Yes, it is 5:30 AM

and no, I'm not awake just because I'm excited about Christmas. I'm SICK!!! I have a cold. I haven't been sick with the cold in the last 2 1/2 years. Even last year in the midst of my hives and immune system breakdown I did not get sick. It happened really quickly. Just after I took the picture for my last post I started sneezing and feeling like my sinuses were filling up, and it just snowballed from there. By the time I went to bed I was totally congested. I couldn't sleep so I went down stairs and I've been awake for most of the night, other than a half hour of sleep here or there. And of course since I never get sick, all of the cold medications we have here are expired!! I'm impatiently waiting until the stores open to go stock up on softer kleenex, halls, orange juice, some type of a cold and sinus medication, and perhaps some zinc lozenges (which I hear are helpful). Anyways, hopefully I'll post over Christmas, but Merry Christmas otherwise!!

My new hair

Here it is: It's slightly shorter, no color this time. But I love the way it is styled and I totally think I can do it myself. She just diffused it, and then used a curling iron here and there. I know, it's a pretty bad picture, but I'm here all by myself, so I had to use the camera timer - I hate those things. Oh, and in order to put the picture on the computer, I had to upload 122 other pictures!! I had pictures on my camera that have been there since the summer!!!!! I have a clean slate (an empty camera card) now, though, so I'm all ready to take lots of pictures over Christmas!!

And I call myself a scrapbooker

I'm sitting here staring at my camera, thinking that I can't remember the last time I uploaded the pictures from it to my computer. Now, if I were any kind of a scrapbooker at all, that would mean that I would have hundreds of pictures on it, but in all actuality, there are probably only about 5!! I have had no interest in taking pictures lately, I guess I feel that there hasn't been anything exciting going on. I know I should be taking pictures of those everyday things, because those are just as important as the big events, but I've been slack. The truth is, I'm underwhelmed with my present camera. For months now, I've been dreaming of owning this:

It's the Canon Digital Rebel XT. Bevan's work has one, and he's had it home a couple of times and I've gotten a chance to snap a few pictures, and now, my little Fuji point and shoot just isn't the same. I watch and watch for the camera to go on sale, and everytime it is on sale I add it all up to see if I can afford it, and the outcome is always the same - not this time. I'm trying to save all my pennies for the wedding at this point, so I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.

In other, very exciting news, one of my bridesmaids - Christine - got engaged this past weekend!!! I'm sooooooo happy for she and Paul and I can't wait to see her when I go home for Christmas.

Christmas Cards Done!!

Well, my Christmas cards for 2006 are all done and delivered. I had the ones that had to go in the mail out last Thursday, to be sure they got there on time. I hand delievered some last night and today as well. All together I gave out 40 cards this year, all hand made. Here are a few of my favorites:

The KI Memories Alpine Collection was by far my most used paper this year. It's untraditional, but I LOVE it.

My vacation is going great, but I haven't done much relaxing. Last Wednesday I went to Moncton with Carolyn and all her sisters and Michelle. It was a really fun day. I'm trying to get the house cleaned up now so it's clean when we come back, but cleaning isn't really my greatest talent. I've managed to keep the kitchen clean, but haven't gotten the living room cleaned yet (it's filled with wrapping paper, tape, scissors, etc...).

I'm getting a much needed hair cut tomorrow. I'll post pictures when it's done.

Anyways, that's it for now. I'll blog again soon!!

I'm back!!!

Well, It’s time to get back to blogging. I know it’s been a long time, and I’m not very happy with myself about it. Just a short update post for now, but I’ll have some Christmas Card pictures to post later. I’m determined that I’m getting them finished today. Let’s see, what’s new since September??? Oh, firstly, Bevan’s job renewal went through!! He signed a contract for another year at his job – we were sooooo happy with this, because the job thing hasn’t really gone smoothly for him since we got here. In my last post I was complaining about Bevan’s car. Well, after Dad fixing it (again!!), I think Bevan drove it for a few more weeks, but we decided that now that he would be traveling to Charlottetown again and he had a job with some security he needed a new one. So we had Dad on the look-out. We test drove some Civics, Corollas, Camrys, etc…, and then my Dad happened upon a Jetta. Well, Bevan loves Jetta’s, so that’s what he went with. It’s a 1999 Volkwagen Jetta – Silver. He’s happy as a clam with his new car. Today he’s getting some new winter tires put on it – the all season’s just weren’t cutting it in the snow. Thanks to Dad (again), he got a great deal on some good winter tires, so we don’t have to drain our bank account either!!

I’m on vacation again, too!!! My last day of work was December 7th (a Thursday), and I don’t go back until January 2nd (a Tuesday). We went home this past weekend and got the tree all decorated. We decorate our tree at home differently every year - this year we made all of our ornaments out of Basic Grey scrapbook paper. I loooovvvve it. We took pictures, but they’re on Mel’s camera, and she hasn’t sent them to me yet. I’ll post them as soon as I have them.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet – but I’m not complaining – it’s been nice. I have lots to do this week to get stuff ready for Christmas. Our house is decorated, but I have lots of projects to finish. More later, I promise!!

Complaining ...

Please forgive me in advance, I just have a little venting to do. We've had a kind of crappy few days. Nothing major, just little things that add up to make it seem like everything is going wrong. Firstly, Bevan's car didn't make it back to PEI after his trip to Halifax. He called me on the way home to tell me it was making a really loud noise. He made it to Pictou, thank goodness, and now my Dad is working on fixing it again. Thanks goodness for a mechanic in the family!! Also, the renewal of Bevan's job isn't going as smoothly as we had hoped. I thought they would just have a board meeting, say that they approved the budget, and therefore, his job, and voila!! Well, it's not quite that easy. Almost a week later, and things are still kind of up in the air. On a much smaller scale, we really wanted some Diet Pepsi with our supper on Sunday, and when we got home with it and opened the bottle, the bottle was broken, so we couldn't drink it - stupid glass pop bottles on PEI. Then, on Sunday night I really wanted a cup of tea. So I boiled my kettle, got out my favorite tea cup, put in the tea bag (Honey Lemon, yum), poured in my water, and CRACK!! My favorite cup cracked right up the side!! Anyways, that's enough venting for now, I needed to get all of that negativity out of my system!!

Home Alone

Although I'm no longer single, I certainly have been living the single lifestyle last night and today. Bevan went to Halifax overnight last night to visit some friends, so I'm left here alone. I was sad when he decided he was going, but so far, my time alone has been nice. I worked at the scrapbook store today. Carolyn decided to close the shop a few minutes early, and she and I, and her daughter and neice went to Charlottetown for a girls night out. We had supper at East Side Mario's - I had Scallop Carbonera - YUM!! Then we went to Indigo, where I bought Wicked. I'm a huge Wizard of Oz fan, so I've been looking forward to reading this one for a while. Next, we went to Old Navy, where I found the cutest little onesie for friends of ours who are due to have a baby any day now. Then, off to Micheal's, where I bought a couple of rubber stamps, and some ribbon - of course!! Oh, and we made a stop at the Great Canadian Bagel as well. My feet were actually a little sore when we got home - when I go shopping with Bevan we are never shopping long enough for my feet to get sore at all!! I guess that's the difference between shopping with men and women.

So, I came home last night, put on my pajamas, relaxed on the couch, watched some Grey's Anatomy Season 2 (I'm trying to prepare myself for the beginning of Season Three this week), and I fell asleep!! It was great!! Then I went to bed at around 3 am. I got up this morning at 8:30, went and bought some cream cheese and coffee, and came home and enjoyed my Cheddar Swiss bagel and cream cheese and coffee while catching up on the last week of General Hospital. Now, I'm here blogging, updated iTunes, and wasting time, when I really should be tidying the house!! There's an airshow here in Summerside this afternoon, and I believe tomorrow afternoon that I'd really like to check out. I plan to read some of my book. In general, I'm just enjoying my time alone, although I do miss Bevan a lot!!

Oh, and for any of you Lost fans out there, check out www.lostpedia.com. It is Wikipedia, but with all Lost information - great way to find out about connections and theories. Anyways, enjoy your weekend, and I promise to blog again soon!

Hurricane Frankie has passed through without incident!!

I guess to fully understand this part of the post, you should probably first read Mel's blog from a couple of days ago. So, Mel, Mom, Dad and Frankie came to visit this weekend, and I was just wondering what would get chewed, eaten, or peed on.(is that spelled right, I don't often spell that one in the past tense!!!) Well, I'm happy to report that everything is just as it was before she arrived. She was a very well behaved puppy, and even if she wasn't I'd still love her, because she's just soooo darn cute!! Frankie had her first shopping trip to Old Navy while she was here. She's now the proud owner of a green jacket that matches Melanie's green Old Navy jacket surprisingly well (I'll post a picture of them when I get one!!) They let us take her into the store to try the jacket on her to make sure it fit.

The rest of our weekend consisted of:

1. Eating Mussels: see previous post for details. After this weekend I've tried 10 of the 21 varieties. I've tried rating them, but I've come to a conclusion that they're all delicious.

2. Eating a Deep Fried Mars Bar at the Frosty Treat in Kensington. Yes, that is an actual Mars Bar, dipped in batter and deep fried, then covered with ice cream, hot fudge and peanuts; ie: heart attack in a dish. But oh my, are they delicious. Mel and I behaved ourselves and shared one.

So, all in all, we ate a lot!! Way tooo much. So I guess I better make my return to the gym tomorrow after my weekend hiatus. Saw a link to this on Bevan's Blog and thought maybe I'd try it when I go:

I think it's pretty hilarious and amazing.

So, with that I'm going to wrap up my 78th post. I know, that's pretty pathetic for an entire year of blogging. In my defense, however, I've never kept any other kind of a journal for nearly this long, so I'm quite happy with myself. I just looked back on my posts from early September last year and it's so interesting to compare last year to this year. For example, gas prices right now are 1.009/litre, compared to 1.30 last year. (although this is still a pretty unstable thing, they seem like they could shoot up again at any time). Last year was cool in early September, and this year it has been cold since almost the beginning of August. It's been a very different summer this year with Bevan working for Special Olympics rather than Rainbow Valley. He's had weekends off and we were home waaaay more often (which was much harder on the pocket book now that it costs us $59 to go across on the ferry, or $64 if we buy an assured loading pass). My resolution for year 2 of blogging: to post more often.

My name is Melissa, and I'm a Flex Mussels Addict...

Yes, I've officially taken the first step, I've admitted it - I'm sooo hooked. Flex Mussels has been here in Summerside for 2 summers now. I tried them numerous times last summer, and a few times this summer, but with Melanie and Dad here today I think I can officially call myself an addict - I went twice in one day!!! There are sooooooo many varieties, and I just HAVE to try them all!!!! Bombay, Negril, Cajun, Traditional, Dubliner just to name a few. You can check out all the different varieties here. I've tried 8. Bombay, which was my first, is still my favorite. Here's an adorable (yeah, right) picture of Melanie and I there tonight:

Yes, we are flexing and beeing foolish!! And before we left, we told the owner we'd be back tomorrow, which I know is probably true; sad, but true.

We went to Charlottetown for a little while today as well. We checked out Old Navy, Micheals, and the Wedding Place. Mom and Dad are here, too, but they're going home tomorrow, and Mel's staying until Monday, and we're going to scrapbook and make cards tomorrow and Monday. It's so great that it's a long weekend. That means just a 3 day week next week. We have Kathy Anne and Steve's wedding next weekend, and then our planned weekends are over!! The summer has been busy, but good. It just passed much too fast. Anyways, I'm off to bed now. More pictures from the weekend to follow.

Oh, and Bevan reminded me that I didn't post a response about the Hawaiian Chicken - it was DEEEEElicious. It had lots of curry and chicken and veggies. Bevan even ate the veggies!! I'll post the recipe in the next couple of days.

I bought one...

Yep, I purchased an Ipod. I stayed practical, I bought the 1GB, which holds about 200 songs, which is perfect for me. And, in my typical fashion, I'm obsessed with organizing it!!! I want to only have songs on it that I really like, because what's the point of having to skip past every second song. And I like all the songs to have the proper artist name so that everything is where it should be. I know, it's really sad. Anyways, the real reason I bought the Ipod is because we joined the gym yesterday, and I really need some motivation. They don't have TV's at this gym, so I need something to keep my mind of what I'm really doing while I'm there.

Since I've last posted we went to a wedding (last weekend). It was really nice. Mel's friend Chris got married.

I went to Kathy Anne's stagette party last night. She works with me and is getting married on Sept. 9th. Most of the work girls were there, and we had a pretty good time.

Oh, and I went wedding dress shopping while I was home last weekend. We went to Halifax, and I had great success.

Anyways, I better go get some stuff done, that 3 hours I just spent organizing the Ipod (or Spinderella as I like to call her), isn't time I really could have afforded to spend doing something so trivial!!

Bevan's Cooking Supper...

Right now, as I write this. He's cooking Hawaiian Chicken - it smells really good. I'll post later to let you know how it was, if it's good, I'll post the recipe, too.

Did another layout this afternoon:

Let's try this again...

Ok, I'm giving blogger one more chance to post some pictures. I've been getting scrapbooking done this weekend. It's been fun. I've wanted to do the daily dose page forever. I'm trying to get out of the habit of just scrapbooking events, and more into scrapping everyday things, and things about me that I can look at 20 years down the road and say "I remember that now!!!" Events are more likely to stick out in your mind, but things like the combination of drugs I had to take for months while I had hives is something I will surely forget. Plus, my dad told me the hives thing happened to him when he was younger, and now it's happening to me, so if it by some chance happens to my kids someday, I think it would be great to have this page to show them. Today I'd like to work on a '5 random things about me' page - my sister did one of these and I think it's a great idea. And I have some more hives pictures I've been meaning to scrapbook, but they are really ugly pictures of me when I was super puffy and they're gonna be hard to scrapbook - but it'll be a great challenge!!!
Oh, and we saw Talladega Nights last night. Will Ferrell is in it, so it was hilarious!! Once again, we see Will Ferrell in his underwear, which, although it's not really attractive, is always funny!! Can't wait for this one to come out on video, it's definitly one I want to see again.
I'm off for now, I'll post again before the weekend is over!!

My Mini Golf Post... finally

Yep, after all that teasing, the mini golf post is finally posted. You just have to scroll down a couple of posts. Please excuse the picture sizes, I'm still having problems with blogger, so I posted them via photobucket instead.

Back from Pictou

We went home to Pictou for the weekend. I didn't really feel like much going, because there was nothing really going on there, and we have to go home for a wedding in a couple of weeks anyways, but we went anyways. It was Jubilee weekend in New Glasgow, and we knew Joel Plaskett was playing on Thursday night but we didn't think we'd make it home in time to see him. But it turns out he wasn't scheduled to go on until 10:30, and it was actually later than that when he started, so we saw the whole show. It was, once again, awesome. We were further back in the crowd than we were in Charlottetown on Canada Day, but it was still a great time.

I spent the entire day on Friday with Mel at The Scrapbook Depot. We made some great cards that I promise to post pictures of soon. I spent waaaay too much money on new stamps!!

On Saturday we were really bored, so we went to Truro. We went to Carsand Mosher and bought a few scrapbooking things. Then we went to the bridal shop, where I was really disappointed with the service, or lack there-of. Let's just say I have no intention of buying a thousand dollar plus item from this store due to the lack of helpfullness.

We headed back on the boat on Sunday morning. There were 2 full rows of cars waiting to head to PEI, and when we got to PEI, the parking lot of cars waiting to go to Nova Scotia was full!!! It's a holiday in Nova Scotia today (Natal Day), so I guess everyone was heading back to celebrate. I think it's a holiday here, too, but I still had to work :(

Last night we went to a BBQ at John and Jennifer's house. We chatted outside while we sat at the new patio furniture, and then we moved inside to eat supper because it was getting cool outside. It was a great time. We've been trying to get together with them forever, so it was great that it finally worked out. Hopefully we'll get a chance to have them over to our place soon, but they're due to have a baby on Sept 14th, so it may take us a while to get together again!!

Still working on it.

Yes, I'm still working on the post from 2 days ago. I'm having some blogger issues. I can't seem to get my pictures to upload, so I'm going to go the photobucket route instead, but then I have to worry about getting the pictures to be the right size.

Still nothing new, it's actually 7:10 am, I have to go to work in 20 minutes. Yet, here I am, wasting my time on the computer. My coffee this morning was one of my best cups in a long time. I didn't want that cup to end.

And I'm on the edge of my seat about "So You Think You Can Dance" tonight. It's elimination night. I'm predicting it will be Travis and Donyelle. I'm not sure, it's so hard to tell. I think people really like Ivan and Benji, and I think Heidi's safe. Natalie was is the bottom 2 a whole bunch of times, so maybe it will be her who goes, I really don't know. I think next week may be the finale, too!! What will I do on Wednesday nights when it's over?????????

I may be heading home to Pictou for the weekend, I haven't really decided yet. If I do go, I'm leaving tonight, and I still have nothing packed, so I guess I better decide sometime during the day today and get my butt in gear. Joel Plaskett is playing tonight at the Riverfront Jubilee in New Glasgow, and if I knew I would get home in time to see that I would go for sure, but there is almost no chance we'll make it in time. No one else at the Jubilee I really want to see. If I do go home I may spend the day with Mel at the shop where she works, and that would be fun, but then I have the rest of the weekend with not much to do. I'd kind of just rather be here where all my scrapbooking stuff is, I might actually get something accomplished that way. Well, I better get going if I'm actually going to make it to work today.

I'm still here

No, I haven't totally forgotten I should write stuff here. As a matter of fact, I've started a great, long post, but I'm having some issues with Blogger and adding pictures. I promise I'll work on it tomorrow. Right now it's past 11 and I have to work tomorrow.

A whole lot of nothing...

The title pretty much sums it up. There hasn't been much going on. I spent Friday at the shop making some cards and learning some new techniques with acrylic paints and some others from Carolyn's sister in law. It was fun. I'll post the cards when I scan them in. They're much different from what I tend to do on my own, but great techniques for teaching to my card class.

On Sunday we went mini golfing. Now, I don't think I've mentioned this before, but Bevan and I are quite the Mini Golf Fanatics. Ever since we started dating it was something we've loved to do. I think the first place we ever played mini golf together was at Trenton Park. Then in the summer of 2001 we made a trip to Cavendish, PEI and played as many mini golf places as we could handle. Here's a list and a short review of each one:

1. Trenton Park - our first. It was 5 years ago, but as I remember it was okay. It's kind of under lots of trees and stuff, so there was lots of pine needles and debris on the greens. I don't have any pictures of this one as it was in the pre-digital camera era.

2. Sandspit - In Cavendish, PEI. Played in July 2001. Once again, a pretty good course. Nothing too crazy, but it was challenging if I remember correctly. I do remember it was a really hot day that day, so I may have enjoyed it more had I not been so warm.

3. River of Adventure Mini Golf - In Cavendish again. July 2001. I remember loving this one. It's full of fun stuff. One hole has giant potatoes on the green that you have to shoot around. In another you shoot the ball into the hole and it rolls down a large drill bit or something. And, of course, there's the giant lobster, which in no way is interactive in the game, but Bevan always loves having his picture taken with it!! There's also a hole where there is a swing type thing that moves back and forth over the hole, so you have to time your shot really well. We played this course again last year in 2005, and I was slightly dissapointed to find it's gone downhill a little bit, but it still has some cool features.

4. Black Magic Indoor Mini Golf - Yes, Cavendish again. Another fun course. No pictures of this one - once again pre-digital camera. The golf balls and clubs glow in the dark, and the walls are painted with glow in the dark pictures. One important lesson I learned at this course: never wear white undergarments under a sheer dress while in a black light setting - no it wasn't me, but the woman who was playing in front of us.

5. Ripley's Believe it or Not course - (I believe it may be called Mariner's Cove). Cavendish again. This one was fun, but a real toughie!! Not a good one if you're looking for a fun, quick game. This one requires some real concentration and skill, much like this next one:

6. St. Andrews Mini Golf and Country Club - This one is right here in Summerside. I believe it is modelled after a full course somewhere. This one has some real fun features - real ponds and real water and sand traps.

7. Crystal Palace Mini Golf - I think I remember this one being kind of neat. It was indoors and I seem to remember playing around a ship or something. Pretty fun if I remember correctly.

8. Magic Valley - outside New Glasgow Nova Scotia. This was a pretty straight forward course - nothing fancy really.

9. The Snow Queen - outside Antigonish, Nova Scotia. I barely remember this one, I've included it in my list because Bevan told me we went there. I do remember driving all the way there just to play Mini Golf. But I think the memory that sticks out in my mind most of this day is when I kicked Bevan's butt on the go-carts. I guess that great memory just eclipses all the other memories of the day.

10. Magic Mountain - in Moncton. Another one I only vaguely remember. I do know I was here with my parents and Mel and Bevan. I remember it being just outside the park, and I think I remember getting a hole in one here.

11. Drive-U-Crazy Mini Golf - at Cymbria campground in Cymbria, PEI. This is the latest, and among the greatest courses that we've played. I will say it is a little run down and the greens have a few wrinkles and some of the props could use a coat of paint, but this one was great. They have a castle that you have to shoot the ball through, a big red maze that you have to shoot the ball into, and a wheel powered by water that the ball goes into, and gets carried up to another level, where it is dropped onto the green.

All in all, I'd rate Drive-U-Crazy as my favorite fun course, and St. Andrews as my favorite more serious course. I think Bevan and I will someday build our own dream course and put all of our favorite features of all the courses we've played in one.

New Cards

Made a couple of new cards tonight, a baby one for my friend Denise (now I just have to get her address so I can send it to her!!), and birthday one for sometime when I need one. Just felt like playing around with my scrapbooking stuff. Everythings pretty quiet right now, although there's nothing wrong with that, who need drama???
I'm trying to watch both Big Brother and Canadian Idol right now. Oh, I guess I can stop watching Canadian Idol - Sarah Loverock just got voted off. I liked her. I don't really have a favorite yet. Big Brother is pretty good this season - it's All Stars. Chicken George is back, although I think he's near the end of his run. That's what he gets for trying to play all sweet and innocent and then getting caught eavesdropping!! I'm sooooo hooked on these stupid reality shows!! Tomorrow night is "So You Think You Can Dance" (I think that's my favorite).

Love it...

Found this picture of a wedding cake and I love it, only with my wedding colors of blue and brown instead of pink and brown like it is here.









Also, this great girl named Heather made me some monograms, check them out and tell me what you think:

Guess Who Has a Blog????

My sister Melanie!!!!! Check it Out!