I HAVE MOVED!

Due to some not so great experiences with Blogger/Google I have moved my blog to Tumblr.

Please continue to follow me at my new address : http://superdupermel.tumblr.com/

Chocolate chip cookies win everytime

So my choice of activities tonight were study for my exam next week or bake cookies!!  Obviously the chocolate chip cookies won.... and my textbook sits there.... neglected.....

But look at the cookies!!! I mean seriously, how can you resist?  Too warm to taste yet though...

I think this one is my favourite! Good size ... good shape... and just the right amount of chocolate chips.

I think I am going to have to start studying soon though.... Fortunately my baking supplies have diminished now.

Bananas gone wild

I think this happens everytime I buy bananas.  I buy a bunch of 5 greeny/yellow bananas, determined that I am going to take one to work everyday for a week.  Sounds pretty perfect right? 5 bananas, 5 days... sounds good in theory.  The only trick that I always forget is actually bringing them to work. I often forget to do this by Wednesday.  Then I am out of my routine so the bananas just sit there, and slowly develop leopard spots all over them!

The spots slowly spread until you are no longer able to connect the dots yourself because they have already blended together.  So what do you do with these bananas now?


Make banana bread of course!! Tonight I was a little limited in my baking supplies, so I searched around the internet for a nice simple banana bread recipe & found this one :

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/banana_bread/

So I mixed it all up - one of my fav things today & threw it in the oven! Smells yummy already!!

After baking for an hour the aroma of this amazing bread has filled my house and smells remarkable!!!!

A couple slices later & I am in heaven!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well it's official.  I am one year older. 28 years old. Time really does fly!  My husband took me on an amazing weekend getaway to Niagara. 

We checked out the falls - always impressive.

Gambles away some money at the Casino - roulette is addictive.

Had dinner at the very cool Skylon revolving restaurant,

and went to a couple wineries for tours & tastings.

Such a great weekend! Turning 28 really was not too bad - especially when I was able to celebrate it & have fun like this!  Thanks Rainer!

Going Once, Going Twice, SOLD!

Yup! Sold my amazing leather boots on kijiji tonight! They were really nice boots, but I only wore them once!  Fortunately a nice girl saw my add, tried them on & they fit! YAY!

What will I sell next?!?!

34 days and counting until Christmas!! **updated**

I love Christmas. I love decorating for Christmas!  I have already done majority of my Christmas shopping - which I feel is pretty impressive, especially since I normally leave it for the week before.

The next few weeks/weekends are a little hectic, so I am going to put up my Christmas tree today! YAY!  Also, with the help of my hubby, we will also be putting up our Christmas lights outside! That might have to wait until tomorrow though depending on his schedule (and the weather - it looks like it might rain)

So here is a before of my poor little empty corner of my living room.  Once I am done I will post a beautiful after photo so everyone can get in the Christmas mood :)

 

After a few hours & a little bit of Christmas spirit here is my Christmas Tree.  

 I still have to figure out how to to light up out Star at the top of the tree.... hmmmm

Amazing Chocolate Pizza

My boss brought in this phenomenal chocolate pizza for everyone today. It blows my mind every time she brings it in. I can only eat a little bit at a time, but it tastes so delicious!

 

Yes - Rainer took a bite. He had to try it. I feel like I need to give a full description of how magnificent this is.


It begins with a thing chewy chocolate cookie crust. Then as "sauce" its is a gooey layer of chocolate peanut butter.

Then as toppings she has used Skor pieces, M&M's, Jersey Milk pieces, and mini Rolos.

I just thought I would share this with everyone.... and hopefully make them jealous that I got to enjoy this fabulous dessert pizza.  It is such a treat - literally and definitely satisfies the sweet tooth in everyone!

Well, I honestly can't just look at this anymore.
I'm going to go eat it! GUILTY!

Back to work... AKA I hate Mondays

It is so hard going back to work after a few days off. Tons of emails clogging up your inbox.  Work overflowing your desk.

I always thought it would be nice to take Monday off... but then Tuesday just becomes Monday. It's the exact same thing, a day later, and with more work piled up!

Is it Friday yet???

Shop 'til you Drop!

Well I just had a very tiring weekend! My Mom, sisters & I went on a bus trip down to Erie, Pennsylvania for some shopping! It was so much fun, but very exhausting.  It was a rough start when my alarm went off at 4:45am on Friday morning! I really am not a morning person, so it took me a while to wake up and get going.

Quick stop a duty free (picked up some Scotch for my hubby).

Then we headed to Grove City Prime Outlets! What a great mall! We spent 6 hours there.... and although I bought some really great things, my feet really hurt after walking for 6 hours straight! I am not used that that.  On Saturday we went to Walmart, Kohl's and then Millcreek Mall. Sunday we swung by the Walden Galleria Mall in Buffalo on the way home.


It truly was a fun weekend with the girls with shopping, drinks, and lots of laughing. :)  I'm just glad I took Monday off to catch up on my sleep & give my poor legs a break.

One of my favourite purchases is:

My new Columbia Jacket - Pic below shows colour better.

I also love:

My new Coach purse!

Remberance Day

November 11, 2010

Remembrance Day

Lest We Forget

Um... What time is it???

So I know I said I love Daylight Savings time.... but honestly.... It is getting dark SO early now! I finished work at 4:30 and had a workout right afterwards, and the sun was already practically non-existent!!!!

This is ridonkculous!!! I guess it really means that the winter is on its way. Dark when I go to work, Dark when I come home from work. This is not a good trend!

Mid-week dinners

Rainer and I are pretty busy sometimes. His hours are all over the place, and I have been working quite a bit of overtime lately. By the time I get home I am often very tired & mentally drained.  Normally I do try and make healthy dinners with some green veggies and lots of protein....

But sometimes, I just can't. Sometimes I just have to throw something in the oven and not think about whether its good or bad for me.  Exhibit A - tonight was leftover Lasagna.  It was delicious! Even a day later it was great.

Leftovers are highly underrated. There is definitely a time limit on them though. You cannot just eat them after weeks of being in the fridge.  I always try and eat leftovers the next day or, at the latest, on the second day.  Leftovers make a very convenient, cheap lunch! Can't complain about that!

Extra Experience!

So the theatre close to our house just opened up last weekend. Friday we the first night they opened. Rainer & I decided to go & check it out on Saturday evening.  We are thrilled that it is only a 1 minute driver from our place - yes we probably could have walked , but it was chilly!!!

Anyway, we got there (it is VERY cool with uber comfy sofas everywhere) & decided we were going to see Due Date - the new comedy with Robert Downey Jr. Looks funny, and along the same lines as The Hangover (which we both enjoyed) 

It was pretty funny - not as hilarious as we thought, but still entertaining.  But that's not the highlight.  The cool thing about our evening is the ticket guy was like "Would you like the extra experience?" and we were like "Whaa?"  The guy explained everything to use with the bigger screen & customized sound and all that jazz.

So we paid out extra $2 & got to reserve our seats in the big theatre with LEATHER seats. Very comfortable. They do rock, which frankly I'm not a fan of. But it was so comfortable & relaxing know that we did not have to get there really early just to make sure we had a good seat.  We will definitely be trying that again - especially for the blockbusters that are going to be crowded. 

I tried to take a picture of Rainer in our leather seats on my cell.. but it didn't really turn out very well with the funky lighting.  Honestly it kinda looks like he has bangs.  For the record he does not have bangs - that is just the shadow.   :)

Daylight Savings Time

Officially my favourite day of the year. Who says there isn't more than 24 hours in a day? I DO!! Today there was 25 hours - and I LOVED it! I slept in a bit, but by the time I got up, I still had the entire day to do all my chores. 3 loads of laundry, raked the yard, made dinner & dessert, & watched 2 movies.... and it is still not even 8:30pm yet! What else can I do?!

I LOVE daylight savings.... Well I love it in the fall when the clocks get turned back an hour. I probably will not be as chipper in the spring when we lose an hour. Then my day goes to 23 hours, and I will not get anything done. But that is not for months, so no need to worry yet! I'm going to enjoy some brownies!

I'm slow, I can't help it

I am definitely slow. I'm always behind the times. I feel like I'm the only one in the world that does not have an ipod or mp3 player. I'm still using my old school cell phone, that does not have email or IM or any internet or anything.

So perhaps I should start catching up. I'm starting to do my research & I think I'm going to save a bit of $$ and get a deal with some boxing day sales!!

I think it's time I come out of my shelterer little corner & join the rest of the world.  Is there anything else I need?

is it too early?

I'm already getting excited for Christmas.  Last year I bought a whole bunch of new decorations for the house & our tree during the post-Christmas sales. I'm very anxious to open up my storage container & see everything & start decorating.

With the Christmas commercials starting.... and all the Christmas items filling up the store windows, it is hard not to get excited! Maybe I can convince Rainer to help me start putting up the Christmas lights outside!!! YAY!

website addiction

I am addicted to the same websites.  Everyday I have to check out the same website - I am hooked!   There are quicklinks to all of my favourites at the time of my browser, so I don't even have to search or type in an address.

These are a few of my favourites that I must (and I mean MUST) look at everyday!

http://thepioneerwoman.com/

 This is the first website I visit - ALWAYS.  This website has TONS of amazing recipes, and she frequently has give aways, including cameras, dishes and some small kitchen appliances. This woman has a great sense of humour & is just fun to read.

http://www.facebook.com/

 This is an obvious one. I check out the newsfeed and see what everyone is up to. I checkout my close family & friends to see if there is something I missed. And then sometimes if I'm really bored I just creep. I know - I admit it - I am a total creeper.

http://twitter.com/

 I follow celebs & enjoy reading their posts. Reading their everyday tweets makes me feel like they are just regular people. I am currently following Ashton Kutcher, Leo DiCaprio, Ellen, Taylor Swift and Ian Somerhalder just to name a few.  They provide cool random photos & some great links too.

http://www.breakingdawnmovie.org/ 

Yup - I am a huge Twilight fan. I regularly check this fan made website. It provides really up to date information on the filming of the movies. November 2011 - Breaking Dawn YAY!

 http://www.imdb.com/ 

 I like to checkout the NewDesk to see if there is anything juicy, as well as the Born Today section to see whose birthday it is.  From here I go wherever & start bouncing from movie to actor to movie.

http://news.google.ca/

Just a nice quick glimpse at what is going on in the world.

And last but definitely not least....

http://tvunderground.org.ru/

I go to this website to check out if there are new episodes of my favourite TV shows like Dexter & One Tree Hill.

Sleeping in.....

I love sleeping in.  But I find it to be an interesting thing.  Now that the fall is here, the mornings are dark and rainy. I never want to get up! I'm so cozy in my bed, and even though I have a big day of work ahead of me, all I want to day is lay in bed and catch up on some Zzzzzzz's.  It's just so hard to get up when my room is so nice & dark.

Then of course on the weekends, when I have nothing planned, I am just wide awake! I cannot figure out how to sleep in when I'm allowed to, and how to get up in good time when I'm supposed to!

NOVEMBER!

Happy November 1st!  November is a great month for multiple reasons.  This coming weekend is daylight savings time when we set the clocks back an hour.  That means I get an extra hour of sleep!  I have a shopping trip with my sisters & mom to Erie, Pennsylvania in 11 days! YAY! It's a fun getaway with the girls mixed with some great deal finding! My Birthday is also in November in 25 days!

Also - November is close enough to December to start decorating for Christmas! Yup! Hopefully  by the end of November my Christmas tree will be up and all of our little knick knacks will be out!  As long as the weather is still reasonable might as well put up our Christmas lights outside too!!! I'm excited already!

Candy & Pumpkins!

We are ready to go for the big Hallowe'en night! I carved my pumpkin yesterday & I think it turned out really good!  I would like to say that I did it free hand, but I used a template I got off the Better Homes & Gardens website. I feel like such a cheater. haha

Rainer was a little busy with work, and did not have the opportunity to carve this, so at the last minute I carved his pumpkin in record time. It is not nearly to the skill level it should be.... but time was limited and this pumpkin was extra stringy! I've never seen a pumpkin soooo stringy!!

We have our bowl of candy by the door, and we are ready to see all the cute kids in their costumes!

Mmmmmm so easy to snack on!!! YUM YUM!

HALLOWEEN!

Well it's that time of year yet again! I love Haloween!  On my way home from work today I stopped off & bought lots of little chocolates!!  I also picked out 2 pumpkins for us to carve.

I inspected the piles & piles of pumpkins there, trying to find the PERFECT pumpkin.  Not too lop-sided..... tall enough, but not too tall...... fat.... but not too fat......

I think I found them.... So tonight & tomorrow we are going to put some time & elbow grease into these guys and make them come to life!!