A Canadian November Weekend

This weekend I learned that 90% of Americans have no idea Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving over a month ago. So it only seems fair to add another disclaimer to the beginning of this post - I did not celebrate Thanksgiving this weekend. Not because I have anything against Thanksgiving but because I am Canadian and in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. If you did come here looking to read about Thanksgiving you can travel back to the archives and check it out here. Spoiler Alert: there was a lot of pie. 

Now that we've gotten Thanksgiving out of the way I can tell you about my weekend, which was full of Christmas parades and date nights and I completely failed to take a single photo. 

Thursday I set off to the mall on a mission to finish my Christmas shopping. I was pretty successful and basically all I have left is to pick up a couple of gift cards. I met up with J. at East Side Mario and we had lunch. I always like when our schedules align and we get to have a mid-week lunch date. It ended up being a really productive day and I feel much more prepared than I did this time last week. 

Friday I ventured out with my aunt and cousin for "Black Friday". I use quotations because like I said it was not Thanksgiving in these parts and everyone had the same deals on all weekend long. The only slight difference is a few stores opened early and some of the big box stores had "door crasher deals" or offered no tax until noon. Nothing worth writing home about and it was the grocery stores that had the best deals. I was home by early afternoon. That evening my mom and I went to a neighbouring town's Christmas parade to see my cousin who was on a float for her work. I didn't take any photos because it was dark and cold. When I came home I happily climbed into bed and binge watched this season of 90 Day Fiance. 

Saturday I was up early again to go shopping with my grandma and cousin. The two of us were along to help pick out some Christmas gifts and then the three of us had Chinese for lunch. It's been ages since I had Chinese and it was so good. I think I could eat beef and broccoli everyday and be completely happy. The big town Christmas parade was Saturday night and both J. and another cousin were participating. Originally I was going to go with J. but then the forecast was rainy and cold so I opted out. The parade was always in the afternoon and last year they decided to change in to the evening. I didn't go last year so I was curious to check it out this year and was pretty disappointed. Everything just kind of looked the the same with lights and more lights, it was hard to see any of the details on the floats that did go the extra mile and decorate with a theme and more than just lights. I didn't take any photos because everything pretty much looked the same from where I was watching. When I got home I Skyped with H. & R. and we tentatively made plans to see each other over Christmas. We have a pretty small window of opportunity and if the weather is bad then the whole thing is off. Fingers crossed for a mild December and a successful reunion!

Sunday my weekend ended with a somewhat lazy day spent with J. we made a trip to the grocery store, cooked supper at his place and watched some T.V.. I intended on going to bed early last night but instead I stayed up until 11 to watch the new episode of The Curse of Oak Island. I don't remember the last time I was awake at midnight watching a T.V. show and I'm not sure it's going to become a frequent habit. I like early bedtimes!

This week I have got to get my winter tires put on and I am optimistic about finishing Christmas shopping. I also need to navigate switching cell phone carriers, which is going to be a pain and will probably take a full day (or two). So look forward to hearing about that production. I know it's sacrilegious not to include a photo in a post but I really didn't take any this weekend and I have too much to do this morning without adding "find photos for post" to my to do list. 

Conference, Cooking & Charlie Brown

I spent all weekend at a conference for Girl Guide leaders where I did all my favourite things. I carried my camera in my bag all weekend and didn't take it out once. The only photos I have are from my Saturday morning on outdoor cooking that I took with my iPhone. At least I took my camera? I always feel so awkward whipping out my DSLR in these kind of situations because people tend to ask questions and then I feel self-conscious anyway that's a whole different post for another day. 

We spent the entire morning cooking potatoes, apple dessert, egg in a hole, breakfast sandwiches,  and sandwiches with a box oven and buddy burners and finished off by making ice cream. In-between we made "Giggle Juice" which was basically extreme Kool-Aid and "Russian Tea" which involved mixed iced tea and apple juice and making a sort of hot cider. It was weird, but I'm pretty confident kids would be all over it.

I also did sessions about incorporating the Promise & Law (that one was kind of disappointing) and another great session about our twinning country. Where I drank more sugary punch, this time using a recipe from the Caribbean, and was given all kinds of great resources to use with my group. The next couple of meetings are busy with Remembrance Day, an active living challenge from The Heart & Stroke Foundation and our usual program work. Apparently I'm a lot more on top of the planning than I thought. 

Sunday everything was over by 11 so I was home by early afternoon. J. and I have started a bit of a tradition that when I've been away for the weekend we plan Sunday dates. Usually this also involves me showering and looking presentable for the outside world but the conference was at a hotel so I skipped this step. We had lunch/supper (what do call a meal you eat at 3:00 p.m.?) at one of our favourite restaurants followed by a Sunday drive and The Peanuts Movie. 

Now, I am a huge Peanuts fan. I love Snoopy & Woodstock (especially when they go camping) and Charlie Brown is my spirit animal. The movie was good, I loved some of the ways they incorporated the classic Peanuts drawings along the way but I'm on the fence about whether Charles Schulz would have approved of the whole thing. We didn't see it in 3D mostly because the 2D start time worked better for us. And also because I stand by my statement that the only movie I've watched in 3D that was worth the extra money was Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. 

I then picked up my car and happily discovered that J. had cleaned it while it sat in his driveway all weekend. Which is super sweet and very much appreciated. My personal favourite was that cleaning my car involved gathering all the rogue crayons and putting them into the box in the backseat where they live. And also that he didn't question why I have a shoebox full of crayons in my car, which is good because to be honest I don't have an answer. They just sort of arrived there and I decided it's not a bad idea to have a box of emergency crayons. 

Now that the weekend is over I have a pile of laundry that needs washing and I need to put the final touches on plans for tonight's Spark meeting (i.e. I need to make some play dough). 

Sharing my weekend here.

Corn Maze, Chicken & Cleaning

I spent Friday evening snacking on pretzels and watching Chopped. I have zero regrets about that decision.

Saturday I woke up at my usual time but lingered in bed while I read for awhile. I feel like I've been reading the same book (Americanah) for decades now but I'm trying to finish it before I post about the books I've read this month. I'm over halfway through but it's really dragging. There are chapters that are really interesting but they always seemed to be followed by chapters that are decisively not interesting. More on that later in the week (hopefully). What I really did on Saturday was shiver my way through a corn maze, pick out mini pumpkins for my Sparks to decorate tonight, admire some fish and eat fried chicken. Also, zero regrets about my Saturday.

J. and I went to a corn maze/family farm about an hour away. My main motivation was to get little pumpkins for Sparks. The weather was so weird. You can see from the photo below that the sky was full of grey clouds but the sky behind it was clear blue it almost felt like rain but it was also very cold, we didn't waste any time in the corn maze (except of course pausing for the obligatory corn maze selfie). 

The farm has a bunch of playscapes for little kids and we planned our visit during lunch time assuming we'd beat the crowds. It worked out perfectly, we got the pumpkins and did the corn maze before it got busy. And we got a chance to check out the fish without feeling bad/awkward for being the only adults who weren't accompanied by toddlers. I've always had a thing for goldfish and when I think about my dream home/yard it always involves a little koi/goldfish pond in the backyard. With lilypads and frogs. Because if you're going to dream big you may as well go all out. 

The real highlight of the day was our stop for fried chicken. It just so happens that in order to get to the farm we had to drive by my favourite (and the best) fried chicken place in all the land. We got chicken to go and I should probably be sad that my car now smells like chicken, but I'm really not. Some day I'm going to go on a ridiculous road trip in the southern U.S. that is planned around eating fried chicken. #goals

Post chicken we caught up with Jon Oliver's Last Week Tonight. J. really only watches sports on T.V. and I stick to cooking shows and the occasional reality show depending on the season. Last Week Tonight is the one show we watch together on a regular basis. I left around supper time and headed to the mall in hopes of finding a birthday present for J.. His birthday isn't until the first week in November but he's hard to shop for, luckily I found a couple of things that I'm pretty confident he'll love. I'd like to find one more thing but if not Christmas is just around the corner!

Sunday I dedicated my day to cleaning up my scrapbooking area. I'm 99% finished my camp scrapbooking so it was time to regain some order with my supplies. My newest scrapbook love is stamps, but I refuse to spend $20 on a single stamp so my collection is pretty small and mostly made up of alphabet sets. Peyton was of course eager to assist  get her paws on various ribbons and papers and not nearly as helpful as she would like you to believe. 

This week I have my usual Sparks meeting, a weekday lunch date with J. and an old friend has moved back to town so hopefully we'll be able to coordinate our schedules to catch up. I've also got a full list of blog posts planned with Shay's What's Up Wednesday, The Blogging Elite's monthly link up, an update about about what I read this month and another round of monthly goals! 

linking up here & here. 

October Weekending

Friday night I laid  low. I watched the first part of Human. The cinematography/photography and music is out of this world. It's stunningly beautiful. The movie itself though is a little disappointing (I watched Part 2 Sunday afternoon. I'll watch Part 3 eventually.) I was expecting it to be similar to BBC's Human Planet doc-series that aired a few years back but it wasn't like that at all. I was left wanting more information about what exactly was going on during all those amazing shots.

Saturday morning I drank my coffee and replied to e-mails. I met J. at three and we went to the afternoon showing of The Intern. I'm not a huge movie go-er but this movie was worth seeing! I thought it was wonderful and J. liked it just as much as I did. It was funny and sweet and I would highly recommend it for a date night! After the movie we went out to supper at a local restaurant and had a delicious meal. J. had ribs and I had an amazing Cajun chicken sandwich with avocado, chipotle mayo, hot peppers on a homemade bun. It was so good. I can't wait to go back and have it again. After we ate we went on a quick trip to Wal-Mart to pick up a cord for my printer and then headed back to J.'s, he watched the Blue Jays game while I read because baseball is boring. #realtalk

Sunday I got sucked into a 90 Day Finance marathon on TLC which took up most of my morning. When I finally pulled myself away from that train wreck I got to work on prepping some things for Sparks tonight. We're making rainbows with cotton ball clouds and playing a rainbow toss game. I do as much prep as I can before hand and I make sure that I can do the craft in about 5 minutes. If I can do it in five they will be able to complete it in 10-15 minutes. When I had that straightened away I spend some time scrapbooking. I'm really making more of an effort to include journalling and better explanations about what's going on in all the pictures. Yesterday I got out my favourite black pen and wrote on some of the journalling cards I've been sticking in along side the pictures. It's also motivated me to learn to love my handwriting and get better at calligraphy.

I spent some of the afternoon updated my MacBook to El Captain, which seemed like a good choice but this morning I'm having an awful time getting edited photos to save to my computer.

While my computer was updating I made Sunday supper. Steak, roasted potatoes & carrots (fresh from the farmers market) and broccoli. There are photos but every time I try to join them together and save them Safari freezes. My frustrations are mounting and I really hope I can get it figured out, otherwise I'm going to really regret updating. Has anyone else updated and experiencing similar?

Hello, Friday Favourites!

I was going to take the day off today but then yesterday I saw that Oh, Hey Friday had a new button that I am totally in love with and really wanted to use and so a post was born. 

So that brings me to my first favourite of the week:

The paisley and the colours...the best. Tied into this favourite is the fact that I'm writing this blog post because I genuinely want to and not because I am consumed with guilt and determination to blog a bunch of times in one month. 

My second favourite this week...

J. came home from Florida and brought me my beloved Vanilla Coke (some of which he put in his fridge for me so it would be cold when I went over last night) and a super cute bag. I told him numerous times I would have been perfectly happy with just the coke but his extra thoughtfulness is also appreciated. Last night we had pizza and garlic fingers then went for ice cream and watched some Jon Oliver. Definitely a low key night but a great way to spend a Thursday evening.

My third favourite this week...

Wednesday I went to a local farmer's market and I bought this amazing cupcake. It was a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter frosting. My mouth is watering just thinking about the icing. Seriously, it was the most delicious dessert I've ever tasted. I would eat it by the spoonful if possible. I need to stop thinking about it now because I'm just making myself sad that I don't have another one to eat right now.

My fourth favourite this week....

Tuesday I spent the day at my grandparent's house and took a bunch of photos. There's something magical and therapeutic about adventuring with my camera. I looked into taking a photography class this fall but it's on Saturdays and I've already committed myself to some Guiding events so I know I'd have to miss classes and it just doesn't seem logical to sign up when I know I'll miss classes. I'm hoping that they'll offer it again in the winter because I'd love to learn more about my camera in a more interactive way. Pinterest and photography blogs are great, they're just not the same as an actual class.

My fifth favourite thing this week...

Pinterest

I love summer. September is stressful and a huge transition month, but October...October I can get on board with. The leaves are pretty and I do enjoy sweaters and boots. And hot drinks and loads of fresh vegetables. I like Octobers. This year I'm hoping to make a trip to the pumpkin patch with J. and do lots of hiking and camera adventures in the midst of all the fall leaves. 

Early Nights & Date Date

Friday night I kicked off the weekend sitting on the couch with a bowl of chips, glass of pop and the Food Network. That is until 9:00 p.m. when I promptly got into bed and watch last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. I won't even get into that because I don't understand what's happening or why it's happening.

Saturday morning I woke up early, made coffee and did some reading. I didn't explicitly write 'savour the moment' on my list of May Goals, but it's something I'm keeping in mind over the next couple of weeks before I head to camp. I'm working on enjoying uninterrupted hours of quiet, even when there are still things on my to do list. Saturday afternoon I went out for lunch with my mom and then walked through the mall. My main motivation for the mall was a trip to Bath & Body Works to pick up my summer supply of Coconut Lime body wash but there was none to be found. I'm hoping it's just a fluke and the scent hasn't been discontinued. I'm going to check back later this week and hopefully I'll have more luck. Saturday night J. had plans to watch the fight that was apparently a big deal. I'm interested in a lot of different things, but I will never be interested in watching two grown men punch each other. Once again I was in bed and asleep by 11:30. Judge me if you must but I think there's something extra wonderful about an early bedtime, even if it's a Saturday night and I'm 25 years old. 

Sunday was a little more action packed. It was gorgeous outside and it was the first day that it felt like maybe spring is going to happen. I went for a walk and then came home and got ready for date night with J. We went out to dinner and then went for a drive around the harbour to check out the sunset and ice. It might be May but there's still so much ice in the water you'd think it was February.

Once the sun went down we headed to DQ where I finally got to try the Salted Caramel Truffle Blizzard. It wasn't the most delicious salted caramel thing I've had but it was pretty good. After ice cream we headed to the movies. I'm not a big movie goer. I think they're ridiculously over priced and most times the one movie theatre we have doesn't show movies I want to watch. Regardless we went and watched Will Ferrell's new movie "Get Hard". I thought it was just okay. The beginning started off really good but then it went down hill. I was happy when it ended and was definitely ready to go home and get to bed. 

This week I've got a few things on my must do list including completing some paperwork before the summer and appreciating the warm weather by sitting on my deck with a good book. 

Linking with B Loved Boston.