Thursday, December 23, 2010

Dessert Indulgence

This is my friendly note to self that I absolutely need to get back on the "healthy eating" bandwagon after the holiday festivities. With all the baking that I have been doing, I have been eating far too many cookies, squares, and chocolates! I want to eat supper now, but I am far too full from eating too many sweets. This is not a good sign.
I'm also pretty sure I haven't eaten any fruits and veggies (aside from my banana today) in 4 days?

January 2nd: healthy eating and exercise!! Make it a lifestyle!!!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Happy Birthdays!

2 out of 3 of my nieces/nephew were born on the same day. Today is the day that my awesome nephew Brandon turns 12, and sweet little niece Emma turns 3. Here are some pictures from birthday celebrations that took place on the past weekend! My younger brothers birthday was earlier in December too (the 16th).


 Lovin' the blue icing!

Sweet little Emma and Moi

Monday, December 20, 2010

'Tis the Season to Give

Donating to local charities is especially important this time of the year. It makes me sad to think that while some kids are getting showered with an overwhelming amount of expensive gifts like video gaming systems, ipods, and other electronics (which they may not even be appreciative of), other kids only get one small modest gift because their parent(s) are unable to afford to keep up with the demands of this time of vast consumerism. I think that there is definitely too much emphasis on the "stuff" side of Christmas, but it still is unfair that some children are given the world, while others don't get much at all. For those families who do not have a lot of money to purchase gifts for their children, it is important to me to contribute especially considering as a child who grew up in poverty, I was on the receiving end of the gift donations as a child. 



Which Local Charities to Donate to?

The Workplace? At my workplace, there was lots of opportunity to donate. There was a toy drive in addition to a food drive. Aleksy's work place also had a toy drive in which he participated in. The donations for his work toy drive were donated to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of London (an agency to which I am involved in so we definitely had to participate!).

Angel Tree – If work doesn't have any drives, this is always a good way to go! Last year I took my Little Sister to the Argyle Mall in London and together we purchased a gift for a child off the tree in the mall. I believe most malls have something similar to this too... 

CAS donation – The CAS has several families and children/youth without families who benefit from gift donations. Each CAS has an independent drive which may differ between locations. I know London and Brantford have holiday gift campaigns for their families/children.  

Food banks – With parents concentrating on using all of their money on Christmas gifts, it is easy to run out of food money. And donating to the food bank is so easy! Many grocery stores have bins as you exit which you can drop food off in. In addition to this, some grocery stores (Metro does!) even have special bags that they have put together for the food bank so you can save the wandering around the store time!

And plus, it's fun to go shopping for the donations! My Little Sister and I made an outing out of it, and Aleksy and I spent a substantial amount of time in the toy aisle playing with toys like the Bop It!

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Car Accidents and US excursions

Over the past couple weeks, London has had an obscene amount of snow (which resulted in 3 snow days last week). Aleksy's new Jeep has been very handy in the crappy weather, it drives well and we can park it in any given place when the parking spaces are full (if you look at the photo below you'll understand!).

In the Best Buy parking lot: no parking spots? no problem!

But just when we had plans to go shopping in the States, leaving at 9am, someone slid into Aleksy's Jeep in an attempt to turn right. I was driving back to Hamilton separately in my car, and I didn't look at my phone until I got to Hamilton when I learned that Aleksy was at the police reporting station because he was in an accident. After he arranged for a rental vehicle (which ended up being a Corolla - not so handy in the snow!) he headed to Hamilton. We actually did make it to Buffalo! we were there for about 4:30pm. And Buffalo had horrible weather!

We went to the Galleria Mall for the first time. It was fancier than what I had imagined. Being the huge fans of the show The Big Bang Theory, Aleksy and I were super excited to see that the mall had a "Cheesecake Factory". 

We discovered that the atmosphere was much different from what the show presents, but I had a delicious Bellini and some fish tacos.

I got some good deals at the mall and some Christmas shopping accomplished! Here are a couple other pictures from the mall:
 They actually had valet parking at the mall!
In case I forgot where I was shopping...

Friday, December 10, 2010

The Most Amazing 1 Year old Birthdays Ever: Saturday December 4th

2 adorable little girls came into the world 1 year ago. Not the same birthdays, but celebrated on the same day!

Serena's First Birthday Party


Amazing cake! Very tasty too..
Serena agreed: very tasty
Lots of fabulous gifts from family and friends! Mommy and Daddy helping her open them...
Me, Andzelika, Chelsea and the beautiful 1 year old Serena!

Valentina's First Birthday Party

Social Work girls, have some mini sandwiches..





Auntie Jenny with Valentina
An awesome photo of some members of the social work gang! Me, Steph, Jenny, and Nikki.



Valentina's cake... the party was a mickey mouse theme.

Mom and auntie opening up the presents! Lots of goodies for Valentina!

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Death by Advertisements

Ok, so I didn't die, but I definitely was bombarded.

Aleksy and I went to a Knights game tonight (the Knights lost... boooo!) and I thought I would write a short note about the amount of advertising that was at the game. Unreal! There was not a place to look where I wasn't given a visual of something I should be purchasing or consuming. Advertisements everywhere: the ice, the score box, the seating, voices, the zambonis, and even floating around in the air. When the Knights scored a goal, did you know that the goal was brought to you by Harveys? really?

 In this single picture, I can immediately pick out over 20 different advertisements... without even looking at the boards of the ice.
                                              









So, when you are exposed to over 100 advertisements in one sitting, does it really work? Am I filing all the information subliminally into my subconscious so the next time I see a Harvey's, I'll want to pop in for a burger because I am remembering a great goal? Maybe. But, no matter how hard I tried, I definitely could not pay good attention to everything that was advertised to me in the 3 hour time period I was at the JLC.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

It's Officially Christmas Holidays!!

RELIEF!! Handed in my last paper of first term at noon today! That completed first term of my last year of my social work undergrad!! Wooo hooo!

No more feeling deeply guilty for doing everything but paper writing! Although I was very fortunate to only have 2 papers to write for "finals" one for Monday (the 6th) and the one for today. One of the things I really like about social work is that we rarely have final exams for our classes. More often it is a final assessment, paper, or presentation.

I set out to do some Christmas shopping after I handed in my paper, and the mall was super busy. First things first, a lady stole my parking spot. It was most definitely mine because I was waiting in the aisle when she was backing out. I wouldn't complain so much if it wasn't so cold outside! I think these types of things are much more likely to happen around this time of the year. However, now that I am all done school until January, I can take my sweet time with everything!
Tomorrows day off: Drive in to snowy London and take my nephew out for lunch to pizza hut, then hair appointment in the afternoon.
Fridays day off: Girls night with the social work girls!
That's right: 2 whole days off with no school to worry about! sweet!
(then working in London all weekend, but that doesn't need a spotlight!!)