A Coffee and a Notebook

I kind of stopped doing Blogtember.  I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I'm back today.  Mostly because my Wednesday night consists of sitting in Starbucks for an hour and a half until it's time to go to yoga.  I was writing a paper, until I got bored of that.



{via pinterest}

I'm writing this blog post out old school journal style.  Aka pen & paper.  There is something about writing on paper that seems more personal, like it's not for anybody else but you.  (Except for when I then post it on the interweb for everybody.)  And I like being able to see my mistakes and corrections for some reason.  In university, I wrote the first draft of every paper out by hand first.  Then when I typed it out it was my first edit.  (Followed by at least 2 more edits.  I wasn't one of those write your paper the night before people.) 

Not going to lie, I want to take a picture but I'm afraid the people around me would wonder what I'm doing.

I don't feel like getting to wordy, so I think I'm going to end this post here.  I have about half an hour left to kill and I really just want to get back into reading Pandemonium. 

Relationship Struggles

Every couple has that thing that they have an issue with.  You know, the one thing that always seems to be an argument and that you can never agree on.  For me and Ryan, that thing is raisins.

Ya, I bet you thought this was going to be serious.  Well it is serious!  I seriously hate raisins.  They ruin everything good.  Butter tarts, muffins, carrot cake, scones.  Did you know that there is such a thing as raisin pie?  That's just a waste of a pie crust.

Ryan on the other hand, will eat raisins in anything.  I just can't handle it.  There is nothing worse than taking a bite into a delicious butter tart and finding a raisin in it.  Same goes for carrot cake.  They are always sneaky in the carrot cake because they kind of blend in.  Or sometimes I think that it's a carrot cake with nuts.  Nope that nut is a raisin and is gooey grossness!

Luckily for Ryan, his mom makes him stuff with raisins.  Also luckily for Ryan, he knows that I won't eat all of his treats on him if they have raisins in them.

Does anybody else have these strong feelings about raisins, or is it just me?

Stupid happy raisins

Courses That High School Should Have

In high school we have to take certain courses like math, science and English.  These are all somewhat important (except for science in my business minded brain, I never use anything I learnt in science.)  However, there are a lot of courses that we aren't forced to take, or that aren't even offered that probably should be.

It seems that high school is more about preparation for post-secondary education than it is for life in general.  And while that is important, many people either don't go on to post-secondary education, or they do but they still don't know some of life's basics.  So here are some courses that I think should be mandatory in high school.

Personal Finance
This course would teach you how to budget.  It could include portions on mortgages and loans so that students understand these things earlier.  It's so easy for people to get into trouble early on because they don't know how to budget and save their money.

Accounting
I may be biased here, but I think that everyone should take accounting.  Accounting relates to any job that you will ever do.  Even though you may not have to actually input the numbers yourself, I can't tell you how many times at work I have to deal with people in other departments who don't understand that I can't just issue a cheque and not put it towards an expense account.  Or they don't understand the difference between a balance sheet item and an income statement item.  And don't even get me started on the lack of understanding of amortization....end rant.

Home Ec
This wasn't offered in my school, I'm not sure if it's offered anywhere anymore.  I understand that women can now go to university and have careers, but where do we learn to sew these days?  Some things are just important skills to have.

Typing
Do schools have this?  I know my school didn't when I was there.  I taught myself how to type with a program at home.  These days though everybody should know how to type properly.  None of this two finger stuff should be going on, I don't care how fast you are at it.

Personal Fitness and Nutrition
Now my high school did offer food and nutrition as well as gym classes of course.  I hated gym.  I am not an athlete and so the thought of playing basketball and soccer for a period every day was terrifying.  However, I'm now somewhat of a gym rat.  Being able to work out and promoting fitness is completely different than playing sports.  I think that high schools should have a course that is purely fitness.  There could be sections on gym workouts, circuit training, aerobics, and then basic nutritional information.  I actually feel that this should be an option in grade 9 that can be taken instead of the basic gym class.  For all those kids out there who hate sports like me.

What are some courses that you think should be mandatory?

A Memory

Today I am posting about a memory that I would love to relive. 

I would love to relive France.  When I was 17, I went on a three month exchange to France.  I feel like my enjoyment of this experience was hindered by the fact that I had a boyfriend at home.  I can't fully say that I wish we hadn't been together, because a lot of where I am today is because of that relationship.  However, I think my experience would have been very different if I had been single.

First of all, I could have had a French boyfriend.  And how cool would that have been.

But also I was just very homesick.  It took me about 2 months to get over being homesick and really enjoy being there.  And when you only have 3 months, that's not good.

I did still learn a lot about myself while I was there, and it was an experience that completely changed me.  But if I could go back and do it again, I think that I might enjoy my time a bit more.  And I love the idea of immersing yourself in the culture.  I don't just want to go back and visit Paris (but I would do that too), I want to really live there again, and walk the streets and be with French people.  Sometimes I just miss it.  It's amazing that it was only three months almost 10 years ago and I still miss it.

A Day With My Cat

Yes you read that title correctly.  If you don't understand the relationship between a girl an her cat then just stop reading now.

The thing about Pipsi is that she's always with us.  No matter what we're doing she likes to be in the same room.  And if she's nowhere to be found, I usually figure that I have accidentally locked her in a closet.

If I'm working in the office, she's there.

If I'm working out, she's there.  She is usually either head butting me when I do things like plank or burpees, or on Sunday she was swatting at the spin bike's wheel and then watching as my feet went around, and around.... It was pretty entertaining to watch.

If we are watching TV, she's there.

If I'm packing my bag for yoga, she's there.

If we are making dinner or eat dinner, she's definitely there.  Her favourites are anything with cheese or bacon.

If I'm folding clothes, she's there.



It's kind of nice though.  I'm never alone, and that's what I love about having a pet.




Done folding, what's next?

A Self Portrait

Today's prompt just said: A Self Portrait.  I guess this can be interpreted in a number of ways, but here is what I have.

I am a ginger.  I have red hair, people make fun of it, I make fun of myself.  It doesn't bother me.

I love animals.  Dogs, cats, donkeys, penguins.

Is it just me or does Pipsi look slightly cross eyed?

I am an accountant.  Insert joke here.  It's okay, I will probably laugh at that joke too, because it's probably based on truth.

I am an introvert.

I am a learner.  Always learning, learning always.

I am a wife.  I may not be good at it all the time, but I love this guy and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.

I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.  Oh wait, that's Julia Roberts, not me.

Social Media Changes

Discuss ways that blogging and social media has changed you is what I'm supposed to talk about today for Blogtember.

Let's start with social media, shall we?  Back when I first got Facebook, it was restricted to people in university.  I actually had to use my university email address to register for it.  No university email address, no Facebook.  Nobody worried about security because you knew that everyone in the world couldn't look at your pages.  Facebook did wonders for meeting people in University because you just add them to The Book of Face and that's it, you are friends and can therefore talk to each other in class!  It's not the same anymore, and sometimes that makes me sad.



Blogging is a different story.  I've talked about it before, but blogging has opened my eyes to what's going on in the world.  I read about struggles with death, pregnancy, having a spouse in the military.  I read blogs from a single girls point of view, a married girl, a mother.  It has made me aware of what people are going through, and no matter what I am going through myself, there is somebody online that I can relate to.  I love that.  It makes you feel that you aren't alone.  Some days reading blogs makes me feel blessed, because there are people out there who are going through really tough times, and I'm just thankful for everything that I have in my life. 

It's really crazy when you think about this world of blogging.  All these people sharing their lives with whoever wants to listen.  It's fantastic and it's scary at the same time.  None of us will do it forever.  In five years will any of us have blogs or will it be old news?  Who knows.  But for now, it's kind of nice.

Let's go shopping, without leaving the house!

Today I am sharing some of my favourite online shops.  I don't do a ton of online shopping, because I don't do a ton of shopping in general.  I'm very careful with my money and there aren't a lot of impulse buys!

One store that I look at frequently though is Lululemon.  They have free shipping so I know that if there's every anything that I need to have, I can buy it and it will actually cost me less than if I had to drive an hour and a half to the closest store.  I usually just look at there what's new section and their we made too much section.  And I usually don't buy anything, but it's fun to look!  Here are a few of my favourites currently:

The ruffled groove pant - I love the ruffles! $108

The rest less tank - $64

I'm tempted by this $34 sale tank! $34!

*Update: I bought it.  $34, did I say that yet?  In lulu world it doesn't get much better than that*

I also frequent the West Elm website.  I also have yet to buy anything online, but I just love their stuff!  What I hate are shipping and duty charges, especially when they do have stores in Canada!


These curtains are on sale and I'm coming close to purchasing them for my office but I'm nervous about what the actual colour will be

I love these hive vases, I just don't really have anywhere to put them

 And then I saw this...

A sleeping bag you can wear, everyone needs one of these!

Another Football Post

So I had completely blocked this time of the year out of my memory apparently.  The time of year when every single blog post seems to be about football.  And are you ready for it, cause I'm going to say it....

I just don't get it.

It's probably because I'm Canadian.  I mean there are Canadian's who enjoy football.  But it's not the same.  We don't live and breathe it like the American's seem to.  Ryan and my Dad watched a bit of it on Sunday, but that was mostly to see Carrie Underwood. 

And then there's college football.  The fact that colleges can fill stadiums of 100,000 people blows my mind.  My university didn't even have a football team.  We did have the top lacrosse team in the province though.  I went to one of their games, there were about 10 other spectators and we had to stand because they didn't even have bleachers.


So I hope you don't judge me for not caring about football, or for skipping some of the 100+ football posts that are gracing my bloglovin' feed.

A Moment in Time

Today's Blogtember challenge is to describe a distinct moment in time when you life took a turn.

I believe that your life changes because of the decisions that you make and so every decision may have been that distinct moment.  And, these moments might relate to different things. 

My career took a turn when I was completing my final co-op term and was told in the last week that they didn't have a position for me in January.  I had fully expected to return there and work towards my CA designation.  Because of that moment, I had to search for a new job and now am working in industry towards my CGA designation instead.  Is where I am now better for me?  Maybe.  I never wanted to be a workaholic.  I know that I want to have kids someday, and I know that my family is going to be more important than my job.  So having my CA and working as a manager in an accounting firm for the rest of my life maybe wasn't for me.

I also think my life took a turn when I decided to pursue Ryan.  That's right, I pursued him.  He took some convincing too.  Granted, he had a lot more to lose.  He works for my dad's company and so if we had of broken up, it could have gotten weird.  Had I not done that, who knows where we would be.  I'm not sure that I believe in soul mates.  I believe that there are a number of people that you could be happy with and it all depends on timing.  It was the right timing for both Ryan and I.  We were both single and we were both ready to settle down.  If one of you aren't ready to settle down, that throws the whole thing off.

So there are two moments in time that I think changed everything for me!

What's Your Personality?

Today for Blogtember, I completed this personality test.  Here are my results:

Strong Introvert (89%)
Moderate Intuitive (50%)
Moderate Thinking over Feeling(50%)
Slight Judging over Perceiving (22%)

Shocker, I'm introverted!  This wasn't news to me.  Take a look at my previous introversion post. 

I find these tests interesting because they always bring up things that you are aware of, something you may not be aware of and something that you think is just plain wrong.

According to my results, I know what I know and if you ask for help I either immediately know that I can help and how or know that I can't help.  I think that this is true to some degree, but I'm not fully confident in my abilities sometimes. 

One interesting point that I didn't realize was that anyone that we consider to be "slacking" including superiors will lose our respect.  This is 100% true but I didn't realize that my personality type caused this.

We have little patience for small talk and flirtation, which can cause problems in relationships.  Sorry Ryan.  Once again though, for me small talk is difficult and a waste of time and energy.  I absolutely hate it.

We want people to make sense.  I hate it when things that people do don't make sense.  If it's illogical to me, I don't understand how anybody could come to that decision.

Then I clicked on the career choices link.  Some suggestions were science and engineering.  No and no thanks.  But then other options were entrepreneurship, librarian and law.  I would love to be an entrepreneur and work for myself.  I'm always trying to think of a great business idea, and entrepreneurship kind of runs in the family.  I would also love to be a librarian if you didn't need a specific degree for it these days.  If it wasn't for the public speaking that comes with being a lawyer, that might be the job for me!

So this test didn't tell me a ton of things that I didn't know about myself, but it was still interesting to look at and say "ya, that's why I do that".

Home Alone

Today for Blogtember I am supposed to write about a time when I was very afraid.  I thought hard about this.  I don't really have any totally irrational fears.  I'm not afraid of spiders or anything like that, I just would prefer that they aren't near me.  I'm afraid of small dark places, such as tents, and sometimes have panic attacks when I'm in them, but that's about all there is to that story.

Then I remembered the first time I stayed home alone for a night.  I was in Grade 9, and my parents had probably gone to a hockey tournament for the weekend or something but I had to work at 7am on Saturday.  So we decided that I would stay home and I arranged for the girl I was working with to come pick me up before work.

{via pinterest}

As soon as I went to bed that night, I started hearing noises.  They were nothing out of the ordinary, but when your parents are upstairs sleeping, you just ignore them I guess, because you know that everything is all right.  The house was creaking and the furnace was making noise and I know it's totally crazy, but I was scared.

When Steph showed up to get me at 6:30 the next morning, I was never so happy to get out of my house.

I can't say I'm this scared to stay home alone anymore, but anytime I'm sleeping alone you are more aware of noises.  That's why I liked having a dog at my parents house, because he would alert me to anything.  I don't feel like Pipsi is a very good guard cat if Ryan is away so that sometimes makes me a little bit nervous....

Also Ryan just told me that it's 3 degrees outside this morning, so I'm pretty afraid to go out there.  I should just call in sick.

Some Advice, I Guess

It's day 3 of Blogtember, and today I'm supposed to: Pass on some useful advice that you received and always remembered.

I can't for the life of me think of any specific advice that I have received.  I know, that's terrible.  I have received tons of advice throughout my life and now I'm just drawing a huge blank.  But there is this one quote that I remember.  I don't know where I got it from, but it has always stuck with me.

Our pain is what makes us real.

This is just something that you can think about.  When you are going through something difficult and saying why me?  Why did this happen?  If life was all rainbows and butterflies, we would have no feelings.  When you think about it, perfection wouldn't be much fun.  Painful and difficult times make us realize and enjoy when life is good.  You can of course just hope that those hard times are few and far between. 

{via}

3 Months: What Would You Do?

Today's prompt for Blogtember is: If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

How many people are going to say travel for today's prompt?  Probably 90% of them.  And as much as I wanted to avoid this, realistically if I had three months and money wasn't an object, it is probably what I would do. 

But, I'm not sure that a busy trip with 15 destinations is what I would want.  Maybe I would go to France for the entire three months.  I have tried so many times to learn French without success.  What's one more shot at it? 

{via pinterest}

Maybe I would go to Costa Rica for a month and just write.  I would really love to write a book.  I don't have an idea for what this book would be about yet, but I'm working on it.

{via} Who wouldn't be inspired while living in a tree house?

Or maybe I would just try to accomplish things on my 30 before 30 list.  If you have three months off, why not try to do everything that you want to do?