Sunday, November 21, 2010

Exhausted...


As I write this, I am wondering if my time would be better spent taking a quick nap before day #8 out of 20 days and potentially more of work! I started my full time job at the bank which is 37.5 hours a week and although I told Starbucks I only wanted limited hours, last week I worked a total of 54.5 hours and this coming week will be 58.5...On top of all that, I really need to start studying my mutual funds....I will keep going, I get a nice 3 week break in just 25 days when I am on my way home for the holidays! Starbucks has been a lot of fun and even though I usually go into work feeling tired, I am full of energy by the time I leave (which most of the time isn't great right before going to bed!). My new job is going well! So far it's just been a lot of reading on the computer but I have made contact with another girl in the area who is doing the same program which makes things a little more exciting! On Wednesday night our branch went to our annual fiscal year end party where we had to dress up as something from the 50's. Our branch chose the Mickey Mouse Club!

My Branch
Me and my friend Julie

Carl has been working just as hard on projects and papers! His last day of class is nearing and deadlines are approaching! To lighten the load, we decided to put up our Christmas tree on Thursday night! We put on our Christmas sweaters, let the Christmas music play, pulled out the eggnog...
Painted our names on our stockings...
Put the lights on the tree...
Decorated and put the star on...



And took some cheesy pictures!

It kinda feels like our first Christmas together seeing how last year we didn't get to do any of this! It was fun and some much needed relief!

Saturday night was the big Santa Parade in Kingston which ended in the town centre where they had their annual tree lighting ceremony. There were tons of people and before the tree was lit, we all sung Christmas carols together - it was magical!
It has definately been chilly these last couple of days but the forecast is calling for a highs of 12 and 13 this next week. I cannot believe you guys at home beat us in getting snow! Here we are telling everyone here that we don't get much snow at home and are nervous about the winters in Kingston and look who goes and gets snow first?! Hope you are all handling it well!
Lotsa love! xoxoxo



Sunday, November 14, 2010

A Gleeful Day in Toronto!


Originally we had planned to take advantage of a free weekend and spend it all in Toronto but then more school work came up for Carl, I got booked to work and we remembered we had no money...So we decided to make it into a day trip! We awoke at 6am on Saturday morning to take advantage of a full day in Toronto! After about a 3 hour drive, we entered Toronto and went straight to our first destination, the Hockey Hall of Fame! My friend was able to get us free tickets to the venue which made it that much more enjoyable!







We paid tribute to our favorite players...










And we got to see the Stanley Cup! Apparently there are two Stanley Cups - this one stays at the Hall of Fame while the other one travels around!






















The whole Hall is basically designed like any other museum. It displays memorablea, has some interactive areas and then you get to the place where the Stanley Cup is kept and it's like entering an old sacred church! I swear I could hear whispers of angels singing Hallelujah!





Outside the Hall of Fame were some typical hockey players gawking at every girl that walked by :)








We walked around, the whole day, checking out things such as...
The city and all it's buildings! I think thats mostly the Financial District behind me
The Distillery District - an area that used to be more industrial but has been recently changed into a Yale Town, Granville Island kinda feeling area.
More views, this one with the CN Tower in the background!
Dundas Square, the downtown shopping area designed to somewhat replicate Times Square in New York
The odd looking New City Hall
The cool looking Old City Hall






Some Cows
























The CN Tower! We didn't go up it - thought we'd save that for when you come visit!


























And THEN...As we were walking down Yonge Street, we noticed part of the road blocked off and a crowd gathering. We discovered that that night the Canadian Gemini Awards was happening. Although we didn't know what that was, I told Carl that we should walk by again that night to see if we can see anyone famous. Before finding a restraunt for dinner, we walked past the same area again and sure enough, there he was in all his glory, Finn from my favorite TV show "Glee"!





I never thought I would go star crazy if I saw someone famous that I liked, but I joined all those adolescent girls and pushed and shoved my way to the front to get a better glimpse!






I mean, what are the chances?! Carl and I randomly chose this day of all days to go to Toronto! We don't have cable so we don't watch TV, BUT once a week we sit in front of the computer to watch Glee - the only show we watch and Finn just happens to be there?! It was meant to be!
I was excited! Carl on the other hand...Well he was a good husband and held my purse :)

From there, we headed to Milestones where we had a view of Dundas Square, had some dinner and watched the Canucks beat the Maple Leaves 5 to 3 in Toronto! It was as close as we could get to the real thing!






After a full fun-filled day, we headed on back to Kingston!



Another Week in the Lives of Leah and Carl!


This week felt like a weird one - it went by fast and slow both at the same time! And from it all, I feel somewhat exhausted! After looking at the calendar just now and asking Carl about it, I now remember the beginning of the week! I went to New York on Monday with Julie which I wrote about in my last blog, Tuesday I think was a cleaning day and a shift at Starbucks that evening and Wednesday was supposed to be my "explore Kingston" day BUT Starbucks called! I was asked to go into work for a full day at another location! I knew this location was CRAZY busy and I told the manager that I was brand new and might be more of a nuisance than help but she wanted me anyways! Within the 7 hour shift, I think there was maybe twice that for maybe 3minutes we didn't have a line up out the door! It was nuts BUT with the gracious help of the workers, we survived and I didn't mess anything up :) I came home that night to my kitchen in shambles and my husband in the middle of it all! Carl had come to Starbucks to visit me, grab a coffee and do some homework and when he got home, our kitchen counters were covered in greasy water!? There were no leaks, nothing dripping form the walls or cupboards above and no sign as to where the water had come from! Luckily, besides a roll of paper towel and one of my cookbooks, nothing was damaged (and Carl put a piece of paper towel between each page of the cookbook so it could be salvaged - such a sweet husband!). After mopping up the mess, Carl turned the tap on in the kitchen sink and found the problem, the water wasn't draining! While we were out, the sink must have backed up somehow, filled up and spilled over??? We bought some Draino stuff and it seems to be working fine now!

On Thursday, although the banks are closed, Remembrance Day is not a holiday in Ontario so Carl went to school as usual. I didn't have to work until 6pm that night so my friend Kellie and I went to Gananoque, a small town about 30 minutes away from Kingston. In the summertime, this is a happening place where most people take off from to explore the 1000 Islands and do other water activities. In the fall and winter, it's not quite as exciting! Kellie and I just walked a trail that pretty much goes around the perimeter of the town.

Friday, now that was an exciting day! I worked all day at the bank (my last day as a teller!) and Carl worked all day on homework and then together, we went (drum roll please) grocery shopping! Oh the exciting Friday nights of a young married couple! Carl is thrilled however, with his first holiday purchase of Egg Nog! He feels that since he missed out on it last year in South America, he needs to make up for the missed consumption this year!



...Read about our Saturday venture to Toronto in the next blog!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Happy Movember!

Well this past week has been a bit of a dull one (but that won't stop me from writing a whole page about it, haha!). The snow stopped the same day it started and we haven't seen anymore since! I haven't had much work, just the odd day here and there at the bank and a few shifts at Starbucks - I suppose there was that one day this past week that I got called into the bank, worked from 10:30am to 5pm and had to be at Starbucks from 6-11pm. That was a busy day but it wasn't as exhausting as you would think - I wouldn't want to do it everyday though! I've been trying to take advantage of the fact that these are my last two weeks before I start my full time job but I can't seem to get motivated to do anything! I've been feeling a little lonely as Carl has been working hard at school, the friends I have made are busy, the weather has been a bit gloomy and all this makes me a tad homesick!

Lonely + No Friends + Busy Husband + Gloomy Weather + Homesick + No Motivation = Lazy Leah!

So, on Saturday, after doing our meal planning and grocery shopping for the week, I went for a little drive, stumbled upon a park and went for a walk. I also went to the tourist office in town and grabbed several walking tours of Kingston that I plan to do on my own this week. Yesterday I went to Syracuse, New York with my friend Julie and we shopped all day! I was good and only bought a few necessities from Target! But not working has thrown off my days and I forgot that we have Bible Study on Mondays and I didn't make it home on time! Oooops! Christmas is in the air (and all the stores) so I've started getting into the Christmas spirit and I am not ashamed to say that YES, I am listening to Christmas music right now! I feel that I somewhat missed Christmas last year in South America and since we are coming home for Christmas this year, we need to enjoy a bit of it here first! And really, why not extend the season of which I love so much by just a few weeks?! I feel justified...But I will postpone putting up the dollar store decorations I bought until at least after Remembrance Day :) We are however going to start our advent calendars early and countdown the days until we come home instead of counting down till Christmas!
It being "Movember" and all, much to the girls (or maybe just my) dismay the guys in Carl's program have decided to support raising awareness for prostate cancer (good thing!) and grow mustaches for the month (bad thing)! I told Carl, to avoid embaressment, I could just buy him a fake moustache from the dollar store but he insisted on trying to grow his own...Ewwww! After just a few days, some stubble had begun to show. After just a few more days, several more scarce hairs appeared under Carl's nose - I told him nose hairs didn't count as part of a moustache though...After 7 days, Carl woke up in the morning, had a shower, looked in the mirror and said "I still feel dirty". The "dirt-stache" was then shaved! Halleujah, it can be a Happy Movember after all! I tried to get a picture to share with ya'll but somehow Carl managed to avoid that one! I suppose Carl's reasoning for shaving wasn't all to do with the "adolescent puberty" look it gave him but also for the fact that he wanted to look professional for a presentation he had to give in class! Although he felt a bit rushed presenting it, the feedback he received from peers was positive!

So thats about it for this past week - looking forward to a bit more action in this coming week...Now to get my butt off the couch.......