Questions and Answers & Basement AFTER Pics!!!

Question: What do you do with left over party food?

Answer: Why, you devour it of course!

Hence my snack last night. I ate half and shared the other half with the hubby:



You will be seeing a LOT more party food in my future. Hubby and I froze some stuff, and will be snacking on it happily until it is gone!

Question: What is the definition of genius?

Answer: Having done 185 blog posts, and realizing only now that I can upload multiple pictures at a time. Wow. My parents must be proud.

I got to upload all my food pics in 1 shot today! My breakfast was some Hawaiian Oats:


(1 cup almond breeze, 1/2 cup quick oats, 1 banana, 4 T pineapple, 1 T shredded coconut).

Lunch was this:



Question: Who wants to go out and get groceries when it is -32 C outside.

Answer: Not me!!

And so dinner tonight was all that the hubby and I could scrounge up in our pretty bare fridge ... eggs and toast! Hubby made cheese and tomato omelettes:



We ate really early because we both came home from work HANGRY! Later on I snacked on some crab dip (just imitation crab with helluva dip from Costco) and crackers:



Question: When are you going to get to the "AFTER" pics?????

Answer: Right now!

I shall give you the grand tour of our new basement :-) You walk down the staircase:

And turn the corner to see this hallway:

The first door in the hallway leads you to our 3 piece bathroom:

It is hard to tell from the pics, but when you first walk in there is the sink, and then beside it is the shower, and then beside that (hidden from the view from the sink) is the toilet.

If you continue to the second door in the hallway you get to the laundry room ... but that is boring, so we will move past that.

And enter in to the "living room" area:

Across from the couches you will see this lovely tree with black, white and red ornaments. Once the tree is gone we plan to put a fireplace and TV in its place:

Beside the couches (in the other half of the living room) is this buffet we bought for $20 and then painted, and put new legs and handles on:

Across from the buffet we have some bookshelves:

I love the cute little drawer at the bottom of the tall one!

If you go around the corner again (the basement is like a big square with the laundry room in the middle) you will see our office nook:

And if you keep walking through the door, you will be in the spare bedroom (which has no bed or anything yet):

Here is the view as you walk out of the bedroom back into the main area:

And there you have it! Our newly finished basement. It took WAY longer than expected, and resulted in more tears than it should have.

Speaking of tears ...

This has been probably THE HARDEST year of my life.

1) This basement reno was an absolute nightmare.

2) I went to school for two classes, plus ran participants for my experiment and wrote my thesis - all while working full time with TONNES of overtime and coaching volleyball.

3) I studied for and wrote my GRE test

4) All of these things led to NUMEROUS mental breakdowns. I cannot count the many times I cried, and felt like I wanted to do ANYTHING else other than study etc..

Question: Why is today one of the best days EVER?

Answer: Because as of today, I am DONE my last class of my BA Honours. I submitted the FINAL draft of my thesis after work, and you have no idea how good it felt to hit that send button! So good in fact that I hit it so quickly I forgot to attach my thesis, and had to send another email! Again, my parents would be so proud. Genius move Jolene.

I have been in University every single semester for the last 10 years. This winter semester will be my first semester off, and I seriously could not be more excited.

Usually a second degree is 10 classes beyond your first degree ... I did 23.

Once my marks are in, and I see the degree conferred on my transcripts, then I will celebrate ... but for tonight, the hubby and I just chilled on the couch and watched movies and TV, with not a care in the world.

It was perfect.

Question: What is something that you have done or gone through this year - good or bad?

A Day of Indulgence (and work ...)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all my American Readers! (And anyone else celebrating thanksgiving today)!

Thanksgiving was in October for Canadians like me, but I still want to tell you all what I am thankful for today:

1) I am thankful for my health
2) I am thankful for my family (they mean EVERYTHING).
3) I am thankful for my friends (I have the greatest group of friends and I love them!)
4) I am so thankful that it is almost the end of the semester.
5) I am thankful that I have an AMAZING job to go to everyday with a group of young people that I am so proud of and so glad to be able to spend each day with.
5) I am thankful that I have so many wonderful readers! I love you guys!

What are you thankful for today?

Eats today:

This morning I had a green monster (surprise, surprise):

Throughout the day I also had 2 Christmas oranges:

And just when you are thinking I am all "green monsters, and nutrients" woooahhhhh, I go and get all crazy on you and eat CRAP for the rest of the day :-)
Crap from Costco to be exact.

Lunch was a piece of pepperoni pizza from costco, but my camera ate the pic.

Dinner was this:

I am wild like that. I ate 1/2.

And just when you thought I couldn't get any crazier for one day ... I drank this:

(coke zero ... aka ... poison in a cup - that I shared with the hubby).

I need to restrain my rebellious side, I know ;-)

After my nutritious square meal, I went for a 1 hour massage. Ahhhhh pure bliss!

If I was a millionaire I would totally get a massage a day.
What about you - what would you indulge in?

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a relaxing/ homework free day like I did!

This morning started out great because the hubby offered to make pancakes! This is my portion:

With real maple syrup for dipping:

I prefer to dip my pancakes, because then they don't get soggy.

For a later morning snack I had 1/2 of this:

This was my first try of an Amazing Grass Bar ... and I found it a little too sweet for my liking. The nutritionals are amazing though, so I will be finishing the bar at some point, and eating the other few that I have.

Around 1:30 we picked up my little nephew to hang out for the afternoon. We went shopping a bit, and had a late lunch at Costco. I wasn't hungry, so I had about 1/2 piece of pizza and a few fries.

For dinner we went to the hubby's parents house. We had ribs and rice:

And salad with mixed greens, apple, cranberries, pecans, and a light dressing:

I also had a glass of crystal light icetea:

This evening the hubby and I are going to watch some of our shows. I made a little POM spritzer to enjoy.

I also had some of this homeopathic medicine today to try and help me get over my cold:

I don't know if it works, but it is worth a shot. Have you ever tried a homeopathic medicine/ remedy?

Another weekend has come and gone ... and tomorrow is Monday - sorry to remind you.
This week is sure to be crazy busy, and I still need a costume idea for Halloween!

Are you dressing up for Halloween? What as?

I just want to thank everyone for the b-day wishes yesterday! You are all so sweet :-)

My snack last night was an orange:



And a Green Tea with Real Apple Flavour:



TODAY'S EATS

This morning for breakfast I had some source vanilla yogurt, with the last of my Glo-nola, and a banana.



I also had a slice of toast with PB:



For lunch I ran to Costco, and grabbed a slice of pepperoni pizza.

My Dad took me out for dinner tonight to Red Lobster!

I had 1 biscuit:



Caesar salad:



And snow crab legs with mashed potatoes:



I like crab a LOT more than lobster. Which do you prefer?

This evening I am going to have another rockin' Friday night ... catch up on some TV, and maybe do some homework.

In case you were wondering ... I am the epitome of cool.

Today the hubby and I went to our favorite coffee house/ restaurant for a fresh and healthy lunch. I had a hummus and veggie wrap, with a side of Golden Dahl soup (tasted like carrot with some curry flavor):



After lunch I went to work for about 3 hours, and while I was there the hubby cleaned the whole house :-) He also went shopping for the new shower curtain, but none of the stores had what we were looking for. I stopped working for a dinner break around 6:30 ...



Dinner featured wild rice, a mango sweet chili turkey sausage, and a tomato.
I have been trying the different flavors of turkey/ chicken sausages that Costco has been bringing in. They have really good nutritional stats, and they are pre-cooked, which makes it easy when you need something quick.

I went back to work after dinner ... and got a couple things crossed off my to-do list.

I worked until 10:30 this evening, then came home and had a snack:



1 apple, 1 tsp almond butter, 1 90 cal piece of cheese

I didn't accomplish everything on my to-do list today, but I did make a pretty nice dent. Tomorrow I plan on taking it easy and relaxing a bit - and maybe I will go for a run too!

Right now I am in the process of planning some meals for next week so that grocery shopping tomorrow will be organized. Do you plan your meals each week, or do you just decide daily what you are going to have? Do you take a list grocery shopping?