Curt's DREAM Weekend

This weekend Curt is going on a stag that will take him to Montreal. For anyone that knows Curt, they know that he lives, and breaths the Montreal Canadiens. He really only shares this love with 3 other people, Sholt'c', B.J., and Marco (who is the one that is getting married). Thank god there is at least one person that will be there so he can share the joy.

Operation 'GET IN SHAPE'

In July when Cara and Justin announced their engagement, and asked me to be part of their wedding party, I thought it was about time to get serious about trying to loose some weight.
In August, Curt come home from work and told me that Dynafit was running a special on a years membership for $299.00, which was $100.00 off the regular price. It was a deal for corporations in town, and my mom knew someone from CIBC in Listowel that got it, so she thought that I should be able to get it, even though I worked out of town, I still worked for a corporation. If they would not give it to me through CIBC, then I could get it as a spouse from someone from W & U.
After trying to commit myself to walking at night was not working, I thought that I better give this a shot. With going to the gym, I could go right after work, and I would not have to come home and get comfortable, and then push myself to go back out. I had been talking about the deal one night when Matt and Jill were over here, and she said that she would be interested in getting it too. I called the gym last night to inquire about it, and was informed that the special ran for the month of August ONLY, but since there was two of us, if we came within a week, he would give it to us. We went down last night after work and got the membership, and tonight was our first 'work-out'.
OH MY LORD....I know that I was out of shape, but I didn't know that I was that out of shape.
We went on the treadmill, and I got shin splints. We went on the rowing machine, but it didn't feel like I was getting any sort of workout because there was no restraint on it. We went on the elliptical machine, and the back of my legs were killing me. I did three of the arm machines, and by the last set on the last one, I could hardly lift my arms out in front of me. I did some sit-ups on the ball, and nearly fell off the ball on to the floor. I ended the season by going on the streching machine, and this, by far, was my favorite one of all. All I had to do was sit there and lean back, and it streached my whole back out. Then I would just have to life my leg up, and it stretched them out for me too. No effort was put into this machine, and I LOVED IT!!!!
So, for day one, I did manage to break a sweat, and use a few muscles that I have not used in a very long time (as I can already start to feel it). Hopefully when I wake up tomorrow I will feel the same way about the new lifestyle changed that I have committed myself to for ONE YEAR!!!!

Overnight Getaway

We have not had an overnight getaway all season (if you do not count the weekends that we spent at the cottage), so when we had the opportunity to have a room at the Royal York for a night (free of charge) we jumped at it. We also had the chance to get two beds in the room, so we asked Matt and Jill if they would like to go with us. Our friend Luke lives in Toronto, so we thought that it would be a perfect opportunity to catch up with him as well.
We left early on Sunday morning (thank god we did because we ran into this marathon in down town Toronto, and we spend 1.5 hours driving in circles trying to get to a street that would get us to our hotel parking). We never managed to get there, but we got parked underground only a block away, and that was just fine with us after the frustration that we had gone through for the past hour and a half.
Once we got the car parked, we walked down to the hotel, and met up with Curt`s mom. We did not have much time to stay and visit with her, as we had set up a meeting time with Luke and Angelica of 11:30a.m. Basically all we did was go up to the room, drop our bags off, get some instructions, and then she had to go to the Convention Centre to meet Sid, so she walked with us. We met up with Luke and Angelica at our Gate at the Roger's Centre, and we went in to catch some batting practice before the game started.
We were at the ball game quite early, and by the time the actual game rolled around Jill and I were so tired, we could hardly keep our eyes open. Actually Jill had to shut her eyes a few times during the first couple of inning, and could only keep them open after I said to her....`Wouldn't it be hilarious if they caught you on the jumbo trane sleeping??' She didn't think that would be too funny, and decided that she better keep her peepers open.
After the game was done we walked over to Luke's apartment (he lives on the other side of the Garner Expressway, about a 5 minute walk from the Roger's Centre), and him and Angelica made us dinner. It was awsome.....they made Greek salad, baked potatoes, corn on the cob, garlic bread, and then we went up to the top of his apartment building, and bbq'd steak. It started to rain, but he managed to get it done, and it was AWSOME!!!!! Thanks again Luke and Angelica for the awsome meal.
After we were done dinner, Luke had to walk Angelica to the train station, as she had to get back to London, so we cleaned up, and sat around his apartment waiting for him to get back. When he got back, we had dessert, and it had stopped raining, so we went up to the roof to see all the city lights. He has an absolutely wonderful view of the city from the top of his building. From the one end of the building, you can see the island, from the other you can see the Roger's Centre, and the CN Tower, and all the buildings down town. It was a great view in the daylight, but all that much better when you could see the city all lit up.
We headed back to our hotel around 9, and went for a swim and to the hot tub, and then back up to our room. Jill and I were tired, so we decided that we were going to go to sleep, so the guys went to Jack Astors, which was right across the street from the hotel, and had a drink while they watched the end of the football game.
Yesterday we were woke up at 6:55 by the alarm at the hotel going off. We had a little blonde girl in our room that was freaking out. There was a voice that came over the p.a. system and told us that it was being investigated. Jill didn't trust them, so she went down to the lobby to investigate for herself, and the rest of us went back to bed. After about 20 minutes, they came on again, and told us that everything was back to normal, and Jill could finally relax.
We fell back to sleep for another couple of hours, and then decided to get up. We all got showered, and packed up, and left the hotel to see if the car was still where we parked. To our luck it was, and we were off. We went and had breakfast at a restaurant, and then stopped at IKEA to pick up a few things, and headed home.
It was a great night away, and it was nice to see Luke and Angelica, and see where Luke lived.

Graduation/Engagement Party

Today my parents threw Justin and Cara an Engagement party, and also incorporated it with a Graduation party for Cara.
It was nice to meet Justin's family. Since he is from Brantford, I have herd all these stories about the people that I have never met, and it was finally nice to put a face to the names.
The rain held off until we were just finished eating, and people were starting to head home, which was great because there were quite a few people there, and I think that the house would have been a little crowded with all of them in it.
The day was full of friends, family and laughter, and it was very nice that everyone could get together to celebrate these two very special occasions!!!

Happy Birthday Johnston

Last night we went to Ryan's 25th Birthday party. The party was held in the 'Poker Palace'...so you can probably guess what the theme of the party was.
The 'Poker Palace' is Johnston custom cabinets old shop which is located in the back yard of Ryan's parents place. After the Johnston's built a new shop at the other end of town, the guys work a couple of weekends to convert the old shop into a place that they could meet once a week to play poker. So on every other Monday night there is about 15 guys that meet, young and old, and they have a couple games of poker in the shop.
For the party, we all participated in a poker tournament. There was three tables, and when each table would loose a couple of people, then we would take a table away. Curt made it to the final table, and I was the last person put out before they went to the final table. The little blonde girl from across the street (Jill) won the whole thing!!!! Way to go Girl.....you show those boys for not letting any women into the 'Poker Palace'.
Nicole had got my mom and sister to make the cakes for the evening, which I did not have the chance to taste, but they looked very good. One was decorated with a Poker theme, and the other was a plane one for Ryan's mom Sandy, and his sister Heather, as their birthdays are this weekend too.
Happy BIRTHDAY JOHNSTON CLAN!!!!

Fall is in with a BANG

The first weekend of fall =

What the heck is going on?????

I am pretty sure that Lexy was VERY confused last week when all of the rooms where turned upside down and nothing was in it's proper place, and not to mention that the painting seemed to get all of the attention that she is so used to getting.
It started when we did the living room and dining room because we had to move all the furniture to the one side of the room. Lexy likes to lay on the back of our love seat which is set in front of the window, and from Sunday to Thursday, she was unable to do that.
Then on Friday night, we had to move all of her toys, and our furniture out the bedroom. She kept bringing the toys back into the room just to get something familiar in there I think. When it was time to go to bed she was extra confused because we were sleeping in the wrong room, not to mention that there was hardly enough room in the bed for all 3 of us because of the difference in size.
Needless to say, Lexy is very happy that her couch is back in front of the window, and that we are all back in the right bedroom, with the right size of bed!!!!!

Part ONE of the renovations....COMPLETE!!!!

The living room and the dining room are now complete. The curtains are hung, and everything is back in it's proper place.

The dining room looks great with all of my fall decorations out (the go perfectly with the new colors):

we had one wall in the middle of the two rooms, that you could not classify to be either in the living room, or in the dining room, so this is how I decided to complete it: and the living room:

Happy 'International Talk Like A Pirate' Day

Who knew that today was such a special day!!!!
Here is a quick link to find out what your Pirate name would be.
http://www.mess.be/pirate-names-female.php
Just a little fun for a dreary Tuesday afternoon!!!!
Have a GGGRRRRREEEAAATTTTT afternoon mattie, from Bloody Lizzie.

(make sure to leave your PIRATE name in the comment section of the post)

Renovations (part deux)

This weekend was dedicated to getting the painting all done in the house.
On Wednesday/Thursday night we finished the living room and the dining room, and got the rooms back together.
On Friday night we started our bedroom. We re-painted all the walls, and the trim, and then on Saturday, I stripped all the paint off of the furniture from the bedroom. What a job!!!! That paint stripper is powerful stuff. I had to go to a wedding on Saturday night with burn marks all up my arm and on my hands because it ate right through the latex gloves that I was wearing, and every time it hit my skin above the gloves, it left a big red burn mark.
Yesterday we painted up the furniture, and added the final touches to the bedroom, and last night when my parents came over for dinner, dad helped Curt put the trim back up around the room, and mom and I finished antiquing the furniture, and then we moved it all upstairs. Thank you to Doug and Grandma for helping do that..
Tonight we have to get all of our cloths back in the drawers, as they are sitting in messy piles on the floor in the spare bedroom.
I will be so glad when all this mess is gone, and my house (and our lives) get back to normal.

Renovations

We have been in our house for over a year now, and when we moved in we did have to do any renovating. We did re-do one room however, and that was the room in the basement that is considered 'Curt's' room. Mom and I painted it white, with all back trim and doors (to kind of resemble an ice rink) and then we put a HABS border up around it.
A couple of months ago I had been looking around the house one day and noticed that the wood work was really starting to show some wear and tear (probably from when we moved in), and thought that it was maybe time that a few of the rooms in the house could use a freshening up.
Right know we are in the middle of painting the dining room, and the living room. On Sunday we worked from 8:30a.m. until 6:30p.m. (or I worked from 8:30, and Curt didn't start until about 11:00) washing the walls, and getting the first coats of the paint up. Last night Curt put the second coat on the living room, and almost got the dining room done before he ran out of paint. Being as we can not get away with only the one coat, I will have to make a trip down to St. Jacobs tonight after work and get the second can of paint to finish it. I even put Destiny to work last night taping around the trim so that we can go at that with the paint.
On the agenda tonight and tomorrow night will be the trim work, and getting everything back together.
I was plensently surprised that Curt and I could work together on such a project as this one. We have had no major fights, and have managed to even be able to work on the same room. I thought for sure that by Sunday afternoon I would have to be in one of the rooms, and he would have to be in the other.
Here is a sneak peak of what the colors are going to look like:

(the dining room)

(the living room)

REMEMBER

Do you remember what you were doing 5 years ago today when the world received the devastating and life altering news of the terrorist attests on the United States.

Let's take the day to remember the people who lost their lives 5 years ago in the attaches on the World Trade Center buildings, American Airlines Flight 11, American Airlines Flight 77, United Airlines Flight 175, United Airlines Flight 93 and the US Pentagon.

Happy Birthday Sid and Lois

Last Thursday was Lois's birthday, and today is Sid's birthday and since the two of them are so close together, for the past couple of years we have done a joint birthday dinner at our house.
Due to it being a week night, and me not having a huge amount of time after work to prepare a meal, we did a simple hamburger and hotdogs dinner. Curt did the cooking, and his sister brought the cake (DQ). We had Curt's grandparents over too...and we all celebrated their b-days.

HAPPY BIRTHDDAY RON and LOIS!!!!

A Weekend of Lasts

This was our last weekend at the cottage for the year...which just lead into a weekend of 'lasts' for the whole season.

Our last BBQ at the cottage.

Lexy's last weekend to lounge around and chippy hunt.

And our last bonfire at the cottage.

The weather really did not co-operate for our last weekend at the beach...and we did not even make it down to the water once the whole weekend. We did manage to take a drive on the beach, as the Indian's were not charging to get on, and we stopped in to get the last ice cream at the Trading Post for the season.

It was a great season at the cottage, and we are so lucky to have a place to escape to for the weekend, and leave the ordinary behind. I hope that next year we make it up as much as we managed to this year, and the weather is as good as it has been this year too.

Here is to the end of summer!!!!:(

Looks like its indoor activities for the Weekend!!!!!!

So...we are headed up to the cottage tonight, for probably our last weekend of the summer, and the weather man is being truly disappointing.
For as long as I can remember, the last 'official' weekend of the summer has ALWAYS been a good one, and this morning when I did my regular check of the weather, this is what I found:
Saturday: RAIN with a high of 17 degrees
Sunday: RAIN with a high of 19 degrees
Monday (home day): Variable Cloudiness with a high of 21 degrees.
What a bang to the end of summer!!!!!!!