MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I'm here in Bowmanville, Ontario for the holidays.  Jeff and I arrived here on December 19th around 9:00am.  We had to leave for the airport at 3:00am becuase it takes a couple hours to get there from Pinawa and we had to be at the airport an hour early because we have pets and checking in with them takes longer. 

Oh my God the checkin experience, let me freakin' tell you about THAT!  So I went through the metal scanner and I knew that I was going to go off because I was carrying Sampras and his collar always makes it go off.  After I put him back in his carrier this big, butchy, freak security lady started to scan me with the hand held scanner.  I swear to God it must have been broken because it beeped on me in every single spot, even spots with no metal at all!  Oh it gets better... the butch lady actually made me undo my jeans in front of at least 50 people and then she proceeded to put her huge disgusting hands down my pants, with all these strangers looking at me!  She even touched my bare ass and my... lady parts!  Ugh, worst experinece of my life.  I was almost going to cry I swear.  And then after all that she made me go through, nothing was wrong of course and I was free to go.  You know, I saw a sign there that said if someone was going to search you like that they had to take you to a private room.  I should sue damn it, it was so embarassing!  At least the flight was smooth and nice.  Fucking Winnipeg Airport... UGH!

ANYWAYS, today is Christmas so I'll tell you what we got.  It'll put me in a better mood.  The big gift that I got from my parents was a JVC Everio digital camcorder.  I have been wanting one of those things for about 5 years now.  There are lots of different versions of it and mine is the High Capacity one that holds 2 SD memory cards.  We don't have a card yet though, we are getting one tomorrow.  I can't wait to use it, I'm so excited!  I also got an alarm clock, a family photo in a nice frame, a Nintendo DS game, and lots of other little things like stocking stuffers and stuff.  Jeff's parents gave him some money to buy whatever he wanted and they gave me a nice shirt and some snow pants that I desperatly needed because God damn it's cold where I live!  Overall it was a pretty awesome Christmas.  We still don't have plans for New Year's Eve though.  We are going back to Manitoba on January 3rd.

I told Chris I would put this last part in lol:  Chris and Jeff are playing Halo 3 on XBox 360 right now and Chris will not get off and let me play Scene It on XBox.  JERK!  Hahaha.

-Ashley Easton

Santa Claus Is Coming To Town

Christmas is in 10 days!!  More importantly though, I'm coming home to Ontario this Saturday, only 4 days away!!  I'm so excited to be going home because I miss my family and friends and if I had stayed here in Manitoba for Christmas, Jeff and I would have been pretty damn lonely.  Practically all of the people we know are spending Christmas somewhere other than here.  I can't really have Christmas without my family, what kind of Christmas would that be?  Besides, what's a Christmas without "Ashley Presents: Christmas Eve Slumber Party Ooooooooooooh Nine!"?  It's going to be great!

So what else has been happening?  Well I had to go see a dietitian because my cholesterol levels are a bit too high for my doctor's liking.  It's mostly genetic though.  My Dad has high cholesterol.  I'm really glad that I went to see the dietitian though because she wrote out a meal plan for me and it tells me exactly what I can and can't eat.  Before I wasn't too sure and I would make a bad food choice and not even realize it.  Now I can go grocery shopping and know exactly what I need.  I really just need to eat more fish (which I love, so that's not a problem at all), more bran, and less sugars.  Oh and absolutely NO cheese products, because apparently cheese raises cholesterol like no other food there is.  That's fine though, I was kind of going off cheese anyways, I don't really like it.  Jeff is also buying me an elliptical in January because staying active helps to lower cholesterol and I can't be active for half of the year because winter lasts for 6 months here and I am allergic to the cold.  Having the elliptical will be great because then I can workout indoors.  I have to go back in June for another test to see if my cholesterol has gone down.  Hopefully with my new diet and new elliptical, it will go down no problem.

Oh I also wanted to say that I got my final mark back from my Bookkeeping and Accounting course... 79.41%!  I thought I failed for sure.  I also learned that 28 people dropped out before the course was over!  It was hard, but not THAT hard.  Oh well, at least I did well.

-Ashley

I'm Free! For Now...

Hey guys, sorry for the long absence, I've just been so busy with school.  I had a final project that was a HUGE pain the ass.  I thought I would have to get an extension on it and everything.  Jeff gave me confidence though and I made it through it, I even got 91% on it!  I'm really happy about that.  At first my professor gave me the wrong mark and it said I got 116% percent on it.  I emailed him and was like "Um, something seems not right here..."  Damn me and honesty, he would have never noticed if I didn't say anything!  Oh well, 91% is still really good and I'm really proud of myself.  It definitely boosted my confidence level.  I took the exam last Saturday in Winnipeg at 9am.  I don't have my mark for it yet, but even if I failed, I still passed the course.  I don't think I failed though... hopefully. *fingers crossed*  So now I don't have anymore school!  Well, I am probably starting the second course in my program in February or March, but I still have a lot of free time until then.  The next course in my program is Website Development and Design and it's only 3 months long.  It should be super easy since it teaches you how to make a website using HTML and I already know how to do that.

So now all I have to do is sit around.  Oh wait... CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!  Yes folks, today is December 1st and that means Christmas season is officially here.  Well, it was here 2 weeks ago when the Toronto Santa Claus Parade was on, but Jeff wouldn't let me start celebrating Christmas until after his birthday, which was November 25th.  We went to Jennifer's Restaurant for Jeff's birthday dinner.  His birthday just happened to fall on a Wednesday and every Wednesday is all-you-can-eat pork schnitzel at Jennifer's for $9.50.  Jeff is obsessed with it.  I don't like it, I always get the shrimp dinner when we go there.  He had fun though, a bunch of our friends went with us.

Sooooo yeah, Christmas = 24 days away!  AND we fly home in 18 days!  I'm so excited! 

-Ashley

The End Is In Site!

I am almost done my Bookkeeping and Accounting course!  It's the first course in my Small Business Management program at Red River College here in Manitoba.  I finished my final project on Tuesday and mailed it out to my professor that evening.  It was probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life.  It's basically all math, and I am terrible at math.  I managed to get through it though, with Jeff's encouragement.  Now the only thing I have left is the exam which is next Friday.  I am nervous of course, but mostly because I've never been to the campus since I am taking my courses through correspondence and I am afraid I will get lost in the school or something!  I don't think I will though because Jeff and I are going on Saturday to check the school out and find the room that the exam is being held in.  I'm excited!  The next course I am going to take I think is Web Site Development.  I have to take 6 courses in the program and I have 8 years to finish them, so I'm not really in that big of a hurry.  I like how I am able to be flexible with my time and still get a degree in something that will help me further down the road when I start my at-home dog grooming business.  I am really excited to start that because everyone is supposed to enjoy what they do professionally and I know what I will just LOVE that!

Other than that, nothing else has really been going on.  Jeff is working the lights for the town play for the next 3 nights so I am here with Dixie and Sampras.  It's pretty boring.  I am going to the play tomorrow night to watch it.  It's supposed to be really funny, plus it's a dinner theatre so you get a meal served to you while you watch the play.  The food better be good for $35, that's all I have to say about that haha!  I've heard it's supposed to be really good, so I'm looking forward to it.

On a final note... CHRISTMAS IS IN 36 DAYS!!!  Also, I am going home exactly one month from today.  I am so excited!  I find that I am writing how excited I am in each blog post lol.  Oh well... CHRISTMAS!!  I'm a little obsessed hee hee. 

Goodnight all!

-Ashley

♫ Don't Rock The Jukebox, I Wanna Hear Some Jones! ♪

Haha, the title of this blog is the name of the song that just came on lol.  It's by Alan Jackson.  I found this free online radio on Shoutcast called 181.FM 90's Country and I am obsessed with it!  90's country was so much better than todays country, well aside from Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley *swoon*. 

Jeff is at band practice and badminton tonight.  I was working on my final project for school, but I decided to take a break from it.  I went through it and kind of realized that it's not as big as I thought it would be.  I just tend to make a big deal over things that are important to me and I get all worried and freaked out.  I think I'll be okay though, I'm pretty sure.  Hopefully, haha. 

Remembrance Day is tomorrow.  I always get really emotional on that day because my Great-Poppy Daley was a prisoner of war in WWII and both my grandfathers were in the navy.  Also, my Aunt Anita is in the army.  My family has a lot of military background.  I am going to watch the memorial service on CBC tomorrow and have a moment of silence.  You all should too!

I've started back up with my 10-Minute Trainer again.  Jeff bought it for me a while back but I never really got into it though.  I need to use it more often though, I am out of shape!  I have started to use it every single day and it really is a good workout.  Like, I am sweating so bad when I'm done and I'm like "WATER... NEED WATER!!"  There are 5 different sessions that you can do: cardio, lower body, total body, abs, and yoga flex.  A schedule came with the kit so that I know which session to do on which day.  The kit also came with a bunch of other neat things like a resistance band with handles, a measuring tape to measure problem areas before and after, a proper eating book, and lots of other cool things.  I highly recommend it.  Jeff bought it off the infomercial and paid over $100 American for it, but after that (unfortunately) we found out that Wal-Mart sells it for about $50.

Christmas is in 45 days and I'm coming home in 40 days!!  WOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOO!!  In case you can't tell, I'm VERY excited hee hee.  If my sisters are reading this, you better get your asses ready for Ashley's Christmas Eve Slumber Party '09, it's gonna be great!

I better get going, Jeff is going to be home soon.  Bye!

-Ashley

Bored...

I'm so bored right now.  Jeff has been at the town play practice since 5:00pm and it's now 10:04pm.  He's not acting or anything, he's running the lights.  He says its really cool.  So while he's out doing that, I'm sitting here at home with Dixie and Sampras, listening to a 90's country radio station I found online.  "Don't Rock The Jukebox" by Alan Jackson is playing right now. 

Wow, I just read back I wrote in that first paragraph and holy crap I sound like the blandest person on earth!

On to something more interesting.  I'm coming home in 42 days!!  AND... CHRISTMAS IS IN 47 DAYS!!!!  Obviously I'm extremely excited.  We bought our tickets and everything is a go.  We are going home on December 19th and coming back to Manitoba on January 3rd.  We even went out and bought Dixie a new carrier for the plane.  Her old one is kind ruined since she saw my mom last summer and busted right through it to get to her lol.  This new one seems to be more sturdier.  Hopefully.

Okay Jeff just came home, so I'm going to cut this one short. 
Bye!

-Ashley

Halloween Is Over... 53 Days Til CHRISTMAS!!

First off, how awesome is this kick-ass Rudolph template?!  As soon as I saw it I was like "That is the most awesome think I have seen in a long time, I must have it!"  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is my all time favourite Christmas special.  I am so obsessed with it that I watch it all year round, and seeing as how Christmas is only 53 days away, I decided to put this template up to celebrate the upcoming holidays.  Christmas = my one true love!

However, last night was Halloween so I suppose I should talk about that.  Jeff's friend Adam is here for the weekend from Ontario and we all went to a Halloween party at a friends house here in town.  I dressed up as a witch, Jeff was a mad scientist, and Adam was a pirate.  The party was really fun.  I just wish I wasn't so tired.  I have been diagnosed with having really low iron which makes me tired all the time and I am on a prescription for it, but I don't think it's working because I am still exhausted all the time.  We won the best carved pumpkin contest though.  Jeff carved the Headless Horseman's face into the pumpkin.  It looked really awesome.  Overall it was a really great night.

Jeff and Adam have been playing some X-Men game on X-Box for like 6 hours now!  I don't know how they can play a video game for that long, I know I couldn't.  Whatever though, it's keeping them out of my way while I make dinner.  I'm making a whole roasted chicken with Swiss Chalet sauce, French fries, and corn.  I love my roasted chicken, it's my most favourite thing that I make for dinner.  I actually have to go check on it now though.  Bye for now!

-Ashley 

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hey all.  I know I haven't posted in about a week, but I've been really busy with school and other things.  Last week I had to read 6 chapters for school and each chapter is about 50 pages.  Plus I had to do review questions and problem applications for each chapter.  So yeah, last week was pretty hectic for me.  Plus on Friday I didn't get an school work done because Jeff stayed home from work.  He had an ear ache and pretty sore throat, so I had to take him of him and do other things around our apartment.  He's better now though, so I should have a pretty quiet week to do even MORE school work.  Yay... *rolls eyes*.

I was rewarded for my hard work last week though.  Jeff took me out and bought me a new purse!  I basically get a new purse every season.  This is my new fall purse.  It's a deep purple colour, so it matches the fall colours well.  I really like it.  We also had lunch with Jeff's cousin yesterday.  He lives in Ontario, but he came to Winnipeg with his university's basketball team to play against U of M and U of W.  Jeff was happy to see him.  We went to The Olive Garden for lunch.  I don't really like it there.  It taste good at the beginning, but I get crazy heartburn about an hour after I finish eating there.  It sucks.

This week I only have from Monday-Thursday to do some school work, so I really have to buckle down.  The reason is because on Friday, Jeff's friend Adam is coming to visit for 4 days and we have to pick him up at the airport at 10:00am.  It should be fun.

Oh and there is so super great news to announce: We're coming home for Christmas!  YESSSSSSSS!!  Holy crow I am so excited about this!  Christmas is my all time FAVOURITE holiday, and I don't mean for the presents.  Christmas is my favourite time of the year because it looks good with all the decorations, it smells good because of baking and cinnamon candles, it sounds good because of Christmas songs, and it feels good because you get to spend time with family.  This year, we were almost not going to go home because we didn't think we would have the money.  However, we have been budgeting really well and trying to keep our expenses to a minimum, and we are good to go!  We are both going to be flying.  At first Jeff was going to be driving with some people from Pinawa who are also from Ontario, but I talked him out of it because driving that distance would take too many days out of his time at home and I really didn't want him driving that distance in the winter.  It's just too dangerous.  Holy, I cannot wait for "Ashley Presents: Christmas Eve Slumber Party '09!"  Haha, I have a slumber party with my sisters every Christmas Eve and I annoy the crap out of them lol.  It's awesome.

ANYWAYS... I'm off to do some more school work.  Bye!

-Ashley

Pub Crawlin' and Such

This weekend Jeff and I and just about all of our friends from Pinawa went into Winnipeg for a pub crawl to celebrate fall birthdays.  There are so many fall birthday's, it's actually kind of spooky.  We stayed the night with Jason, Deana, and Paul at Jay and Leah's apartment, someone people stayed at someone else's house, and some people stayed in a hotel.

We went to two places to drink.  Well, I didn't drink because I quit drinking awhile back.  If I have even half a drink I get really sick.  I can still have fun without drinking though, so it's not a loss at all.  The first place we went was The Toad.  It was fun, it was just like a regular pub.  We stayed there for most of the night.  After that we went to another place called The G-Martini Bar.  I really wish we would have just stayed at The Toad.  The G-Martini was more like a club and I am NOT the club type.  I have never been to a club in all my life.  The music was so loud you had to scream to the person sitting next to you in order for them to hear you.  Plus the place was so tiny!  It was just a small room in the corner of some building and it was so cramped.  Thank God we only stayed there for a little while.  Jeff wanted to leave because he wasn't feeling too well.  Overall, it was a really fun night though.

Right now I am just sitting here on the couch watching Dr. Phil.  Only because nothing else is on.  Dr. Phil is not even a real doctor, he's a complete moron.  I hate how he always says "When we come back, I'm gonna tell what I think about this".  F U Dr Phil, no one wants to know what you think about anyone or anything!  Okay getting off track here lol.  I think I'm just going to have a nap or something. 

-Ashley

Busy School Week

Right now I'm just taking a 15 minute break from school work.  You see, I read my schedule and thought I only had to do QUESTIONS 19-22.  It turns out I really have to do UNITS 19-22, with all the questions that go with them.  Hee hee... oops.  So I've got a lot of work to do.  It's okay though, I only have to read 50 pages in the textbook, so it's not really that bad.  I just wish I was learning something more interesting.  Don't get me wrong, I want to do this because I need it to complete my Small Business Management course, it's just so boring!  I think the next course I want to do in the program is Marketing.  I read a bit about it and people seem to really like it and it's just really interesting to them.  Well, back to work!

Oh by the way, I tried to get Dixie to do my work, but she seemed just as uninterested as I am:

-Ashley