snow!!!

The first real day of winter today was kind of nice in a way. We finally got some snow so my mom will be very happy, she wants snow while she's visiting. It was also the first day I tried out my fleece lining inside my coat and it is working pretty well. I torso was not cold at all! After I came home from school I tried out our new to us snow thrower (courtesy of grandpa C) and it worked very well. It saved me a lot some work that is sure! (picture will follow)
The snow also made me 45 minutes late for a 50 minute class, so that was a little bit useless. Oh well, I did some well needed power napping on the bus as I didnt sleep very well last night. and I luckily had another class today.
On saturday we had our friends J&J over. They were suppose to come last monday but J had the flue and stayed home instead. It was absolutely great seeing them and we had lots of fun. J and I are both crazy about ice cream so for desert we decided to try out my new Christmas present. Alan gave me this big plastic ball shpaed ice cream maker, which you can even bring camping. You make ice cream by rolling it and playing with it, so we took it to our empty finished basement part and played and chatted while making ice cream. This room will from now on be known as the Ice cream making room, because it worked very well! We made strawberry ice cream and it was very delicious! We also found out that J&J have gotten engaged over the Christmas holidays. The story was extremely romantic and I am So very happy for them. I think they make a great team and I wish them all the best!
Ok I'm going back to my stats homework!

Busy week

Hello all,

Don't worry I'm still here. My first real week of school has been pretty busy. I've already had my first lab and my first assignment and quiz due, but so far so good. I really enjoy being a full-time student, it feels liberating to be able to focus on something you really want to accomplish.
I've had a few people come up to me and say I looked really happy, and that is because I feel very happy. I don't feel homesick and I am happy with my place in life right now.
S&B had a meeting last night and it was really nice to have the girls over again. It was nice to hear their stories but half way through the night I sort of collapsed in this tired daze. I think it may have been a sugar crash from eating one of B's super delicious brownies. I normally respond very strongly to sugar (the doctor thinks I'm hypoglycemic) and since I have been eating healthy I have pretty much cut all real sugar out of my diet for the last week and a half. I can really tell my energy levels have gone up and I don't feel the same swingyness food wise as I normally do. If I dont eat in time I get extremely tired and grumpy and have no energy at all. Right now because I eat so well spread out I never have a real sugar low. Anyway, the brownie was the first real sugar I've had in almost 2 weeks, so that may have been it, or the fact that I just had along week. Either way, I was really happy to see the brownies, because I love them, and they were just the way I like them, fresh from the oven :) Thanks B!
By the way, just from doing this healthy eating thing for the last 10 days I have lost 2 lbs, who knows what will happen if I actually start exercising too!
Alan downloaded this really funny game for my computer. Because I use linux I cant run most games you would run on a regular pc without some major software writing or driver finding, so he got me some linux games and right now I am playing fish fillets. It is this puzzle game where you control 2 fish, a big one and a small one. they are secret agents and need to complete missions, but the only way they can get to where they need to go is by going through these maze like rooms. You need to push and lift obsticales out of your path in order to get to the next room, without dropping them on yourself or your partner 'cause that will kill you. It is hilarious and actually pretty challenging to solve the levels. I will keep you updated. In fact I think I will play some right now.
I should post a picture soon...
Bye for now!

Thank you sales!

One of the gifts 'the kids' got for Christmas this year was a clothes shopping spree with Mrs H. Today was my day to go shopping with her and oh my did I ever get a lot of clothes. Thank you boxing day sales and thank you people that had already gone before us and made the mall combination perfect: relatively cheap and not busy!
I got as gifts:
- new jeans
- a button up shirt
- 2 winter sweaters
- 3 "under sweaters" or spring/fall sweaters
-2 bras
And I bought a pair of corduroys and a hoody myself at american eagle.
I know! Crazy, I feel extremely spoiled, but honestly we bought 3 sweaters for about $20 total. Thank you sales! Even though we had to sift through some stuff there was still quite a lot of nice stuff left, so I highly recommend shopping right now! I am tempted to go again...
Other than that I had a pretty lazy day. I was feeling extremely tired this afternoon so I ended up having an almost 2 hour nap. Did a bit of studying and than supper. We were going to go out for Pho, but decided against that when we saw the weather outside and knew we had to take the bus to the place. I would really like to have a car. Not necessarily for commuting every day, but when we want to get together with friends or in this case when it is a pain to get to a place by bus. So instead I tried to come up with something to make for supper. I am not very good at that for whatever reason, especially not when I am already hungry. It takes me a long time to decide what to make, or I keep making the same staples which can get pretty boring. Even though I like lots of different foods, I have a really hard time knowing what I would like to eat that isn't junk food. Now that I am trying to eat healthy and use the GI diet as a guideline I feel I need to plan meals further ahead, which on a saturday when you fridge is empty doesnt work. Anyway, with Alan's help I ended up with a chicken Caesar salad, with homemade, GI friendly dressing. The chicken and the lettuce were tasty. The dressing... not so much. Not making that particular recipe again, perhaps an adaptation from it but other than that, Nope! I ate most of my salad and I will have a snack later tonight which should be fine. I cant wait until I get into my routine, it will be much better then. I really am going to keep going with this because I want to get the results and I wont have as many opportunities as last semester to exercise, so it will be very important to eat well.

Stiff arm

Thank you OHIP. I was able to go to the doctor's for my annual and get some vaccinations without any hassle because of you. I now have a stiff arm, but I will be better prepared against those evil bacteria or viruses which may want to attack me! I also found out that I have gained 13 lbs since I last saw the Doctor. That puts me to pretty much 25 lbs more than what I was since I left the netherlands, which is not at all where I want to be. Healthy living it is. I have been eating well for the last 3 days now and feeling alright. The first day I was extremely hungry. My stomach was probably stretched due to the turkey so I was starving all day even though I had enough to eat. It may also be psychological since I'm not in a routine yet and because of that I think about food a lot. I don't think it will be very hard to do once I have gotten my routine, all I need to do is keep it up. I will keep you posted (no pun intended).
I have been to 3 of 5 classes so far, and I think I will enjoy all of three. 1 of them will be pretty brutal work amount wise, one is a basic biology course geared towards engineers that have not had anything since high school (aka, this is a gene, DNA replication etc, aka Score!) and one is stats but the prof seems intriguing thus far. I do feel I will really have to get into the groove of homework and get a lot of things done on time so it wont overwhelm me. it feels like I have lots of free time now I am not working, but that time really should be mostly spent studying. Especially since I still don't read or write as fast as the average bear. Let's see if I can shack the procrastinator in me this term.....
Speaking of school. I got my horrible course mark back and I did not only pass, I ended up doing pretty well with a B-. Not an A, but definitely better than a D. He must have really bell curved that test! Either way, I'll take it!
I am heading out on a bed sheet shopping spree with my friend J. Talk to y'all later.

Happy 2007 everyone! Bubbles bubbles and more bubbles...

Yesterday was a nice ending to a nice year, aside form a little wave of home sickness that washed over me yesterday late morning, early afternoon. I'm over it now. See, I was very well prepared for Christmas, especially knowning that my folks will be coming to visit me come Februari, but kind of forgot about New Years and so it really caught me by surprise. The thing was, yesterday it really didnt feel like New Years eve at first and then BOOM...
Later in the afternoon we had the pleasure of showing off our new place to M&R whom I missed so much and were in town for the holidays. They are now on their way back home again, but with a promise to see each other more often this coming semester. I really hope that will happen. Last new years we spent at their cottage, which was loads of fun and we all missed it. It was really nice to see them and talk to them and get a descent update on things.
After they left Alan and I had pizza for supper, one of my last few 'bad' meals before I start my healthy eating regime. I will keep you posted on that. I know, I dont believe in New Years resolutions either, this just happened to coincide with New years and I figured it just made more sense to start things of when I am getting my life into a regularly scheduled day again (aka start school).
After supper it was time to get ready for our New years party at S&L's. We were the first ones there of course, as always. The plan was that all guests would bring an appetizer and BYOB. Alan and I brought spinach bites as our appetizer and champagne. Our lovely hosts ended up preparing a spinach artichoke dip and the other couple that came also made an appetizer containing spinach. Yesterday will from now on be known as Spinach Eve. L&S had picked a couple of delicious Australian bubble wines called Pink and Yellow. Garnished with starfruit it makes for a festive looking drink. Those wines combined with our champagne = more bubbly alcohol than I could handle :) I was having a great time! And so giggling and all we rang in the new year, I think for the first time in 2 years we didn't miss the actual change of the year. We left around 1:30ish and made our way through the freezing rain slush home. We only saw one minor accident on the way. All in all it was a good way to spend New Year's
And now it is now. As you can probably tell I have changed the look of my site once again. I switched over to the new version of blogger and I thought, while I'm add it I might as well go big and do some custom work. The picture at the top is my foot print on a beach in Greece. I picked that picture because I really like it and it has a lot of symbolism for me. I changed the colours on my blog to go along with the picture. My blog is going to be a work in progress as it isn't yet what I want it to look like, but it is a good first try.