End of 2013

Doesn't it seem like every year seems to go by faster and faster? This year was no exception; I still cannot believe it's January in two days!

I finished all of my Christmas shopping with time to spare this year! Everyone was really happy with their gifts (mom - K-cups and CD, dad - funny t-shirt and Vinyl cafe, brothers - atlas and gift cards, J - a board game and 6 months of dates). J's family was very interested in the gift I got him and his mom says that he has to phone home at the beginning of each month to let her know what date he is being sent on!

J got me a winter classic Leafs jersey and some earrings. LOVE both! We got completely spoiled by our families as well with wine, actifry, purses, skates, clothing, etc. It was a nice year although I missed J a lot on Christmas day.

New year's eve is tomorrow night! We finally made plans last night to go to one of his friend's homes and celebrate. It will be a low-key night I am sure and that's okay. We want to be in good shape to watch the Winter Classic game on Wednesday! I've been watching the HBO 24/7 road to the winter classic game and it has only made me more excited to see it.

I have been thinking about my new year's resolutions. I always make them and don't always stick to them but I think it's always good to have goals for yourself. Will post them soon.

My year in review...
January It was great bringing in the new year with the Trews and some friends.
February I broke up with my long-term boyfriend D and moved home with family
March I went to Florida with family, had the best vacation
April I worked in Toronto for a couple of weeks and started to look for a place to live back home
May I moved in with a guy in a cute apartment on the water
June I tried SUPing, went tree-top trekking saw Taylor Swift and started dating my ROOMMATE
July Went to a bunch of concerts (Train, Brad Paisley) and had some campfires
August Went to an Argos game and worked and saved as much as I could
September Went to my first MLB game, went to Live at the Lake with Eric Church
October Finished up at the restaurant, won a Halloween contest as a Loofah
November Went to the Toronto Aquarium, had a surprise party for my dad
December Went to an NHL game, finished another ASL course, visited J's hometown, had an amazing Christmas

I am looking forward to all that 2014 will bring. Hoping everyone stays happy and healthy!

Juggling the December expenses

Having a variable income is hard! It just makes things so hard to plan! Also the fact that I do not get vacation days. If I do not get a call to work, or if I need to take a day off I do not get paid. So for Christmas vacation which is 2 weeks, I will have no income.

December is a tough month money-wise. I had to buy winter tires this year which were $833. Christmas is going to be around $600 for everything. We need oil for our furnace again soon which is going to be about $400 each. About 20 hours of extra driving for Christmas parties.

I am heading to a Christmas party tomorrow and am getting my baking done tonight, mmmm. It's an ugly Christmas sweater party. J is a huge Senators fan where I am a Leaf fan. He is borrowing my brother's jersey and I am going to wear his jersey, add some garland and they will be our ugly Christmas sweaters this year.

Got the Job!!

I had an interview for the position I had been working at for some time last Friday. It was an awful interview. I could tell that both of the principals were trying to help me with additional questions but I feel like there was so much more I could have said right afterward.

Somehow and I think it was mostly because not many people applied for the position, and the fact that the one principal knows how capable I am let me have the position and called me that night with the good news!

I've been working at the job on an LTO for 5 days now (although two were snowdays!), I am excited for one more week at least. I saw the teacher who I am replacing today and she thinks she will be back after Christmas break...good for her, but not for me. I REALLY enjoy the job! I look forward to it and get excited about the students' progression everyday.

Job Prospects

For those that do not know already, I have been an occasional (supply/substitute) teacher for about FIVE, yes 5 years now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my job. But....it would be nice to have a more regular income and to be honest, less 5:30am phone calls.

It's tough to plan monthly spending, saving, etc when I really have no idea what I will be bringing home each month. 

Anyway things seem to be looking up. They've introduced a new priority list that some boards have adopted. Basically it's making the system more fair; instead of it being WHO you know, it's how well you are actually suited for the job, plus seniority. 

I have been teaching at this school locally for 4 days this week for one teacher who according to the principal does not seem to be returning anytime soon (at least not until after Christmas). Several of the teachers at that school have expressed that they want me to take over the position, I would absolutely love that and the posting just came out today. I applied right away. I hope to be granted an interview which will be occurring next week. 

Also, on Monday I had an interview with another school board in my area. My references were called today which I assume means I passed the interview process. It's just to be put on another occasional list but it will just open more doors. 

I love my job and just want to do it EVERYDAY!

Love/Hate Christmas Relationship

Yes that's my tree put up on Saturday, I hope it lasts until Christmas! It's J's first REAL Christmas tree :)

I absolutely love Christmas but I cannot stand Christmas shopping. Finding parking, waiting in lines, browsing things forever and not having any ideas!

I am a bit of a procrastinator as well so that never helps. This year I am almost done one gift and have a few ideas in mind for others too.

I've already started making J's gift. He is getting 6 months of dates (12 dates was too much at once)! He actually really loves gifts of experience so it will be perfect. He bought me tickets to see Aladdin for my birthday, and I got him tickets to a baseball game for his. This year although I am not quite complete he is getting...well let me just show you.

January snowshoe rental for trails and subway date.

February a twisted fairytale play and dinner out

March tickets to see one of his favourite hockey teams

April is going to be local movie theatre tickets (not purchased yet).

May is an ice cream date at a new place and tickets to a musical

June is undecided but likely going to be a comedy show or zoo passes...and DQ blizzards! Also not purchased yet.

He will also get a board game (Cards Against Humanity) so he has something to open on Christmas day because the rest are sealed in envelopes.

I think for something different this year, his family is going to get a GOAT! Not for them, but for a family in a developing country through a charity that I will decide upon soon.

My brothers are getting gift cards to stores close to them.

I'm lacking ideas for my three best friends and my parents...might be in the malls after all this year...

Gushing Post, the how did you meet question?

I've mentioned to you that D and I broke up in February. It was a really hard time for me since I was living with him, I was 27, I was supply teaching, and it seemed ALL my friends were getting married. UGH facebook can sometimes be a cruel thing to a single girl!!

I had plans to move in with my brother and those fell through and I was just down about life. I was living with my parents and decided I needed to be on my own but knew I could not afford a place on my variable income. What to do? Post an ad to kijiji of course! Kijiji is basically like a Canadian version of craigslist (although I've heard less creepy).

So 4 people replied to my ad. One was  very nice man but then turned creepy...out!
A girl who was 19 and couldn't afford anything more than $400 all inclusive...impossible here...out!
Another girl who was my age and wanted out of her place since she didn't like the pets her roommates had, sounded perfect but she fell through....out!
A guy who was close in age, had a full-time job and was looking to move closer to his work, had great grammar...maybe?

This last guy and I started chatting through e-mails since I was working in Toronto for 2 weeks. He seemed very proactive in searching for a place but every time I came home during that time period he was too busy with family obligations to meet. Finally he found a place he loved and I checked it out separately and also fell in love with the place and we decided that we should probably meet once before signing a lease and moving in with one another.

We met up in a local coffee shop the day I came back from the city and we hit it off immediately, we quickly sipped our drinks and raced to the apartment to sign the lease with the landlords.

For the first month we had no cable or internet since we lived in a location that was difficult to get regular high speed internet. So what did we do? We hung out with each other!! I started dating another guy at this time but found myself ending dates quickly to go home to hang out with my ROOMMATE!!

People teased me about dating my roommate and I was adamant that I would NEVER! However over the course of a couple of months he totally won my heart with canoe rides, bon fires, chasing waterfalls, roasting smores, movie nights, road trips, BBQ cooking, and making me laugh every day until I cried.

He admitted to me that he had a bit of a crush on me and I said the same to him and we started dating in June. I've never experienced happiness this way with anyone else, and I am pretty sure he feels the same. It's just...awesome.

Counting Change

I have been saving up my change for 2 summers working at a restaurant.

I try to get rid of a lot of my change while at work because honestly I prefer the bills (especially the red and brown ones), but I do accumulate quite a bit of change as well. I bought a change jar and have been filling it up with "snowflakes" as Jolie says and calculates monthly.

After buying two bags of coin rollers and trading a few with my parents I was able to roll $1026 in change! I had planned on using that jar money toward a vacation one day and I think that is exactly where it will go! Already starting to add to the jar again!

Off Track

I've gone off track in my tracking of spending....I was doing SO good until March of this year. Then I quit blogging and quit tracking...December I NEED to get back on board.

Where is my money going? I have a general idea since my spending habits are pretty much never changing, BUT it's nice to know how much you've been saving and exactly where you are spending your money. So new years resolution starting a month early, I WILL track my spending again.

Ugh December is the month I SPEND the most, but things can only get better from there right? Christmas is only 30 days away according to EVERYONE on facebook. I have only MOSTLY completed one gift so far. More on that soon...

How is your Christmas shopping going? Any ideas on what to get for boys in their mid-twenties that don't really need anything?

Oh just the last NINE months

I can't believe it's been NINE months since I last posted.

What's happened in 9 months? Well D and I broke up. I broke up with him just a couple days after my last post. I told him I was not happy with our relationship and he promised he would make it better. I just wanted to hang out with him more, for him to want to spend time with me. However the very next day he decided to sleep the day away, not do anything around the house (he was unemployed at the time) and I was done. It was so hard because I was really in love with him but I knew that I deserved better than that.

I moved in with my parents and went on a trip to Florida with them. Florida was absolutely amazing! We went for about three weeks and although the weather was awful I had such a nice time. I became closer with my parents and brother by going and spent a lot of time with them. I met a few new friends from the States while there too. Went swimming, saw Winter (a dolphin with a prosthetic tail), went out a lot, spent time reading and just relaxing. When I returned I started looking for a new roommate and put an ad on kijiji (more on that soon). Found an awesome place and an awesome roommate!

Now...I have a new apartment that I LOVE, friends that I LOVE, a path toward a career that I LOVE, A new boyfriend (since the beginning of summer) that I haven't actually said those little words to yet but are just about BURSTING out of me. Life is good :)

Vacation!

My parents have been going to the same place in Florida for the past 4 years or so. They took us kids when I was in grade 12, and I haven't been back since. They wanted to go with another couple this year and none of their friends could take time off. So they asked us kids! I said I would be interested, D said it's too much for him. It will be so weird not seeing him for over two weeks since we live together!

So my brother said he would come. My youngest brother has a new girlfriend who I think is great but he has really changed since getting together with her, and especially moving in with her. Unfortunately NOT for the better. Without getting into details, he has really made my life difficult in the past couple of months just by not thinking of how his actions will effect others (typical boy) and thinking only of himself. But he has also decided to come. I'm sure it will be fine, we have always been pretty close.

I am excited for the trip. We leave March 15, and come back April 2nd! My brother is coming back earlier. We have no plans and we are in a fairly low-key part of Florida on the gulf coast. I was really hoping to do one scuba diving trip but haven't been able to find anything near where we are staying. Hopefully I can find something once we get there! I watched the movie "Dolphin Tale" this weekend since we will be staying close to Clearwater, which is where the dolphin Winter is kept. My mom has said she is interested in seeing that aquarium.

I reimbursed my parents for the flight ($580) and gave them extra money ($500) for the condo they are renting. My dad did not want to accept it since he had mentioned he would be paying for it but I insisted. I will help them with groceries and travel once we get there as well.

Less than a month now!

She's Baaaackkk!

I'm still around. I've been reading your blogs and keeping up-to-date with you! Let's get to the updates!

December was great. Finished all my Christmas shopping on time, I think everyone really enjoyed their gifts this year too. I was underbudget with the Christmas shopping too! We had so many Christmases to attend this year, but it's always nice to see family. One of my good friends had her baby just before Christmas and I recently was able to complete and send off a baby quilt, and matching taggie I made.

New years was spent watching The Trews with some friends in the city. Such a great Canadian band.

I received my passing mark for my latest ASL class in January. I've decided to forego the weekend ASL trip I have done for the past two years, but will likely sign up for it next winter. Instead I signed up for a photography class for the end of February. It was originally $229, on for $39 with a living social deal. It looks pretty good, and I'll get to learn some new tricks for using my camera on manual.

Yesterday I had my trial date for the accident I was in last June. I was incredibly nervous, and D came for moral support. We showed up early and were filed into the courtroom with about 20 other people. Signed in, and I was called up third. My friend (whose car I crashed into) did not show up (she didn't even receive the subpoena) so the case was dismissed entirely! Wooooohooooo!!! That saved me $490 in fine, 6 demerit points, and A LOT of insurance money! That friend is getting a good birthday gift this year!

For Christmas my parents got me a blender (I asked for it), so I've been making blended drinks a lot lately. So good! I love trying different variations, even adding spinach to some. I also have been making it out to the gym fairly regularly since the beginning of January. I got two months for $60 on a wagjag online. I am actually enjoying going to the gym now.

We had THREE snow days and a PA day last week. I was supposed to work this morning too but it ended up being another snow day. I found out once I got to the school since the job was never cancelled (supposed to cancel it before 7:30am) and no one was answering the phone at the school. Frustrating!

I've been doing respite work 2-3 days each week. The kids are pretty good, they get in silly sibling arguments sometimes but they are nice kids. Last night, the oldest kid (a 12 year old boy) taught me how to KNIT! He knows all about it, the terms for the stitches and needles. This is a kid that can hardly focus on anything other than videogames for more than 5 minutes, and he was knitting! I was very impressed, kids are always full of surprises!