To me, the only reason for a weekend is to relax together as a family, and so when I have to spend the entire weekend busy, I get rather ticked off.

I am sitting on the couch, looking toward my kitchen sinks and know that I should be up and cleaning my kitchen, and sweeping the floors, and vacuuming the rugs and, and and AND.

Saturday was our shopping day, and that went really well, we got all the groceries put away and had decided to make spaghetti for supper, except just as my water came to a boil, the power went out. No biggie, I thought, it will be on soon enough. Hubs even called the Power company and they had an automated messages saying that power was out to the big city next to us, which guarantees they will be working double time to get the 200k plus people in the city back on the power grid.

But no. 13 hours it took them to respre power. 13 HOURS. It sucked. A lot. Then Sunday came and we spent it at my inlaws visiting one of hubs sisters who was in from out of town. Fun, sure, but not what i like to spend my weekend doing!

It’s November 24th. Two exciting things are happening in exactly ONE MONTH.

1. My niece will turn three

2. SANTA IS COMING

Hubs and I do Christmas different from every single couple I know.

There are NO surprises.

It has always been this way, since our very first Christmas. I think it has to do with the fact that number one, we were super broke that first year and number two, our money is exactly that, our money. we have no speperate bank accounts, we have no secret stash from each other. We discuss with each other if we so much as buy a jug of milk. For US, it just works better to write out a list and discuss the pro’s and cons, but most the cost, and narrow the gifts down to what we will give each other and what the kids will get us.

This year I wanted a new housecoat – and the kind of house coat I like is pretty pricey, upwards of 80 dollars, as well, I needed new slippers. My slippers cost close to fifty dollars as well, so that is all I put on my list. ( I like to keep the cost in mind)

The big thing for us, is equality, hubs now, becuase I was on the ball and got my list done first, has to choose two gifts that will equal out to the same or around the same value money wise, but at the same time, be gifts he wants. Hubs chose to get the first box set of James Bond videos and a playstation game, Elder Scrolls 4.

Then we spent SEVEN weeks searching online and in stores for the game without any luck at all. I found a tonne of copies of the game on ebay, but dammed if those freaks didn’t want more than 100 bucks for it! So a few weekends ago, me and the boys headed to to city and bought him a lazer thingy for the garage. It hooks onto the roof and tells him when his vehicle is all the way inside the garage. (our garage is incredibly SMALL, and because we have chairs and a little tiny table out there for us to smoke at, every inch counts!) It’s something he had considered for his list.

So, here we sat, gifts for each other bought and hidden in the closet, done, for all intents and purposes. And then hubs found his game on ebay for a steal at only 18 bucks. DAMN. There really was no choice, he has been wanting this game since summer, so we bought it.

The problem is, he bought it as a Christmas gift for himself, which means we are lopsided again in terms of gifts. I said to him “I honestly cannot think of anything else I want”. And he replied so very very quickly that “He can”

This has my mind working over time, let me tell you! What on earth could he be planning to get me? maybe he will stop by Lush and get me more bath bombs, he knows I love them with almost the same amount of passion I reserve for him, or maybe he will finally get me my Rancilio Silvia Espresso machine! That would be exciting!

I Should tell him that I need a new pair of jeans and go pick out a pair myself for him to give me, but I think that, just this once, I’d like to be surprised come Christmas Morning!

Yay for us! It was a close call, Hubs and i had already gone to bed for the night before when I suddenly remembered he  had not transferred the photos from my computer to the memory card so that they could be printed out at Costco! We had to get  up and do it, then go back to bed!

Now all hubs has to do is hand in his little ticket thingy and the barcode scanners will find our pictures. One interesting point, while Costco offers 1 hour service, they do NOT offer 24 hour service. Hubs had to choose the 48 hour photo service. I told him he should have done the one hour and then just left them, picking htem up the next day after work.

There was a huge accident outside of Costco int he Northbound lane. The radio said it happened around two and the road would not be cleared until around six, so hubs had to take a detour to get home. He said that he could see the vehicles that had been involved in the accident but that all the people involved had already been transported to the hospitals. (All non life threatening injuries, thank God) I’ve never considered the intersection at Costco to be dangerous, but I guess accidents can happen anywhere, eh?

Anyways, the pictures will eb ready for pick up tomorrow after work! YAY!

Christmas is 32 or so days away. This means it is of the utmost importance that we REMEMBER to get the eight *maybe this one* pictures that we are trying to decided form on the the flash memory card and into Costco to be printed out for tomorrow!

See, the pictures have to be dropped off tomorrow after hubs is done work, so that they can be picked up Tuesday after work so that we can go through them and decided which three of the eight *maybe this one* pictures will be chosen for inclusion of the Christmas cards.

THEN, Saturday when we do our shopping we will have to get 50 of each of the three chosen pictures – for 150 pictures in total – printed out at Costco so that we can get the Christmas Cards in the mail no later than Monday December First.

If not, the cards will NOT get to their respective homes by Christmas.

Stupid Slow as molasses Canada post!

In two hours i will send my boy off to Pre-K, come home and turn on my Wii. I need to stop pinning my hopes and dreams on things like Ephedrasil hardcore and realize that even if I take 600 pills a day I still need to put down the cookies, and get up off my butt!

So today I will take out the Wii, turn it on, and work till I sweat! And tomorrow? I will do the same thing! Guess what I will be doing the very next day? You got it, Wii Fit!

I can DO this!

We are struggling with the knowledge that Christmas is only a few weeks away. Oh it’s not the gift buying that has us worried, that is well under control, its the Christmas tree.

Last year at this time we had a puppy that was roughly the same age as Sammi is now. The onlyu thing is, Smokey was already three times the size Sammi is, and was much easier to watch. it’s much harder to watch a  puppy who is under 2 pounds than it is to keep an eye on a 20 lb pup!

It is a forgone conclusion that we WILL have a Christmas tree set up this year. I simply cannot fathom a Christmas without the tree! But we are very worried about how to deal with sammi and the tree.

Our other worry is where to put the tree. Right now there simply is no room for the tree to be set up, we will have to completely re organize the living room to make room. Right now I am thinking it might be as simple as moving around the two couches, but we will have to wait and see.

Last saturday Hubs was saying that the prices for LCD TV’s have really gone down, and I wish we had the money for one, it would make a world of difference to have our TV mounted on the wall instead of in a big entertainment unit. I’m not sure what we would do with all the game systems though, if we had a wall mount LOL.

We will probably wait until a week or so before christmas to put up the tree, and it will probably be really annoying and stressful the whole time it is up, but we will manage – somehow.

(I am actually thinking about getting a half dozen (empty) large boxes, and wrapping them, then useing them to make a a “fence” around the tree. Sammi is so small that it is a possible solution…..)

So the economy is gone to crap, has it? Every where I look there are job openings. If the economy was really that bad, there would be NO job openings!

What bugs me though is the people who bitch and complain that they “can’t find a job” . Take my friend Dallas for a perfect example. Dallas is complaining that he will not be able to get his girlfriend anything for Christmas because he is out of work. Dallas wanted to borrow some money to get his girl a ring. His GF is working full time PLUS overtime to try and make their ends meet, (Rent is high here) but they are falling behind on bills – important bills like the utilities (water, power, ect.)

Like I said earlier there are HUNDREDS, literally HUNDREDS of jobs to be had in our city, and i told Dallas jobs are easy to get, but he has to be willing to swallow his pride and take any job there is to be had and work his way up, to better paying jobs. Even working as a cashier at McDonlads and making minimum wage is better than sitting on your butt complaining about not having a job – sitting on your butt doesn’t pay at all!

About nine yearsa go my husband quit his job. It was a crappy job and I was worried about not having an income, but I understood why he felt the need to quit. The morning after my husband quit her took an even crappier job than the one he had just quit - he wanted a paycheck. Before and after work, he went around handing out resumes and doing interviews, and three days into crappyier job, he was working at a new job, a job that was a tiny step up from the original crappy job. Two weeks into THAT job, he found a new job, again, just a tad better and 9 weeks into THAT job he was hired at the place he now works.

Sure, he had to spend sometime working in bad envinroments, at crappy jobs, but hey, he had a paycheck! I told this story to Dallas, trying to make him see that ANY job is better than no job, but he stubbornly insists that he is not going to work just any job.

But I betcha that his GF would rahter see him gainfully employed at any job, than see a diamond ring as a Christmas gift!

And no, I did not loan Dallas the money. A ring bought on credit is a BAD idea!

A few weeks ago I was listening to a conversation on Twitter. Two of the bloggers I read always, ALWAYS have things they are reviewing. It makes me jealous. I have a lot of trouble getting things to review and most of the problem lies in the fact that i live in Canada, not the US.

I see people doing Hydroxycut reviews, reviews for remote control helicopters, reviews for cooking grills, even reviews for beds and televisions!

Here is how bad it is. I contacted a HP, their Canadian division, to ask them which of their laptops they would recommend for me to review, Not give me a laptop to review – all I wanted was the name of a laptop they thought would be good for me to review, (hubs needs a new laptop) and I got no response. ZERO. NADA. I’m not sure if HP just doesn’t give a damn. I mean, I contacted the Canadian division, but even if I HAD contacted HP in the USA, all i wanted was a name, a line to review!

I love Canada, And i will never move to a different country, but sometimes, I get jealous of y’all.

I know! I KNOW I shouldn’t complain. We are just 2 weeks away from DECEMBER and it is ONLY -2. Minus Two. That’s it! But you know what? I AM going to complain. I am going to get MAD becuase my ears were cold and the wind was fast and freezing on the way to the mailbox. I got COLD.

True, last year at this time I would have been in Winter Boots, a  Snowsuit, scarf, tuque and mittens to take that same trip I made today in my fall coat, BUT IT”S MY BLOG. (and I get to complain on it IF I WANT)

(and I want)

Know what else I want? I wanna go online and google Orlando vacations until I find one in my budget. Then I wanna pack my SUMMER clothes into a suitcase and go to disneyland. Yeah. And i would do it Right.Now, except that I didn’t win the lotto on Friday so hubs cannot quit his job AND hubs is out of vacation days for the year.

*sadness*

OMFG my brother’s girlfriend just called me from my dad’s house. Important note : my dad lives 30-40 minutes from me.

Bit of back story here. Three weeks ago my brother and his chick decided to move to Alberta. Away from all friends and family, with their two year old and two month old. My brother’s girlfriend is a useless piece of shit, she is incapable of looking after the girls on her own. Within 30 days we will get calls where she is taking the kids and leaving my brother – just like what happened last time they moved away from friends and family.

My brother makes more than My husband and my father PUT TOGETHER in a month, and yet, they are so deep into debt they have been living with my dad – living OFF my dad since June. Yeah. My brother makes 10k a month and they cannot afford rent.

So finally they find this place in Alberta and they call me and tel me I have to baby sit the girls. I hemmed and hawed about it, but in the end told them that I would take the girls. Yesterday was the day I was to take the girls. Because I have pneumonia, Hubs decided to stay at home to help me watch the girls. He had planned on going hunting Friday afternoon through til Tuesday. By staying home, Hubs lost two days of hunting. The girls were supposed to be at mu house EARLY Saturday morning, but it was not until THREE in the afternoon that my brother bothered to call me and tell me that they did not need my help after all. So hubs lost out on those two days of hunting for NO REASON.

Now, for the weather report. It is snowing outside, a bit windy, with big fluffy flakes. Normal weather in Saskatchewan, It’s VERY drivable weather. The roads are as drivable as they are in the middle of winter.

And again, let me point out that I live 30 minutes from my father.

So the B***H calls me and tells me that they are “supposed” to be going to their new place in Alberta today, but OMG it’s snowing. She has heard reports that the roads between my dad’s and where they are going are icy. I’m sitting there on the phone wondering WTF that has to do with me, when she says “can we drive to your place and wait till the roads are better?”

WHAT? That won’t happen til next freaking spring. It’s winter and in the winter it SNOWS. PLUS its not bad outside!!! I have no qualms at all about the fact that my husband will be driving for four hours tonight in the dark on the roads because they are FINE! And what in the hell kind of difference does it make for them to drive 30 minutes to my house to wait for the “roads to clear”? It’s not like I am half way between dad’s adn their new place, I’M THIRTY MINUTES AWAY!

Let me also add to that, when She called I was playing keno on FaceBook. As it so happens there are quite a few keno players from Alberta, a few only an hour from where my bro and his family are driving too. I asked them how the roads were, how the weather was. No snow. Roads dry as a bone, Clear sailing people.

So i told her that the people in chat said it was fine, and she said to me “Oh. Well I guess I will talk to you if we manage to get there than” In a tone like I was making them walk barefoot through a blizzard to their new home!

WTF? Number one, how in teh hell can they make 10K a fucking month and not be able to live off it? Number two, why on earth should I have to dig them out of their troubles every time? THEY DON’T LEARN! They have been in this exact same situation about five times now, each time me , or my dad, and even my sister, who is on disability welfare, has helped them out, and all without even a simple Thank You from them.

I am so sick and tired of this goddamn bullshit. I’m so FUCKING DONE