One Man Standing

This post is written as I sit at my desk literally dying. I have THE cold. It all started with Alexia early in the week which then proceeded to attack Gord and then I was hit in the middle of the night. Cara-Li seems to be the only one that is still healthy!

So this past weekend, we were graced with a visit from Mortimer's Mom and Family. We first met up at our ski hill where we skied together. The girls had soooo much fun together! They just kept buzzing up and down the hill with their moms in tow. We had a special mission to accomplish. MM made some heart-shaped stuffies that needed to be dropped off somewhere for someone to find. It is for The Toy Society and once found, they hope to get an e-mail from the finder. So off we went and the girls decided that they should be hung off of Tinkerbell's wings (little wooden characters that decorate the ski hill) but they really had to make sure no one saw them doing it. So one girl skied the bag down, the other hung it and one was the lookout. Now we are waiting to find out who is the lucky recepient of some very cute stuffies! After skiing, we all headed back to our cottage for some play, drinks and a Valentine's dinner. And MM made my girls a couple of heart stuffies as well! Very cute and the girls just love them!

Bento lunches that I made the girls for the ski hill

On Sunday, we headed home early as Cara-Li had a party to go to. In fact, she had a club meeting to go to. A CLUB MEETING! Apparently, in the bus, they created a club called the CFS (Cool Fast Spies). And true to all clubs, we are not allowed to know what goes on (well, we do because the party was held at 2 houses and adults were present!). Apparently, the created a special handshake and a bunch of rules that are not to be divulged to anyone! But, since we returned early, we were able to completed finish our master bathroom. Curtains are finally up!
And since we were home, I made this fabulous dinner of isreali couscous with roasted veggies and shrimp. To die for!

So I will now go curl up in a corner in my office and hide! Better still, I will sneak out of here early and go to bed! See ya...

Martinis... Yum-Yum!!

D over at 3D mentionned that she was having a Martini Monday. Well, I have had a Martini Week!

It all started off with a speeding ticket on my way to work on Monday. Now, I was only going 50 km/hr but it happened to be at the the beginning of a school zone which is a 30 km zone. So $110.00 and 2 points later, I was back on my way to work. I must now find a new way to and fro work because I cannot tolerate driving 30 km/hr!

On Tuesday, I had several doctor and dentist appointments so I took the day off. I ended up spending the rest of my day working on my Italian association newsletter which had to be sent out ASAP. I worked on it until midnight at which point my eyes were popping out of their sockets! Not to mention that I had really worked my brain to the max as it had to be written in Italian. I think in English but cannot translate into Italian easily as it is not a Latin language. So I had to translate into French and then into Italian. Did I mention that I never studied Italian so I had all my Italian reference books out so as not to make too many mistakes. I did have it all proof read by a real Italian and I am proud to say that I did really well!

On Wednesday, I ended spending a good part of my day looking for a dead guy. Yup! Apparently, my duties for the Italian association does not end at being secretary. I got an e-mail from a family in Italy explaining that their brother had passed away 3 months ago here in our province and that they wanted to have his body returned. After many phone calls, I found the person who has his remains, some French guy living at the same address as Italian guy. Do I smell a scandal? How do I send an e-mail back home explaining all this? Anyway, I told them what I had found and figured they could come to their own conclusions!

Gord has not been around all that much in the last couple of weeks so I have pretty much been a single mom. Not bad. My girls are great so things ran pretty smoothly.

So, I do not need to mention that I have been sipping Martinis pretty regularily all week!

More Festivities and Could it be?

UPDATE: I have finally included the pictures of Chinese New Year.

Another wonderful evening was spent with fabulous friends celebrating Chinese New Year. We decided to hold our annual dinner in Chinatown a few days after the fact so that we could get better service. And it was so much better than last year! The food was great, the service was great and they let us relax after dinner. Unlike like year where they were hovering over us to get us out ASAP! This year, we were a total of 24 people, with 7 girls from China ranging from 2 yo. to 16 yo. and one 9 yo. who is not Chinese but wishes she was! Along with these 6 families, also present were the godparents to our children. I can remember our first CNY back in 2004 where we only had about 8-10 people for our dinner. Our adoptive circle is certainly growing. I love it! As I was not much in the mood of taking pictures, Cara-Li went around with my SLR wrapped around her neck and snapped away. As it was late last night, I did not get a chance to download them yet. I will post them Sunday when we get home from the cottage. Anyway, it was great to see all the girls have such a great time. Everyone found a buddy and new friendships were formed. We now have lots of BFFs!

As a sidenote, my watching what I eat (well, except for last night) has been paying off. In the 15 days that I have started, I have lost 5 lbs. Could it be? I am dumbfounded! And thrilled! If I could only figure out what my target weight should be, then I would actually have a goal. And I am still wearing makeup daily and the recycling thing is also going well. And finally, Gord has not returned anything for me yet this year! Things are good at the Farrell residence!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Yesterday, we celebrated Chinese New Year with another 130 people with the Adoptive Families of Quebec. It was a great party that joined many Montreal adoptive families together to celebrate the arrival of the Year of the Ox. We have been going to these festivities yearly since before Cara-Li, therefore app. 7 years now, and it is amazing how many people you get to know over time. Some families have older kids while others have just got home with them. It is always such an emotional time to see all the wonderful children and extremely lucky parents all in one place. We are all so lucky to have each other to laugh and play and just enjoy one another's company. I love my adoptive family friends... they are all so great!

PS: Gordie was out of town and therefore not in the picture. Sorry Gordie!

Day 2

I did not realize how often I rub my eyes in a day. Mascara is now on and I had raccoon eyes within 5 minutes!

Went out for supper last night with some old friends at a French bistro. I managed to eat a pretty decent meal that was not too fattening and I managed to stay away from the cheese plate and dessert. A very BIG feat for me indeed!

Problem now is the weekend. I LOVE to eat on weekends. Plus we have friends coming for weekend making it that much harder. Wish me luck!

Day 1

It is now 9:30 AM on Day 1 of the start of my New Year's Resolutions. I have already taken one step forward and two steps back! Hugh!! This is not going to be easy!

As I got up this AM, I was determined to make things work. So I proceeded to prepare a salad for lunch. However, since I have not been grocery shopping in a dog's age, there wasn't a whole lot to throw in there. I like salads and don't mind eating them but there has to be some good stuff in it. So here is what I managed to put together: mesclun lettuce, sliced black olives, 1/2 can of tuna, chickpeas and sweet onions with a homemade salad dressing. I also packed a couple of clementines for dessert and some carrots for a snack. Next, I had to deal with breakfast. I never eat breakfast, only on weekends and then I have the works which is not really diet- friendly! So I had a yogurt topped with some granola. Passable. I really do need that granola to get that yogurt down. Yuck! This was my one step forward... resolution #2.

Now for the two steps back. My yogurt was in one of those individual cups and therefore not so good for my Reduce, Reuse, Recycle resolution. But to my defence... I did not buy them. My brother, who was leaving for Puerto Rico, needed to clean out his fridge and I was the lucky recepient of the said yogurts. Next, the makeup. After all the salad hoopla and the breakfast thing, there was no time for makeup. Well, to be truthful, I forgot! I remembered in the car and so I did a really girly thing that I never do when driving... searched through my purse for some makeup. I managed to muster up some lipstick but that was it. The mascara will have to wait until tomorrow!

Alive and Well

No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth! I just find this time of the year the hardest. All I want to do is sleep! I have trouble getting to work and being motivated to make it through the day. Then i cannot wait to get home and hit the sack. For this reason, I have not really been on my computer very much and thus no blog entries.

But we are alive and kicking and today I wanted to discuss my New Year's Resolutions. I have three. But I decided that it would be unrealistic to begin on January 1st so I have told myself that the 15th is a more reasonable time to start. And guess what? Tomorrow is the 15th. Am I ready? Sort of, not really...

Here are my resolutions:

1) Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

We have always recycled but now I will be kicking it up a notch. Recycling will be a last resort. That is, while recycling is a great thing to do for the environment, reducing and reusing is far better. The items do not need to be recycled into something else if it will be reused and better still reduced. Therefore, no more individual yogurts, no more pre-packaged pieces of cheese etc. You get the picture. Also, before recycling, I take a good long look at it and think if there is another use for it. What Gord doesn't know yet that the next step is composting!

2) Lose Weight

Although my doctor says that for my age and my height, my weight is just fine. But I still feel that I am 15 lbs.ounds overweight. When we went to China for Alexia, I was 10 lbs overweight but I was convinced that I would lose them during our trip as I had when adopting Cara-Li. Clearly a second adoption is much less stressful and more of a vacation that I actually gained 5 lbs when over there! During my year off, I managed to trim of those 5 extra lbs. but regained them again when I went to Paris this past October! So there you have it... 15 lbs to go!

3) Apply Makeup

As silly as this may sound, I will as of tomorrow apply makeup on a daily basis. This will be extremely difficult for me as I hate the stuff! But really, I can make a little effort. Perhaps a little mascara and lipstick! I will let you know how this goes...


Gord, on the other hand, has one New Year's Resolution. No more returns for Susie. This means that whatever I buy that needs to be returned, I must return myself. In the past, I would buy, buy, buy and return, return. Well, Gord would do the returning. He has now put his foot down and he shall not return anything anymore! Well, in fact, he is still returning stuff that I purchased in December as this new rule is only applicable to stuff purchased in 2009! Hahaha!!!