Before Romeo and Juliet

...there was Tristan and Isolde.

Watched this movie on the weekend - Really Really liked it! Check it out.

I recommend watching the theatrical trailer and the video clip for the Gavin McGraw song "We Belong Together"

Quote Woes from PC Insurance

I wouldn't advise any of you to call PC Insurance for a quotation unless you are definitely planning to sign up.

Back in the fall before we moved into the house we called to obtain a quote from them out of curiosity to see if it would be better than our current insurance. Everyone does this right? But we decided not to switch.

When we moved into the house we got all of the paperwork from PC with our BRAND NEW home and auto insurance package. Well thanks very much, but we never did change over to your company. Jamie called to tell them of the mistake. They told us we had to pay a cancellation fee! A WHAT? Cancellation fee to cancel something we never had?! You have got to be kidding?! So of course Jamie refused.

And so it began with the calls and the letters and the this and the that...

A few months later now after numerous phone conversations with PC customer service, faxes to PC Insurance with letters from our insurance company, proof of our current policy, etc. As well as many of those wonderful customer service reps telling us that the issue was resolved, no problem, sorry about the hassle, thanks and have a nice day....and NOW today we received a notice in the mail....
What kind of notice, you ask? A COLLECTION AGENCY NOTICE!!!

I am so pissed off right now I can not even stand it. I emailed "Silverman Helps" and everything. (That's the guy on cityTV who helps people with stupid idiotic problems like this). I cannot believe the gall of these insurance companies? As if I wasn't annoyed at paying them an arm and a leg already. Now they're sending us to collections for not paying $75.60 for a cancellation fee for a service we didn't receive! OMG, I swear I could seriously injure someone right now. It's totally not about the money, I mean $75.60 is not a huge deal if WE REALLY WERE WANTING TO CANCEL SOMETHING!

Our good credit is going to be marred by this?! Ugh! Oh the nerve! Oh MY nerves!

Any suggestions? recommendations? hitmen perhaps? (don't really mean the "hitman" part but I'm just really super angry right now).

Happy Birthday Bella!!!

Isabella's Mom: What do you want for your birthday Isabella?

Isabella: Um....(thinking) Cake

Mom: And what else?

Isabella: Um....(thinking again) Pwesents

Mom: And how old are you going to be on your birthday?

Isabella: (Holding up ALL five fingers) FWEE!!!!
*Note: She's actually only going to be two!

Too cute!

Denim Day...

...In support of Breast Cancer research is TODAY and all of the office ladies (and some of the men) at my work have made their $5 donation to wear denim. Ev heard about it and our boss agreed that it was a great idea for us to participate and help raise funds and awareness for this horrible disease.














For more information:
Visit the CURE foundation at http://www.curefoundation.com
The Canadian Cancer Society at http://www.cancer.ca
Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation at http://www.cbcf.org/index.html

Happy Mother's Day!!
Mama
Tracey
Granny
Nan
Mom-in-law
Vanessa
Amanda
Daphne
Tara
Steph (to-be)
My Aunties
and to all you other moms out there too!

First Time Ever

You may not believe this.

Last night I, for the first time ever, ate at Subway. The restaurant, that is. The one that makes the submarine sandwiches. But I guess the rest of y'all would know that being I'm probably the only person in North America who has never eaten there before. In fact, Quiznos is the only "sub-sandwich" making place I've ever eaten at (not counting Tim Hortons for their bagels). And I only tried it maybe about a year ago when Jamie's dad was visiting and I didn't want to be a horrible daughter-in-law and deny his lunch wishes.

"And why have I never tried these popular food establishments?", you may ask. I have a list as follows:

#1. I absolutely abhor. detest. hate with a passion MAYO! Since childhood I have associated sandwiches with mayonnaise and therefore never had any desire to try something potentially good with something I loathe so greatly.
#2. My mother would make me sandwiches with butter instead of mayo. I've been somewhat uneasy about asking anyone else besides her to prepare a sub/sandwich for me in such fashion.
#3. Love bread. Love meat. Love cheese. But quite honestly the thought of it all being thrown together in one single bite just never appealed to me before. I've always been a food separatist. Definition "food separatist": A person who cannot combine any foods together and must have invisible (if not real) sections between the meat and potatoes and salad on her plate. I assure you I am getting better in this regard.
#4. Don't like veggies much. Sandwiches are always garnished with lettuce and tomato and onions and pickles. Yuck. Why is it so wrong to just have the meat and add cheese? Why do you look at me so funny when I say "no garnish please" like I'm a sandwich criminal, like I'm the first person to ever not enjoy veggies. Lucky for me, I found at least one other person in the world who doesn't like veggies and then I married him. Ha! So there you veggie sandwich making people!
#5. Never realized all the other choices. Now that I've been introduced to the world of dressings and sauces OTHER THAN MAYO that can be added to a sandwich to give it flavour, I'm liking the idea of the bread and the meat and the cheese all being combined in one nice munchible package. Just imagine the endless possibilites!

So last night my hubby wanted to have subway - Chris told him about this fantastic new meatball sub on garlic bread something or another. And I agreed to go with but didn't plan to try the sub shop myself. But when I got there I said to myself "ah, what the heck. May as well try it" and I ordered up chicken and bacon with cheese on whole wheat 6" sub with the Southwestern Chipotle sauce...and it was fantastically delish!

And with that I've gotten over yet another hurdle caused in part by a childhood filled with the horror of mayo-riddled sandwiches.

Life has new meaning!

According to "The Needle Test"

...it's a girl!

(Yeah, that's me over there ---> looking crazy sexy in my paint clothes and blue bandana...lmao!)

Call it silly or not...I still think it's fun: This silly "wives tale" thing with the needle and thread, watch it spin in circles (a boy) or rock back and forth (a girl), and then speculate about our future children.

I tried it on a bunch of ladies at work and it's accurate every time...honestly! Probably coincedence but still....weird. And as I read online, with the ladies at work, the needle test shows all pregnancies, not necessarily all children. Which means, IF you've had or will have a miscarriage then it will count that as one.

I looked it up online and seems there is a bit of a scientific reasoning for how it could possibly "work"...something to do with us all having a unique magnetic forcefield which reacts with the metal of the needle.

We girls tried it on Steph on Saturday. We held the needle over her belly (as shown in pic above) and it started swinging back and forth, back and forth: a girl!

And then we tried it on each other. If you hold it over your hand it will keep going telling you how many children you will have and what sexes they will be. Here were our findings:
Christa - girl, boy, girl, boy
Jen - boy, girl, girl, boy (with the last 2 looking suspiciously like it could be twins)
Me - boy, boy, girl (when Christa does it... but when Jennifer does it it's different every time leaving some speculation about the authenticity of our testing...oh well, it's still fun)
Steph - girl, boy

Anyone else ever tried this? What were your findings? Did it work or not work?

Steph's Nursery

Steph and Jason are due to have their first baby at the end of August and so Stephanie had asked Jen, Christa, and I to come over to help her paint the nursery. Jason said, "Well it's very green", not sure if that meant he liked it or didn't like it. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE this colour. I think it's so perfect for a baby room. But I'm a lover of green anyways so I'm slightly biased.
Took us no time at all to get 2 coats finished, only about 2 hours. It was fun, I apologized profusely for screwing up my job of painting the edges around the trim and ceiling, smudged SO many times. Sorry Steph! I think she'll probably just get me back when it's my turn to borrow her painting services one day.
Here are the pics from our day. And here is the theme/bedding she's chosen to decorate. It's called "Clover Fields", I really think it's cute.

Eagles May Seem to Sleep Wing-Wide Upon the Air

- John Keats

I am sad to announce that the Eagles have been unsuccessful in their plight to have babies. The last egg "died" yesterday.

So upsetting :(

One guy in the forum at eaglecam.com has an interesting viewpoint
http://forum.infotecbsi.com/viewtopic.php?t=3941

Better luck next year!

LATER THAT SAME DAY:

Ok, I have some news to add about this eagle situation. Jennifer was just talking to her boyfriend, Chris. He was watching on TV last night all about this eagle pair. The scientist involved was saying that eagles are lucky to end up with a couple of babies in their lifetime. Apparantly this particular pair of eagles are rather old and have already had about 30 offspring! Isn't that great?! That does make me feel better.

Hi-Lites and Low-Lites

In the past 7 days I:

- was pleasantly surprised to turn on Ellen Degeneres and listen to her say those words we are all longing to hear..."Wentworth Miller is on the show today" Here's the clip And for those of you who don't know who that is - shame on you! and tune into GLOBAL on Monday nights to watch "Prison Break"....bringing me to my next point:
- watched Prison Break on Monday night literally on the edge of my couch while my husband stared at me in disbelief over the excitement said show can bring to my life. I swear I could scream at the end of each episode cause I just want to KNOW what's going on and it always ends at such a good part!!!!
- Searched online for spoilers to find out how this season of "Prison Break" will end. (I'm one of those people who reads the ending of a book before beginning it...can't stand the suspense)
- Realized through the online search that Wentworth Miller was once a guest on BUFFY (the Vampire Slayer, that is!) Like, as if that show wasn't the b0mb already! Now I have one more reason to buy all seasons on DVD.

Ok, snap back to reality, and I:
- Bought a hanging flower basket for our front porch. I simply cannot contain my joy!
- Listened to Jamie every day state, "I think we're going to get grass today!" only to see him walk in the front door at the end of each day with a look of utter disappointment over still retaining our muddy brown yard.
- Watched hours of live B.C. eagle footage online anticipating the arrival of the new baby eaglet.
- Could have cried when one of the eggs "died" and was removed by the eagles from the nest.
- Literally prayed to God that the last egg would result in a little family for the eagles and the continuation of an endangered species.
- Walked with Christa whom I miss seeing every day at work. And we could never walk enough miles to say all the things we want to talk about.
- Realized that I am seriously going to be eaten alive by the blackflies and mosquitoes in my wonderful new home town in Acton.
- Had Jamie's ball tournament on the weekend and therefore got to spend a few hours with my nieces at the ball park and almost a full 24 hours with Erykah who had been asking ever since she knew it was spring, "when is ball park going to start?" (She has come to the ballpark with Jamie and I for the past 2 years).
- Began another season of Jamie injuring himself and requiring sympathetic attention at every single one of his ball games. This past week he slid into 3rd and skinned out his entire forearm.
- Taught Jamie how to properly put sheets on our bed. He simply LOATHES putting on the pillow cases....cause it's totally the hardest part!
- Got really upset when I washed a new shirt for the first time, saw that it was going to require intense ironing (which I just simply hate) and remembered how I forgot to do the "wrinkle-test" BEFORE I purchased it. Definition "Wrinkle-test": When you see a new item of clothing at the store, totally adore it, and then scrunch it up in your hand for a few seconds while it's on the rack. If when you let go it ends up being really wrinkled, you immediately step away from the garment because you detest ironing enough not to purchase it no matter how great it may be.
- Am happy to see that I am somewhat maintaining my Cuba tan even though I am scaling over like a dried cod.
- Created a kick-ass scrapbook page of my 3 little nieces. I am so inspired to have a full weekend devoted to my fabulous hobby! Girls, are ya with me on this one?
- Made the best gravy EVER and savored every last french fry with it and loads of ketchup.
- Received email responses from my college profs when I inquired about their opinions and recommendations regarding my interest in opening a daycare from our home.
- Was elated over finding out that there is a Mrs. Fields that opened up in the mall in Brampton.
- Was dismayed over finding out that there is a Mrs. Fields that opened up in the mall in Brampton. Close to work. Close enough to go on lunchbreak. To eat endless chocolate chunk brownies that are my favourite in the whole wide world. Oh my waistline!
- Spent $13.30 in candies and chocolate at the Bulk Barn. "Isn't she supposed to be trying to lose weight?" you may ask. Well I respond by sticking out my tongue in complete justification that my new "now-off-the-birth-control-pill" hormones are going nuts and I NEEDED some chocolate. And besides, like everyone who's anyone knows that the amount of candies you get at the Bulk Barn for $13.30 is really not THAT MUCH....right? Yeah...ha!

Ain't life grand?!