Little Things Lately

I always find it challenging to start blogging again after a hiatus. I'm never sure if I should start with an update or skip through all that and start current. I did manage to keep up with What's Up Wednesday and What's New With You so there hasn't been total radio silence around these parts but it still feels like there's a gap to be filled. And the best way to fill a gap is will a list!

{one}

This was my view most nights last weekend. It my turn to be 'on call' with the emergency phone so I wasn't straying too far from home. Instead I watched a few episodes from the new season of Mind of a Chef on Netflix, indulged in pop and made simple but delicious pitas. 

{two}

For February & March my schedule has been filling in at one of the houses on Sundays & Mondays, working in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday and then my weekend being on Friday & Saturday. It's been rather exhausting trying to balance everything all at once but it looks like starting in April I will start a regular Monday-Friday full time in the office schedule and I am really looking forward to that happening. 

{three}

I loved Full House, Mary-Kate & Ashley were everything I aspired to be as an elementary schooler and I adored the fact D.J. & I shared the same first name. When Fuller House premiered I didn't watch because I didn't want to ruin the magic and I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing. Last Thursday I was searching for something to watch that was light hearted and I could leave on as background noise and ended up playing the first episode of the series. I found myself texting a friend about how terrible & cheesy it was but I kept watching....all week long. And last night I reached the end and realized I had become re-attached to D.J. and the Tanner/Fuller/Gibbler Family. Now I need a season three and another show I can actually use as background noise and won't find myself sitting on the couch passionately texting R. all the reasons D.J. and Steve need to be together. Suggestions?

{four}

I've spent my entire life working/living at camp in the summer which means my summer wardrobe consists entirely of neon Nike running shorts, tie-dye t-shirts and a handful of sundresses, jean shorts and tank tops I wore on my days off. My new job is pretty casual...but it's not that casual. So I've been busy doing inventory and figuring out what I need to add to my closet before the warm weather arrives. The exciting part about that is camp has a very strict closed toe shoe policy, flip flops & sandals were for days off only. It has been years since I got to wear sandals all summer and I am so excited to buy some new summer shoes! 

{five}

The past six weeks have been hard in all the ways I thought they would be and challenging in a bunch of ways I wasn't expecting. I am finally starting to see glimmers of light at the end of the tunnel. There are still days when I feel like I was handed the keys to a sinking ship but if the last five years of camp taught me anything it's that sinking ships can be repaired and restored. 

Linking up here. 

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What's Up Wednesday - January 2017

My goal for the year is to participate in this link up every month so I have a consistent way to document the little currently things. So, let's get started with what's been going on in January!

What I'm Eating This Week: I finally gave the avocado for breakfast trend a try and enjoyed a bagel with bacon, cheddar cheese & avocado. It wasn't life changing but it is a good way to get more veggies (fruit? Someone let me know where avocados belong ) Also on the menu tacos, pasta & broccoli with Alfredo sauce, homemade pizza and sausages & rice.

What I'm Reminiscing About: I guess I'm just sort of reminiscing about everything that's happened over the last few months. 

What I'm Loving: Planning! You can check out my first month using my Happy Planner here. 

What I've Been Up To: This month I celebrated my birthday and got back into the swing of things after Christmas break. A lot of the month revolved around job searching and multiple rounds of interviews. And it looks like things are taking a turn in the right direction! But more on that later. 

What I've Been Dreading: I'm not great with change and I do believe there is lots coming my way. It's not the worst kind of dreading but the idea doesn't excite me. 

What I'm Working On: The past few days I've been busy completing paperwork for a Spark/Brownie sleepover in February. The girls will be there for less than 24 hours and there is still a mountain of paperwork that needs to be completed and submitted. 

What I'm Excited About: February looks like it's shaping up to be a pretty great month. I have concert tickets, a sleepover with my favourite girls and Valentine's Day. February is my favourite winter month because it goes by pretty quickly and then March feels so much closer to spring. My grandparents are also getting a puppy next week so that's exciting! 

What I'm Watching: I started the month watching Lock Up and being fascinated (and disturbed) my the jail/prison system in the US. Then I switched back to Friends because that never disappoints. I also watched Audrie & Daisy, which if you haven't watched it yet, you need to carve out some time and make that happen. I also sort of started watching Master of None and Scrubs. I'm looking for a good sitcom to watch so if you have any suggestions let me know. 

What I'm Reading: Currently reading Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. The history is fascinating, although the story is a little choppy. I'm only about half way through but I'd still  put it on my recommend to friends list.

What I'm Listening To: There have been multiple times this month when I've found myself listening to Run Devil Run by Crowder on repeat. Mostly though I listen to Friends for background noise.

What I'm Wearing: Fleece lined leggings and comfy long sleeved tees. I know I've already mentioned a few times that I found the most amazing leggings at American Eagle just before Christmas. They have pockets. I bought two pairs. 

What I'm Doing This Weekend: List making is the first thing that comes to mind! 

What I'm Looking Forward to Next Moth: I love Valentine's Day and I also happen to love Groundhog Day. And starting a new adventure

What Else Is New: It's been a mostly regular month around here!

Who Is Your All-Time Favourite Bachelor?  I've watched exactly one episode of The Bachelor, last year when I was on vacation with my ex's family his mom and sister were into it. I was kind of horrified by the whole thing. I still can't understand why girls volunteer to participate and why they behave so terribly on the show. I'll take my reality TV in the form of Survivor and Big Brother, please and thank you. 

Friday Things on Friday

This week started off in one direction and then sort of veered off course, which worked out fine because my Word of the Week was flow. More coming on that process soon, I'm planning on making a post about how that's going once I'm a full month into the system.

{one}
Puzzle = Complete!

It was a bit of a close call, I had everything put together and then realized I was missing two pieces. Thankfully one of the cats had just knocked them off the table and on to the floor so I found them pretty quickly. Usually I don't re-do puzzles, but I really liked this one and it was a gift so I will hang on to it and complete it again some time. I took a sharpie and wrote 'January 2017' on the inside of the box so I can remember when it was last completed.

{two}

A hilarious antidote from yesterday's interview. I asked a question related to the typical structure of a work day and was met with a very enthusiastic response about that being a great question and they totally over looked that information because everyone else on the interview list has previous experience with the organization and is familiar with the daily structure. Awesome. I'm pretty sure that's code for, you're totally qualified for this job based on your resume but we're only interviewing you for optics. This job is going to an internal candidate.

{three}

In case anyone asks the way to my heart is plain, rippled chips and Philadelphia brand onion dip. We happened to have both of these things in the house this week and that makes my heart (and stomach) happy.

{four}

Via E-Patches & Pinterest

I'm searching Pinterest for cute Valentine's ideas for my Sparks/Brownies. Since my cute Christmas craft plans went awry I sent them each home with a Kinder Surprise so I'd like to reclaim some of my craftiness for Valentine's Day. Even though I'm also considering just ordering cute 'Valentine's Day' or 'Girls Rock' crests online, attaching a little tag and calling it a day. Parents of littles, what are your thoughts? Cute Pinterest inspired Valentines or more practical crests? (I think I might already know the answer to this.)

{five}
This song has been on repeat this week. It's so catchy and not about getting drunk making poor life choices, which seems to be the theme of most catchy songs these days.

This weekend my plans include reading my second (!!) book of the year, continuing to listen to Run Devil Run on repeat and finding a new show to watch on Netflix now that I've made my way through all of Lock Up. 

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Remembering, Eating & Weekending

My weekend started on Friday, which was Remembrance Day here in Canada. In this part of the world stores are closed and most people have the day off work. I attended the community Remembrance Day service at church with my Sparks/Brownies. It was a lengthy service but the girls held it together and sat through the whole thing. I only had to remind them once that they could look at the Bibles and the hymn books but they weren't to be used to hit their friend sitting in the pew in front of them. So I'm calling it a win. I was back home early afternoon and spent the rest of the day helping Mom put together some things for the church tea & sale next weekend. 

Saturday I made a trip to Michael's where I bought more washi tape (apparently I have an addiction) and treated myself to Starbucks. I could care less about Pumpkin Spice Lattes but Creme Brule Lattes are a completely different story. Happiness in a cup. I made Thai Chicken & Rice Soup for supper, which if you saw my Instagram post, is the soup that makes me forget that I don't like soup. I start with the soup mix from Campbell's but then I add a bunch more veggies and the end result is delicious. I put the finishing touches on meeting plans for Sparks, we were finishing off the My Community badge and starting on Being Healthy so our meeting included learning about 911. (The printable above is from here.) I started doing this activity last year and I'm still so surprised how many kids have no idea what their address or phone number is, it really is important information they should know. 

Sunday mom made spaghetti & meatballs. I've made meatballs so many times but they are never as good as my mom's. She doesn't really use a recipe and doesn't have any secret ingredients but even when I follow her instructions I still can't get mine to taste like hers. I spent the afternoon working on my Project Life album. I'm ready to start October, which means I am essentially caught up! The photo above is of my cover page, it started coming together organically when I realized I had feet pictures for the first three months of the year so then I kept taking them and the result is a fun opening page. I have a post written about what I learned from my year of documenting using PL, I just need to take photos which has been on my to do list for almost a month now. 

I also spent time this weekend working on yet another job application, only this time I've leaped out of my comfort zone and have decided that I would be willing to move across the country for this particular position. If you've got some spare prayers and positive vibes I'd love if you would send some my way. 

Linking up with B Loved Boston for Weekending 

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Peace Like A River

I don't usually blog on Saturdays but before the storm I had planned to participate in the Back to Blogging Challenge and I didn't get to do that because we didn't have power. I think it all worked out for the best though because it's been a long week and starting the weekend with some positive reflection is a good way to go so I'm starting off with What Makes You Feel Peaceful?

I've mentioned before that my grandparents live in a teeny-tiny fishing village and my grandfather's warf/boat are my favourite places in the world. Being there is the best kind of peaceful because it's not necessarily calm & quiet but it's comfortable in the routine of hard work, community and contentment. It gets extra peaceful points watching the sunrise over the ocean. 

I love being in the kitchen, turning ingredients into food is calming and there's something extra satisfying about making something delicious. Photography is a fairly recent hobby, but something I've come to love a whole lot the world seems a little kinder when viewed through a camera lens. Campfires are flat-out magical. Some of my best memories are sitting around a campfire with friends either in silence as we all watch the flames or in joyful conversation.

Camp is the opposite of peaceful in a lot of ways, but there are small windows of time when it feels like a pretty peaceful place. My favourite time used to be in the morning for about half an hour before everyone was up and about for the day, sitting in the office sipping hot coffee and getting to check in with the counsellors as they went by getting ready for the day. And another window of time at the end of the day when mostly everyone was headed to bed sneaking away for a few minutes to watch the sunset. And at the end of a session eating the first non-camp food meal of the week (often Subway, pizza or chicken strips & fries) and watching episodes of Friends or How I Met Your Mother. 

The similarities of my peacefulness are pretty obvious. I like nature and the outdoors, food and documenting it all for the future. 

Adventures in the Big City

Last Wednesday I finished work at the office job, headed home for a quick nap and then hopped on a plane to Ontario to visit H.. When we first started planning this trip we were hoping for a week long adventure but in the end our schedules only allowed for a quick Thursday - Monday visit. We crammed all the tourist highlights, lots of good food, hours of life chats, multiple glasses of wine and sangria and it was the perfect little getaway to transition from office life into part-time vacation mode before camp. 

I landed in Toronto at 9:30 a.m. Thursday morning and after a quick pitstop at H.'s to change out of airplane clothes we headed for Niagra Falls. We didn't stay long because the weather was cold, rainy and foggy. We hung out long enough to be impressed by both the falls and the amount of selfie sticks. So.many.selfiesticks. 

We called it a night early on Thursday because Friday we had big plans to hit up the Toronto Zoo and visit the twin panda cubs that were born a few months ago! It ended up being an awesome day at the zoo because it wasn't at all crowded and even though it was a little chilly it was perfect weather for walking and getting to enjoy everything opposed to thinking about how uncomfortably warm it was. In addition to the baby pandas we saw their parents and I think I could have spent all day just at the panda exhibit. I wish I looked that cute laying around all day eating. I could also spend all day watching meerkats, back in university I binge watched Meerkat Manor and ever since then I have been fascinated with those little critters. We also got to see the gorillas, which I've recently become more interested in after watching a lot of documentaries about the gorilla conservation efforts. 

Saturday we were up bright and early to spend the whole day in Toronto. We purchased City Passes, which gave us admission to almost all of the main tourist attractions in the area, we saved a lot of money and at a few places we got to skip the lines because we had already purchased our tickets! We headed to the Royal Ontario Museum and prioritized what we wanted to see, we easily could have spent the whole day there but we were kind of on a tight schedule. We checked out the dinosaurs, the Canadian history section, Chinese Architecture, Ancient Egypt, quick tours of the mammal displays and a few smaller exhibits. It was the first time I had seen dinosaur displays in person so that was really cool and the history geek in me was overly excited about all of the Canadian History stuff. 

From the ROM we headed back through the city with a pitstop for Poutine and another in front of the Toronto sign so we could take a selfie for National Wear Your Camp T-Shirt Day. Did I mention we spent the entire day roaming the streets of Toronto and all of the attractions wearing matching shirts so we could have photo ops? Because we totally did. And that's why we're besties. 

We went to the top of the CN Tower where I confirmed my theory that I did not want to ever live in a big city and then headed next door to the aquarium. The aquarium was a little bit of a hilarious experience for this east coast girl who grew up on the ocean. When we first walked in there was a big crowd around one particular tank so I got really excited thinking it was something really exotic....turns out it was a tank of halibut. I laughed a lot and then took a discrete photo of the hoard of people admiring fish that I have seen my entire life. It's the little things in life you never really think about being different from place to place. There were lots of other cool marine life, we were able to spot a turtle in the biggest display of fish, and turtles are always a highlight. They had several tanks full of jellyfish that were completely hypnotic. I kind of felt like sitting right there and spending hours watching them float around. 

By the time we got back to the apartment each day were were more or less exhausted and didn't have any interest in changing clothes and heading back out to supper. Which was just fine but us and it meant we got to spend time cooking and eat supper with H.'s boyfriend while telling him all about our days adventures. He only judged us a little bit for our matching outfits. We did eat out a few times  including amazing sweet potato pizza that sounds weird but was delicious. 

It was hard to say goodbye Monday evening, but hopefully it won't be too much longer until we see each other again.

Food & Photography on Friday

This week started off strong, took a little dip and then kind of evened out. I say kind of because I felt like this week had a lot of question marks that are still question marks. I'm sort of disappointed but also don't have any super definitive answers so I'm not really sure what to think or how to feel. More on that next week, right now I'm blogging about five things that are mildly noteworthy about this week. Most of which are related to food and yet there are no photos of food. 

{one}

Elle Luna's #The100DayProject starts next week and I'm still not sure what I want to take on for the next 100 days. I already know that during those 100 days I will be going on a trip and relocating to camp so doing anything that is going to involve a lot of art supplies is not the best choice for success. Photography is definitely the route I will be taking but I need to decide on something to photograph. I've tossed around the idea of photographing all the numbers from 1-100, or a specific shape, or multiple run throughs of the alphabet. I want it to be something that requires some creative thinking but isn't too time consuming. 

{two}

I had a major Pinterest recipe disappointment this week. I tried to make "Spinach & Artichoke Stuffed Garlic Bread" and you know what I made? Soggy bread. It looked fine but the bread only got kind of crusty on the bottom and none of the cheese really melted to make a gooey, cheese thing happen when you pulled the pieces apart. It wasn't terrible, I ate it, but I should have just heated up the baguette and dipped it in the dip as you normally would. 

{three}

I have been eating pitas for lunch everyday this week. Chicken Caesar pitas with romaine, chicken, croutons. Greek inspired pitas with chicken, feta, cucumber, red onion & tzatziki. Chipotle chicken pita with chipotle mayo, chicken, cucumber, red onion and cajun chicken and cheddar cheese. I'm not exactly sure how this trend started but I'm pretty satisfied with the whole thing. 

{four}

Next week is my last full week of work at the office job. My contract ends on Wednesday of the following week and I am kind of ready to get back to a regular schedule. Albeit briefly, since camp season is approaching and camp season does not lead to any sort of regular schedule. 

{five}

It's been rainy all week and sort of damp and chilly out but all I want to do is drink iced coffee. So tasty and delicious but also impractical based on the weather outside. 

linking up here & here. 

Back on the Bright Side

If you happened to stop by on Friday it will come as no surprise that last week was not great. Big thumbs down to last week. The good news is that it's a new week and this week I'm back on the bright side. 

I had forgot that weeks ago I agreed to help chaperone a sleepover for a group of Rangers (the oldest group of Girl Guides). Help chaperone is probably a bit of a stretch, more along the lines of hang out with a group of incredibly awesome young ladies. Since I didn't have to be at the sleepover until 6:00 I spent my Saturday tidying up my make shift craft room and then I spent some time watching The Pioneer Woman and eating chicken wings in my most unflattering of $10 Wal-Mart jogging pants. It was lovely. 

The sleepover started with pizza and then we headed to do an Escape Room. If you're not familiar with the concept, the easiest way to explain is a giant, physical puzzle. Our group of six entered a room and had an hour to solve two questions related to the mystery we had been given at the beginning. There were about a dozen locked drawers, boxes and closets within the room and by solving clues found around the room you were able to figure out the combinations to the locks, which would reveal another clue or lead to more locks. It was so much fun! They seem to be gaining in popularity so if there's not one near by you now there probably will be soon.

We ended the night the way all good sleepovers should end, huddled under blankets in a dimly lit living room discussing insider info about various Guiding events and general life. Sunday morning we woke up and ate pancakes before going our separate ways. I stopped in to pick up a few groceries on my way home and then got to work on my to do list, but not before eating samosas for lunch which I've been craving for the past two weeks. 

I unpacked, put on a load of laundry, showered and had every intention of continuing the string of productivity. Instead I took a nap. It was lovely and I didn't feel even a little bit guilty! When I woke up I set to work making Sunday supper - roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes and cajun seasoned chicken breast. And cooked enough chicken to have for work lunches all week, which is always a win. I did a bit of Project Life-ing before watching Big Brother and crawling into bed by 10:30. 

So I'm going into this week feeling overall better about life. It's amazing what a weekend of tasty food, good company and exciting adventures can do for a person's mood. I've two and a half weeks left of my office job contract and then I'm off to visit H. for a few days before switching into camp mode for the summer. So here's hoping I can stay planted on the bright side! 

Linking up here & here. 

March Currently

The first part of March was pretty straight forward. I worked a bunch of overtime at the office job and worked on a handful of things for camp in my spare time. And then last week things took a little turn (hopefully for the better) and now life is a little more uncertain. 

Reading... Month after month I seem to fail at reading anything that isn't a news article, Buzzfeed list, blog post or Instagram caption. I can't even come up with an excuse this month and it makes me sad to think about all the reading I'm not doing.

Playing... Occasionally 1010! 

Watching... I jumped back on the Big Brother Canada bandwagon this season, but now I've sort of fallen off. The contestants throw a lot of tantrums and I just can't watch that kind of nonsense. I have been keeping up with Criminal Minds, although I'm not sure I like what's happening there either. 

Trying... To pace myself. I worked a lot this month and my inner introvert felt a little neglected.

Cooking... Nothing too fancy this month. This month my best meal discovery has been a pita with chipotle mayo, cucumber, cheese, red onion and chicken cooked in a sweet & spicy sauce. 

Eating... This month there has been a lot of bagels, yogurt, crackers, bananas. Basically I've been eating like a toddler. The last week I've been getting my act together and returning to meal planning. 

Drinking... Lots of water with cucumber and/or lime, a cup of coffee to start the day and a glass of pop every now and then.

Calling... The dreaded Guiding related phone calls in an attempt to coordinate various schedules and activities. 

Texting... The usual crew. H., R., J. and N.. Sometimes the ladies I carpool with to work. 

Pinning... I didn't do a lot of pinning this month, occasionally some ideas for theme days at camp and little staff moral boosters. 

Tweeting... Mostly just the automatic tweet from Bloglovin' when a post is published.

Going... Hopefully to visit H., however we don't have an end date for work yet. We've been extended so I'll be working past March 31st but we haven't been given a new contract yet, which is incredibly annoying but I'm trying to be patient.

Loving... Daylight!! Saturday I looked outside at 7:33 p.m. and it was still daylight out, which is purely magical.  

Hating... "Work uncertainties. I like to have a plan, complete with specific dates. "You're being extended until sometime towards the end of April" does not make for a good planning base." is what I wrote on March 22...now I'm starting to recognize the work uncertainty might just be working in my favour. 

Discovering... Life plans can change pretty quickly.

Thinking... My mind has been very busy lately. There's a lot of stuff going on up there, which has lead to a lot of motivation to write and colour. 

Feeling... Sleepy. And also hopeful and optimistic. 

Hoping (for)... I'm going to go ahead and be a little vague here but I'm hoping for a big change in April. 

Listening (to)... Podcasts! My favourites are Bringing Up Betty, Stuff You Missed in History Class and Camp Code. 

Celebrating... Easter! 

Smelling... Spring! There have been a handful of days this month where I've been able to open the windows and let in some fresh air. 

Ordering... I do a lot of browsing but not a lot of ordering. 

Thankful for... Family, Friends, Cats, Community, Creativity, Education...

Considering... In this moment I'm considering if I want to shower & get into bed or get out my colouring book and let my mind relax a little more before sleep. 

Starting... To get back into a routine. Working overtime messed with my groove and now that's over I'm reclaiming my leisure time, making meal plans and generally returning to a more well rounded life. 

Finishing... I can't think of anything really noteworthy I finished this month. 

Four on Friday the Fourth

{one}
I have been eating some super tasty meals this week.

I kicked off March by eating waffles and bacon (and coffee) for breakfast. I tried a frozen butter chicken pizza which was surprisingly delicious for a frozen pizza. I celebrated 100 Days Until Camp Day with a traditional leadership training meal of perogies and a spring roll*. And balanced it all out with a stir fry full of veggies on multiple occasions this week.

*Spring rolls & perogies is ridiculous meal that happened once because the director and I were the only ones at camp for the first few days so we picked up a few groceries. When we got back to camp we realized we had bought food but not any meals. And thus, spring rolls and perogies were born. And now it's an annual event. 

{two}

I hadn't been keeping track of days before camp so when the '100 days until camp' post went out earlier this week I was taken by surprise. Since that means there's somewhere between 80-90 days before my first day of camp. Which seems impossible, but is also exciting. 

{three}

N. gave me a cat and quote of the day calendar for Christmas and on Wednesday the quote read "You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.".  Coincidently Becky Higgins shared the exact same quote which just solidified my instinct to proclaim it as my mantra for the summer. And maybe life.

{four}

A new Starbucks opened in the general vicinity of me last week but I haven't made an initial visit yet. I'm working overtime all day Sunday so maybe a carmel macchiato will be my reward for an extra day of work. Then again, there's a snowstorm coming our way so it's possible my weekend will be spent eating storm chips and watching Big Brother Canada. 

Linking up here.

Florida Vacation Highlights

I'll preface this whole post by saying that I am a full on Disney convert and totally plan on doing a full out Disney vacation at some point in the future. I was skeptical about the whole thing because I don't enjoy rides or huge crowds. This trip to Florida wasn't intended to be a Disney trip but since we were staying in Orlando we decided to visit two of the parks. Next time I do Disney I'll go full Disney vacation, staying at one of the resorts and visit all of the parks. 

This time we spent a day at EPCOT and Animal Kingdom and made multiple trips to Downtown Disney  Disney Springs. The highlight of the whole thing was that I got to meet Meeko! I love Pocahontas and Meeko is my favourite is my favourite character. Prior to Disney I did a ridiculous amount of research and the consensus was that aside from Pocahontas the other two characters from the movie (Meeko and Radcliffe) are extremely rare and aren't usually spotted around the parks. So I was shocked when after being in EPCOT for all of fifteen minutes J. turned to me and said "It's that Meeko? That looks like a giant raccoon." I was mid-way through replying "Probably not." when I looked over and sure enough there was Meeko hanging out at the Character Spot. I waited in line for thirty seconds and then got his autograph and took some photos and the five year old inside of me was the happiest. Unfortunately the photos didn't turn out the greatest (I blame the way the sun was shining) but they're good enough and it was a phenomenally great moment. 

I really enjoyed EPCOT and thought the mini train tracks were the cutest. I especially enjoyed the little gecko who was hanging out on the roof of one of the houses. I was a little let down by Animal Kingdom but it was partly because a lot of it was closed for renovations, which is clearly a downside to visiting during the off season. The Lion King show was wonderful though and I'd like to go again and be able to experience the whole place. One of the most fun things we did was go on a mini date one afternoon at Disney Springs. We went bowling and I'd highly recommend it as a fun, low key and affordable Disney date. We also don't have a bowling alley around here so it was extra fun. 

Aside from meeting Meeko the food was probably the highlight of the whole trip. I finally got to try Chick-Fil-A!! It was everything I dreamed of and may or may not have had it three times over the course of our ten day trip. I also tried Panera Bread and was pretty impressed with the wonton soup thing that I ordered. I also got my fill of  Vanilla Coke and tried Vanilla Pepsi during the trip. And it wouldn't be a trip without the obligatory Starbucks in the airport photo. 

We didn't have great weather while we were there, but it was still nice to get away from the snow happening at home. We missed one full storm and half of another.  It was a little less relaxing because it didn't involve any poolside reading but it was fun to do a little extra sightseeing. 

On our way back we hit some bad weather and ended up stranded in Ottawa for the night. At that point I was totally done with travelling and really just wanted to get home. We got a hotel room for the night, ordered pizza and watched Oak Island. The next day we headed to the airport and ended up delayed again. When all was said and done we got home a full 24 hours later than planned which made this week much more hectic than I was anticipating. 

When all was said and done it was a good trip and I was really happy to get home.

Holly, Jolly Christmas Weekend

I almost didn't post today. I had a very Christmas heavy weekend and did lots of things but didn't do anything that warranted taking a lot of photos. Then I reminded myself that documenting is better than not documenting. It's a mindset I'm trying to get myself into as I prepare to dive in to Project Life for 2016!

Friday evening I made one last trip to the mall and only bought one more stocking stuffer for J.. Technically it was 'midnight madness', but our mall is smaller than some of your Wal-Marts and there really wasn't a whole lot of shopping I needed to finish. I was home and in bed by 11 p.m. 

Saturday I spent the day making a final Christmas to do list and went to J.'s work party. It was a pretty uneventful evening. J. and I drove around to look at the lights, although frankly I think it's kind of a weird tradition. It seems odd to aimlessly drive around and look at strangers homes. Regardless, it was something on J.'s Christmas Bucket List so I played along and we drove around the fancier neighbourhoods and looked at the houses before we went to dinner. We ended up being the first ones there so I snapped a quick photo of our fancy place cards and then spent the rest of the evening being social. Afterwards we made a quick trip to a grocery store because I needed a bag of marshmallows and once again I was home by 11 p.m., which is really the way I like to live my life. 

Sunday I wrapped presents and got them out of my room and under the tree. For some reason the only photo of the tree I could find was the very beginning stages of decoration. The angel no longer looks like she's about to take a tumble and there are more than just lights. While I was busy wrapping I ate some dark chocolate and really wanted to enjoy the instant Starbucks Caramel Latte I found on clearance at the grocery store. Maybe I followed the directions incorrectly, or my expectations were too high either way it didn't dissolve the way it should have and was all grainy in the bottom of my cup. Here's hoping round two will be more successful.

Sunday J.'s parents had their Christmas party. I made a pan of squares (hence the quick trip for marshmallows) and did not take a photo because just as I was getting ready to leave it started snowing pretty heavy and I wanted to leave before the roads got too bad. I ate my favourite kind of Christmas meal which involves sweet & sour meatballs, wings and multiple kinds of dips. J. and I ended the night with this weeks episode of Oak Island which I am still extremely fascinated with and I don't want the season to end. 

This morning I was up bright and early and made one final trip to Wal-Mart to finish J.'s stocking. It was super successful and I can now say I am 100% done Christmas shopping! The only disappointment is the calendar I ordered for my grandparents hasn't come in yet. I ordered on November 23, so I thought for sure I would be safe. Apparently I assumed incorrectly.

Tomorrow I'll be revealing and sharing my One Little Word for 2016 and then take a few days to soak up all the Christmas! 

Today I'm linking up with B Loved Boston!