and low and behold there was an Italian soccer team staying in the other tower of the hotel. Well... we being 17 year old girls of course started whistling and screaming for them. They hollered right back and tried to get us to open the door of our hotel tower to let them in (at the hotel you needed security cards/keys to get into each of the buildings). We knew the teachers on the trip were in the rooms next to us and we would get in SO MUCH trouble if we let them in so the crazy Italians started trying to climb up the balconies. After a while they started creeping us out so we closed the balconies and went about our own “last night in Europe party”.

For the entire trip I had been rooming with 2 other girls. They were exhausted and wanted to go to sleep but I was planning on pulling an all nighter with the rest of the group. The thing was you needed to put one of those security keys I mentioned into a slot in the room in order to get power to the room, the same key you needed for the halls and for the door to get in and out of the room too. Really smart plan for saving power, but not smart when we only had one key between the 3 of us. So my roomies and I decided that I would take the key since they were just going to sleep anyways and didn’t need lights.

Off I went down the hall to join the rest of the group, key in hand. At 3 am we heard banging and yelling from somewhere in the hotel. Those of us that were still up instantly thought it was the Italian soccer team so we were too scared to open the door to the hall to check. After a while someone said “I think that noise is coming from our floor??”, we opened the door and peeked out. “Umm… Mich… I think that noise is coming from YOUR room??”.

We ran down the hall to my room and opened the door. There were my roommates, soaking wet, in complete darkness. The pipe from the shower burst somehow and water was spraying everywhere. The poor girls were locked in the room with no lights and no way out.

It’s a funny story NOW but let me tell you… they were not happy having to pack all of their soaking wet clothes for our flight early that morning.

I'm not made of money ya know...

Let's vent a little shall we...

So I'm going to a bachelorette party this weekend. Yay! I love bachelorette parties. BUT what I don't like is when whoever is planning said party thinks everyone invited is made of money and/or has a sugar daddy.

If I were to participate in all of the bachelorette weekend festivities they would include:

Drive from Calgary to Banff (and return after) - lets say $40 in gas
Pay the Banff National Park fee for parking there over the weekend - $20??
Hotel for 2 nights (shared with other girls) - $150
Spa day - probably like $300
Dinner at a very expensive restaurant on Saturday night - $60
Booze for pre-drinking at the hotel room - $30
Night out at the bar - I'm gonna guess about $80
Small gift for the bride - $20
Meals for the rest of the weekend too - $50?

That estimate totals up to $750..... SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS!!!!!!! 

Holy Shit!

Sure I adore the bride and would get a girls weekend out of it but damn... I could go to Vegas for that cost. Shoot I could find a deal and go to Mexico for a week for that cost.

Not happening.

Myself and another invitee are going to drive to Banff (share the cost of gas) on Saturday afternoon and meet up with everyone just before dinner time and then stay with them until after the bar and then drive back together. (I wont be drinking in case you were wondering).

I swear... whenever I get married I will make sure my bridesmaids think of those who are on a budget.

Rant over.

Pondering...

Lately I’ve been feeling bored, like I am supposed to be doing something. Maybe this feeling has come over me because for most of 2011/2012 I was helping my best friend plan her wedding. It took up a lot of my time and thought. At the same time I was in the beginning stages of a new relationship. Any time that wasn’t spent working, or helping my friend, was spent with him.

Now that the wedding is over and the boyfriend and I have moved in together I feel like I have all this free time on my hands and I don’t know what to do with myself.

I could take up a hobby but to be quite honest, I am on a strict budget right now with a goal of being debt free at the end of 2013 in my clear vision. Also I REALLY want to go to BiSC in May and on a vacation with the man somewhere too so any extra money is being put into vacation funds.

This feeling has got me thinking.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at a friend’s house with a big group of people watching the Western Final CFL game (Go Stamps!!). Some of our friends brought their kids. I ended up getting distracted from the game and spent most of the afternoon playing “shopping” and “hairdresser” with 2 of the little girls there. I was in heaven.

So all last night and this morning I kept thinking about my age. And how if certain events in my life turned out differently, I could probably be married by now with a baby or two.

Is that why I am feeling the way I am? Should I have kids already? I feel like I am no where near ready for anything like that. But I just wonder…

Dance Dance Revolution

There was a surprise at my BFF's wedding in July... check it out!

Day. Off.

You know what can (sometimes) be better than a vacation? Random days off with nothing to do. Stay-cations as I like to call them.

That what I get to do today.

No work. No plans.

Beautiful.

Tales from Condo Management – Episode II - The One with the washer fluid

I received this letter a few months back after we told someone they weren’t allowed to store household items in their underground parking stall. Some people can be such assholes. Funny… but still assholes.

To Whom it May Concern:

            Just wanted to write a quick note letting you know how pleased I am with your recent decision to disallow residents to leave a bottle of windshield wiper fluid at the back of their stalls. Yikes! How horrible. It really made the garage look messy and disheveled. After all, the blue color of the fluid did clash with the color of the dirt, rock and cigarette butts that usually sit on the floor.

            I am happy to know that I can now host a Sunday afternoon tea party in the private underground parking stalls of our building without the scorn from my friends and family for the unsightly appearance of a single bottle of wiper fluid. I mean really, why would I put wiper fluid on the FLOOR of a GARAGE, when I could just as easily place an opened bottle of toxic chemical in my own car with my children. Maybe I can place it in the middle of my dining room table? In a GARAGE??? Were we out of our minds?? Thank god you picked up on this.

            Yep, I think we should plan all of our neighborhood BBQ’s to take place in the dusty underground parking of our building. You know, to really show it off to the community. It is after all the highlight of our building.

            Gosh, could you imagine if other home owners actually placed necessities for their vehicle in their garage??? Insanity.

            Again, thank you. Just brilliant.

Sincerely,

A Home Owner

Speech! Speech!

This summer my best friend got married and I had the (terrifying) honor of the speech to the bride: 

Good Evening everyone,

If you don’t already know, my name is Michelle and I would just like to say a few words to the newlyweds. But before I do that, I would like to thank all of the groomsmen for everything they have done for Bryan and Jennifer’s special day and for looking so handsome this evening. Ladies, can we get a quick round of applause for the handsome groomsmen?

Jen and I have been friends for about 18 years now and we have countless memories together from all of our adventures. I would like to share a story though that very few people in this room know about, in fact, I’m pretty sure Bryan isn’t even aware of this.

Early last May, I was rummaging through some old boxes at my parents house and found a bunch of things from high school, most of which were just pictures of the Backstreet Boys and notes between Jen and I. But then I came across an envelope that had some very important papers in it. It was about 6 pages folded together that were titled “The Dream Love List”. I called Jen right away and told her what I had found; she was just as excited as me and made me promise not to look at it until we could read it together. Best friends do those sorts of things for each other…

So we got together the next day and, as giddy as can be, unfolded “The List”. We wrote this list when we were about 17 years old so it was of course written in blue marker and covered in heart shaped stickers. When we wrote the list, we said that before either of us even thought about marrying someone, we would have to go back to that list and make sure he fit the criteria.

The list was composed of very important qualities that any good man should have. Such as:

# 4 – Has to be able to dance.

Or

# 28 – Must have good hair.

Or how about,

# 39 – Doesn’t mind shopping.

After we laughed over all 50 items on the list and how brilliant we thought we were at 17, we thought it would be fun to see how well Bryan scored. We went through the list line by line, item by item and he scored a whopping 97%!!

Both of us looked at each other and said “well… I guess you can marry him now…”

The very next day, I got a phone call from Bryan asking me to help him organize the surprise party where he would be proposing to Jen… It was fate.

As someone who has known Jen since before her height growth spurt, I can tell you Bryan, you are one lucky man today. Not only are you marrying the most beautiful woman in the room tonight, you are also extremely blessed to be marrying someone who will stand by your side no matter what life throws at you, someone who will never cease to amaze you with how much love she can give and someone who only gets better with age.

Every single one of us ladies at this table have felt the contagious love that Jen can give and if that is even just a glimpse of the love she will show to you as her husband, you have a lifetime of happiness ahead of you.

Jen… my soul sista… words could never express how much I cherish having you as a best friend. I am so beyond proud of the amazing woman you have become and it is an absolute honor to be up here with you on your special day. I truly can’t imagine another man more destined for you than Bryan. I wish you both all the best in your new adventures as husband and wife.

Lets all raise our glasses for the newlyweds. Here’s to love, laughter and a happily ever after.

Want to see more photos? Or are you looking for the BEST wedding photographers in Calgary? Check them out here: Diane & Mike Photography.

Farahs Wedding

Last year at this time I went to my dear friend Farah's wedding (you probably know of her, she blogs at facesbyfarah.com. If you don't know of her yet definitely check her out).

Anyhoodle, last year I traveled the long 5 hour flight from Calgary to Toronto to take part in her magical wonderful day. But it was more than a one day event, there were 3 extravagant events and 5 days of visiting with WONDERFUL people.

Event 1 - Henna Ceremony 
Which included a delicious Indian feast. OMG I die... I definitely gained a good 5 lbs that trip.

That's my hand!

Event 2 - The Traditional Indian Ceremony. 
 In the afternoon I had some time to kill and it was a beautiful fall day so I went for a stroll around the neighborhood I was staying in. I am SO glad I did too. I was blown away by the colors and all the leaves! 

Fire trees as I like to call them.

More fire trees.

The Orange! All the Orange!

I feel like I could write and entire story based on this photo.

That evening was the ceremony. I couldn't get over all the rich colors. 

Its been a year now and I still love looking at these photos.

The "stage" for the bride and groom.

2 photos of the same, I couldn't pick just one to post.

Entrance of the BEAUTIFUL bride.

Now THAT is an entrance!

Event 3 - The Traditional "Western" Ceremony. 
I felt like I was at a wedding for royalty. No picture could truly show how amazing it was. And a BIG part of it was all DIY'd by Farah. Seriously, how amazing is that right? 

STUNNING!!!!

Flip-flops provided for sore feet from wearing high heels all day. 

A handmade bouquet. WOW!

Her shoes! She HAND glued all the stones on. Can you believe it?

It was one of the best trips ever. So much love. Her family and friends welcomed me like their own. I was so blessed to be apart of her special day.

Add to my Christmas wish list...

There are some wounds that even time can't heal...

Its been 8 1/2 years now since my sister died. Most days are bearable and I can get through them without the heart ache getting to me.

Most days are normal.

But every now and then, days like today come around.

Today I was out doing some early Christmas shopping when I wandered into HMV, why I just don't know. I wasn't going in there for anything particular and lets be honest, no one buys CD's anymore. Yet somehow I found myself wandering the aisles.

I came across 2 CD's that I picked up and walked around with in my hands for a few minutes. One was the Mariah Carey Christmas album. I ended up putting it back. I know exactly why too. Her song "All I want for Christmas", although my favorite Christmas song of all time, always comes on the radio exactly when I need it to. Many times when I am all alone.  It was our Christmas song we shared and went ballistic for as kids. It usually fills me with such a mixed emotion of happiness and sadness that all I can do is cry. I felt that I needed to leave her with that opportunity to send me messages from heaven.

The other CD was Shania Twain's Greatest Hits. Random right? It was on sale for $8.00 so I bought it excited to rock out in my car to some country. When I got back to my car I literally couldn't wait. Before I even left the parking lot Shania was blasting in my car.

Then the unexpected hit me. I completely lost it. Not even a minute into the first song I picked I was crying. A rush of pain I couldn't fight off. Hearing an old song we used to have living room dance parties and sing-offs to broke me. It was like someone ripped my heart wide open and all the sadness and feelings of emptiness that I suppress on a day to day basis came pouring out.

It's been over 8 years and when one silly song comes on... it still hurts. It hurts so much that no matter how many words I put into a blog post I could still never express it. There's a loneliness.. a hole where her presence is supposed to be. I know with out a doubt that she watches over me and is with me in spirit but it will never be enough.

All I want is to be able to call her on the phone and say "guess what I bought today!!! We need to go on a road trip so we can listen to it together like we used to". Every single day there is something I want to tell her about. Every single day I wish I could hear her voice... and mostly her laugh. I feel like I am forgetting what they sound like.

As I write this post, I have the Shania CD playing on repeat in the background and i've had to walk away from my computer 4 times now because what I am trying to type out is so hard to put into words that I literally want to puke.

I guess time doesn't heal all wounds...