In 2012…..

New Years Resolutions.

I’ve made them, you’ve made them.  I’ve  kept some, and (clearly) broke some.  We all have.  I’m going to attempt to make and keep some new ones for 2012.

But Erin, what are some resolutions you’ve made in the past?

Mmmmm Salt!

• To eat less salt.  Believe it or not I’ve actually kept that one up for the most part.  In high school I use to salt stuff so much that it was inedible to everyone except myself.  Seriously.
• To be more fun.  I think I kept that one up?  You tell me.

Fun, or just plain ridiculous?!

• To speak my mind more.  I think I was pretty successful on that one.  This was actually one from last January.  I feel like this year was one of the first years I wasn’t really a push over.  Maybe I was wrong…
• To be healthier.  Isn’t this always a resolution?!

Ok,  so here are this years resolutions…

• To be healthier.  I’ve not really been successful over the last couple years.  I’ve obviously gained some weight over the last little while (who’s kidding who!), and I’ve GOT to get that under control.  My skinny little legs were not made to carry my watermelon like mid-section.  For reals.  It’s depressing.  Physical activity has to go up, and eating better needs to become more of a priority.
• To become more GREEN.  It’s not terribly hard to consciously be more environmentally aware.  I hope to walk more places (instead of driving to the corner store- which I do a lot), be more aware of my electricity usage, and well I’m going to talk to my knowledgeable friend Sandra about it really.  She’ll give me some great ideas.  

• To do more stuff.  Sitting on the couch, or our big leather recliner, is comfy and all, but I need to be more active.  Not even just in the physical sense, but mentally as well.  I love DIYing, but I don’t do a whole lot of it.  Lots can be done around the house, and there are many projects that I can do to take off Matt’s plate.  First on my docket… well ok I’m torn.  I really want to paint the spare room, but I also really want some hooks up in the bathroom (no it’s not painted yet- but I’m going crazy not being able to hang up any towels!!).  What would you do first?
• Really work on getting my student debt down.  Just thinking about it stresses me out!  I need to get serious about it!

Phew, ok so 4 really doable resolutions no?

I think so.

Let’s hear some of your resolutions!  Do you ever keep them?  OR are you a breaker like most of us!

E.Flatts out.

My Year in Pictures.

I’m sure there are like hundreds of blogs with a similar title as mine.  Are they as funny and clever as mine though?  Probably more so   But you’re reading mine and not theirs, so I win! Muahahahahaha!

Anywho, here’s my 2011 in pictures.  Enjoy!

New Years Day (after 12am!) January 1, 2011. PS this was an ugly sweater party!

Bourbon Street, NOLA. February, 2011.

Cemetary Tour in NOLA. February 2011.

Drinking from a boot in San Fran! February, 2011.

Muir Woods (?!) Redwood Forest in San Fran. February, 2011.

Full House house with Bai. February, 2011.

Horribly unflattering, but St. Patrick's Day none the less! March 17th, 2011.

April, 2011. The Brain Tumour Spring Sprint. Team Griffiths!

The Royal Wedding at Shoppers! April, 2011.

May, 2011. Kyle's 30th! Whistling Walrus. (with Kirk, Dan, and Drew!)

June, 2011. The Heart and Stroke Big Bike! Yay team I Like Big Bikes! (Yes I realize the bike is empty. I didn't get one with the team this year )

The girls! (Plus 3 fetuses! (or is it Feti? )) Baby Showers galore! June, 2011.

'Lil Henry was born! (1st of the '11 baby boom!) July, 2011.

Collingwood, Ontario. Amy's Bachelorette. July, 2011.

Midyear baseball tournament dance. Team Totally Awesome! July, 2011.

My brother Brendan married Tara! August, 2011. (pic courtesy of Jayme Van Geest!)

My friend Amy married her now husband, Bob. August, 2011.

I got to blog for the Western Fair! September, 2011.

My favourite little man Cole was born. September, 2011.

October, 2011. Turkey Cake Pops.

'Lil Abigail was born. October, 2011.

We saw the Rural Alberta Advantage in concert. November, 2011.

We sent out a Christmas card, and sadly said good bye to Foster. December, 2011.

I got my first LTO assignment! December, 2011.

Matt discovered what it feels like to use a Snuggie. December, 2011.

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

ERIN

“I just like to smile, smiling’s my favourite.”

So apparently both Christmas and New Years have come and gone.  When did that happen?  The older I get, the more the holiday season seems to just fly by.  Boo to that.

Well, a couple things to update you on I guess. To start, I totally made a Christmas wreath this year.  Yay!  It was one of my not-completed things on last year’s list.  Turned out pretty well I think.

Steps to make the wreath. Plus showing you how distracting Parker can be!

Actually pretty simple, though VERY VERY time consuming.  I think it would have been easier had I found a styrofoamy wreath base that I wanted to use,but alas  none that were the right size were for sale at Michaels, so I used a flat one.  Which totally added more work.  The longest part of the wreath was definitely wrapping the yarn around and around the base until it was covered.   IT took forever!   Turned out ok though.  And now we have it forever! (Though I will probably attempt a better one next year.  haha)

Oh also, we (or I mean I) put out another annual Christmas card!  Sadly it was almost a no go, as a couple weeks before Christmas we were forced to put down Foster .  Definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, and I know Matt feels the same.  I won’t go into details, but he was in pain, and it was the right thing to do.  So RIP Foster.  We didn’t want to leave him out of the card so he made an angelic appearance.

I also completed (although barely) my 2nd boxing day 10 miler (That’s 16km)!  Eileen and I cut 10 minutes off our time from last year, which was our goal, so that was exciting.  One of my friends from University- Tom, ran by us while we were walking which was pretty hilarious.  AND I’m very proud to say that he came in like 51st place (or around there).  Go Tom!!!   (PS we came in at 2hrs 42 minutes….walking.  We were booting it!)

Ok that might be it for today.

Hope everyone had a great holiday!

<3 Erin

PS Is it wrong to still watch Christmas movies after Christmas?!

Quitting, Cupcakes, and Cuteness (in no particular order).

**Disclaimer**

This blog post was written ….probably about 2 months ago-ish.  I’m now just posting it.  So sue me.  I had a couple sentences to add, and some pictures to upload, so no I didn’t just make Halloween cupcakes, but yes I am just blogging about it now.  Deal with it.

What up!

Ok so let’s chat shall we?

1. I’ve quit Shoppers Drug Mart.
2.  I made some awesome Halloween cupcakes.
3. My friends all have babies.

1. Au Revoir ma famille de Pharmaprix! (Good-bye my Shoppers Drug Mart family!)

Sigh.

After 14+ years of service at various locations throughout southwestern Ontario, I’ve FINALLY given up my discount and polyester pants.  NO, I did not get a permanent teaching job… BUT I decided that the one or two shifts a week weren’t worth the long days and late nights, and worrying about booking off weekends, and working holidays.

What am I doing with all my extra time?  Currently, a little extra house work and a little extra baking.  Just knowing that I can come home and relax makes me feel so good though.  Yay to only having one job!!

2.  I made some super cute Halloween cupcakes, and one of my loyal followers (Hi Kristen!) requested that I blog about them!

Honestly, all they really were, were from the box chocolate cupcake mix, and creativity (and google of course!).

I just used leftover icing from other projects, moulding chocolate wafers from Micheal’s, and icing writers (the little gel tubes of icing for fine stuff).

I think if I had not left them to the very last minute they might have looked a little bit better, but for grade 4 students… they were just fine!

Scaaaaaaaaaaaarrrry!

3.  It’s about that time…

I’m surrounded by babies!  (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)

I guess it’s that time in our lives where the baby clock starts ticking and reminding us that if you’d like to be a mommy or daddy, the time is upon us.  Go back a couple years, and there were wedding showers galore.  Now?  Baby showers.

Let me tell you this- my friends might have the cutest babies ever.  Just saying.  I have for real fallen in love with one in particular, possibly because I’ve been able to spend so much time with him and his mom!  This pic was taken by an awesome photographer (also a friend!) named Aunika Hinks…  if you do travel to her website (and I recommend that you do!), you will find a couple familiar faces; as I said a lot of my friends have young babies right now!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

May I present to you, my main man Cole!

He’s much bigger now!  And totally looks like a toddler instead of an infant.   So fricken cute!

Another recent baby to be welcomed to the world is Abigail, who is also on Aunika’s website!  Cute cute cute!

What is that on her head you ask?  Oh!  Why it’s a headband that I made for her!  I also made her a tutu….

I think I’m trying to make up for the fact that I’ve only met her a couple times by making her cool stuff. So far it’s working!

Anywho, that’s it for now.

New post to come soon.  For real.  I’ve been baking, and crafting, and well just enjoying life in general.  Lots of blog worthy stories to come!

Peace!

C’est L’Halloween. C’eeeest l’halloween, HEY!

Short post for tonight my blog-world friends (or real life friends too!) due to the late hour, HOWEVER I will be following this blog up in the next couple days with a major catch up blog since I do not believe I’ve written a post since the Western Fair!

I will just say this though- last week (and today as well!) I’ve had a 5 day teaching job (yes, I’m STILL on the supply list this year!) AND I had the opportunity to teach 2 classes french!  “But Erin, I didn’t know you speak French!” Oh yes my friends I do…. well enough that is to teach grade 4 and 5 French.

In honour of Halloween, and the fact I was teaching French- I taught both classes the most fantastic (and catchy) French song ever…..

C’est L’Halloween!

Yes, I know you all remember it!  I’ve been singing all weekend, and annoying everyone I’m around in the process!   I can’t help it, it’s just great!

Here’s the video for you all to watch and  transport back in time to elementary school….

ENJOY!

fairFAIRfairFAIRfairFAIR

Yo yo yo yo.
So I’ve been writing about the Western Fair ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL week.  Which has led me to realize 2 things:

1.  I CAN blog a lot!  I’m on my 4th blog post…yay!
2. Blogging is a lot of work.  Ok, well actually it’s not a huge amount of work this week, since I’m writing only about one focus point, but it does take up some time to write, revise, then post.

So that being said, As soon as I finish my blogging for the fair, I shall update you on how my week went (unless you’ve been reading my posts on the Western Fair site.  Which I guess some of you are!)  If you aren’t, you can catch up on the “real serious fun blog” here!  The other 4 bloggers are great- check out their posts too!
4 more Fair Days left!

~Erin

September 10, 2001.

NYC.

10 years ago (- 2 days) I was seeing Michael Jackson in concert with 3 friends from University.  It took us a whole day to get there.  We stayed over that night, and saw as much as we could the next day before the concert.  We took in parks,  monuments, famous stores, great food, and spectacular buildings.

Instead of staying in New York after the concert that night we decided to drive the whole night, and head back to Ontario.  (We did start school the next day after all!)

We crossed the border, stopped at a friend’s parents house for breakfast and watched the very same building we had been in less than 24 hours ago erupt in flames.  We thought it was on fire only.  We didn’t see the commotion 5 seconds before.

We listened to the second plane hit the other building while in the car on the way back to our residences.

The sightseeing was great.  The concert, phenomenal, but forever in my mind will be the tragedy that DID happened, and how our road trip could have been so much different had we not drove 10 hours in foggy weather that night.

We were amazed at how tall they were.

Hard to read, but it's the receipt for a snow globe I bought in the lobby gift shop on September 10.