Squigzella.com

January – Brought in the New Year at Chris and Dale’s place. Joined by friends, it was low key and fun. We celebrated Marilyn’s  7th birthday at Boston Pizza. She had a blast with her “big friends”.

February – I turned 31. We had a birthday party for me, where I had a pretty cool “Edward” cake and some really nice prezzies from friends. It was in February that we also saw one of our dear friends Carter off to Japan for go knows how long, and Greg and Robert share their birthday as well. Robert turning the big ONE! We celebrated at Pizza Hut. We also found out in late January  early February that Dale and Juls would be parents, meaning I was going to be an Auntie in 2009! Well auntie to family by choice, not by blood. Either way, equally as cool.

March – In March we ventured to Toronto, by train. It was the longest train ride in the history of man! Jared, Chris, Hil and I had an adventure. Chris marked his territory at every GTA landmark with vomit, due to a bout of food poisoning. We reconnected with some old and dear friends. It was a great time. Chris and I were introduced to Tattoo Black Rum by Jody… and drinking hasn’t been the same since.

April – In April, we went to Halifax for Hil’s birthday and visited with Jared, Vicki and Sylas. It was a great weekend with great friends.

May – Jenn, Tara and I decided on a cross border adventure. We went to Bangor for a shopping weekend. We spent a fair bit of cash, and had some great laughs and great food. It was more amusing how many people we ran into that we knew from home. Ruby Tuesday’s Girls… Ruby Tuesdays… We also can’t forget that Mike and Cole became parents to a handsome little man, Alex!

June – Summer came…and well, I don’t recall one overly eventful thing in June.

July – I’m sure something happened in July too but it isn’t imprinted in my memory at all. Work was crazy busy which made summer fly by!

August – The scoobs went camping in Wickham. We endured the rain on Saturday until we couldn’t take it any longer and then made a night of it at Greg and Chris’s place. We followed it up with one of our famous big breakfasts…somehow Jared managed to get out of cooking it. Hrmmm…

September – Impossible Realities, Bill and Jody visited. It was great to see them and to show them our little corner of the world. We introduced Bill to Suwanna, and Jody and Bill introduced us to sneaky guys who pay the bill for a party of 10! Mark my words we will get you back on that grand a scale at some point guys! Danika Nicole Duffield was born. Dale and Juls became parents to an adorable little girl and I became and Auntie!

October – My great Aunt passed on, and my best friend got married. It was a busy month. Many months leading up to this were spent doing wedding prep. It came, and was beautiful. After making what felt like a million cupcakes, I survived and I think the tier looked great! My boss dropped a bombshell that he was leaving us at the beginning of October. I took on a lot of new responsibilities at my job and introduced a whole new level of stress.

November – We had a November? Dale started working with me, spiced up my days a bit. Started working on things for Christmas and thinking about Trois Riviere in March. Oh and of course Tara, Chris and I went to see New Moon when it came out. How could Chris miss out on Jacob? We also celebrated Dale and Juls birthday in one go with some bowling and a get together.

December – Well here we are. Christmas came and went rather quickly. As we get older, it always happens this way. It’s New Years eve…makes me struggle to remember where I was this day 10 years ago. I can’t quite recall. May this new year be filled with great friends and wonderful memories.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well Blog….we have a love hate relationship don’t we? I really enjoy having you, but lately I’ve had no time to sit down and write anything. Let’s see… The best Manager I can say I’ve ever had decided to leave and move on to other adventures the first of October. Since then, my professional life has undergone some huge changes. I have continued on in my current role and have assumed all of his duties managing one of our largest accounts. It has been trying, and down right frustrating at times. I keep trying to maintain a balance. I saw what it did to him and I refuse to let it get that far with me. I believe with some organization and some time management I can keep everything afloat until I either move over to do that job full time, or someone else comes along to take it over from me.

Outside of that, Tara and Steve’s wedding was wonderful. I baked and frosted (with Julie’s help) over 150 Red Velvet Cupcakes. Only a few weeks before that Julie gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Danika Nicole… she is adorable, and I am her Auntie! I am so proud, I now have another little one to spoil! Keep ‘em coming gang!

So everything has just flown by since Bill and Jody visited. It’s one month until Christmas. I can’t believe it. So much has changed this year, and so much as stayed the same. With so many professional changes, I hope to make some changes in my personal life in the coming year. Finding a new place, going for my motorcycle license and perchance even buying my first bike. I’m excited for 2010…

X’s and O’s
~Squigzella

Today marks my one year anniversary at my place of employment. The year has flown by. More importantly a full year has passed since I started. No work shortage, no end of contract, nadda. My one year probation is over. I have broken my contract work curse. Since 7 years at Xerox and  a few years with Exxon I have not had the luck for finding something that wasn’t contract or had a random happenstance of work shortage. Not that it was ever really a curse. But today, I woke up a bit proud that the hard working thriving woman I used to be, obviously brought her A game for a year, and continues to do so.

So today, YAY me.

Tonight I decided to go into my basement and dig through the boxes that my life was packed into a year ago. I thought well, if I haven’t really needed what’s in those boxes in a year, do I need them at all? Well of course some things I will need. Such as Linens, bedding, dishes etc. But in my rifling through old clothes that are far too big for me to my delight I found my wooden spoons. You have no idea how much I missed the simplest of things… a well seasoned wooden spoon. I was very happy to discover it, and now will enjoy cooking again. Laugh if you will but my wooden spoon was good for sauces, and baking and well everything!

Outside of that I did find my scrapbooking supplies as well which reminds me once again I need to print off new photos and get back to that hobby, which I have always enjoyed but never really had a lot of money to sink into it. I think I am going to take some money out of my next pay and get some photos done and go from there.

Back to the event planner notion. I have some ideas, and a few things I want to be really good at before I venture into the world of special occasion planning. But it’s in my bonnet and growing. Kind of exciting to be creative about something again. Feels like it’s been awhile.

It has also been awhile since I’ve been back at Weight Watchers… I’m bad. I want to lose the weight but my head just isn’t there, I want it to be there. I think I might just suck it up, go back and vow to not quit. I have a goal in mind, I’ve been successful before, I’m not sure why all of the sudden I have self doubt. Just need to get back on the horse. We’ll see if I’m there on Saturday….

Until then, stay frosty.

PS  How many sleeps boys?

Scooby camping weekend commences tomorrow evening. I can’t wait. I’ve been going non-stop for a few weeks. Both work and play with no relax time make me really stressed out! So this weekend hopefully will be laid back enough that it will fill the gap for now. Next weekend is another long weekend and the only thing I have planned is The Princess Bride at 11:30pm on Saturday night. It is a fundraise for Impossible Realities. Tickets are $7.50 and can be picked up at Reads/United.

Things are coming together for the work move. I still have a few small appliances to pick up. I plan on taking care of that an evening next week. I did get to see the new space yesterday. They were hanging the lights. It looks much larger now that the walls are up, it’s painted and floor is laid. I’ll be interested to see how it all comes together next week. It would be nice if it all went smoothly.

I keep scoping the apartment section of Kijiji. Might help if I had enough money put away for a damage deposit. I gotta do that…

IR in two weeks, mini vacay for me in two weeks.

I can’t wait.

So as Impossible Realities approaches so does the time when we can get into the Kent Theatre and figure out exactly how we are going to decorate for Steve and Tara’s wedding. I’m anxious and excited. We have so many great ideas, now it’s just a matter for them to come together and not forget anything. I think out biggest challenge will be getting fabric draped as we like it and covering spots we want to hide in the place. We’ll see how it all comes together. I have an idea of how it will right now but I think once we get in there in September we might have some new ideas too.

I am taking this maid of honour thing seriously!

This weekend is a bit crazy…well, every weekend up until IR is. But I’ll get though. I have some days off in September to spend with friends, so for that I am thankful.

Off to work… wanted to write more but time got away from me this morning. Have a great Thursday!

*Taken on the way to Toronto in March 2009*

So I’ve been thinking alot lately about what I want to do outside of my career. I’ve been thinking about hobbies, and things I enjoy. I enjoy planning events. The more I help with Tara’s wedding, the more I really think that being an event planner is truly something I would enjoy. So if this is something I want to pursue, where to I start? It would have a relatively low start up cost, I could spread by FB and word of mouth and see how I fare. It’s something to think about, I mean truly. What is going to give me fulfillment outside of my 8 to 5 world. This could be something huge for me if I tackle it in the right way.

I think I need to ponder on it more, but it’s never too late to do what you want.

Alright, so here I am. New theme, new face to my blog and a renewed committment to do some more blogging! In the coming months I’ll be busy. The office is moving into a new location, with all new furniture, which I am very excited about, and it comes iwth moderate stress in the scheduling side of things. As well, we have Impossible Realities creeping up on us. Friends from out of town will be joining us, which I am more than just a little excited about. We will have the party of the YEAR on Friday night for Steve, Chris D and Chris W’s Birthdays, as well as just a party because we have our friends visiting! Then before we know it, we will be buried in black and red for Tara and Steve’s wedding. Lots of exciting things coming up aside from that too. I am going to attempt knitting, and at least promise to make myself knit one scarf for winter. We’ll see how it goes.

More to come…when I’m not at my desk.

I haven’t forgotten you.

I will be back soon with a new layout. A new theme. It’s time.

~Squigzella

It’s Sunday. Another weekend has passed. I am just doing a bit of cooking and making my meal plan for the week. Tara and I start Boot Camp tomorrow night at the AC, and then we start our running schedule of Tuesday and Friday evenings. I’m looking forward to it. I got my healthy groceries and I’m ready to start my journey to losing 40lbs on my own. I have my tools in place, so as long as I maintain my drive and focus we are doing good. I will do my best to journal it. My reason for doing this is simple, I simply cannot afford to put out money for Weight Watchers and the Gym. I need both. I have the tools that two years at Weight Watchers have given me, now I am going employ them and do the gym. I’m going to miss my friends there but hopefully they will keep in touch.

This week at work is likely to be busy the first few days. My boss was away and while he was most of his clients called me. It left me very little time to focus on my tasks, so this week will be filled with me playing catch up after his vacation. How ironic is that? Oh well, I am thankful I have a job to go to everyday, and it is one that even though it may have drama, I love.

I am thinking a bit about next year, and what I want to do with my vacation time. I really would like to go away, to somewhere I’ve never been. I’d also like to catch a Dave concert and/or a Bruins game. I’ll have to put some more thought into it as the summer progresses.

On to game topic, I have the plot kit for Requiem…It works well with what we are doing with the game’s restart after three years of “The long Silence” as Chris Wilson calls it.

I think the players will enjoy it. I think I am going to enjoy running it for them.

I’m debating closing down my twitter, I’m finding it interesting 10% of the time…it was cool at first when the whole world wasn’t on it, now it’s just a huge media outlet.

Alright, I am off to continue my Sunday. Where ever you are, I hope yours is sunny and warm.