E.C.D.

Ok this is attempt number two to publish this blog entry. I'm so PO'd because I spent like an hour trying to post the first time only to have it time out on me when I tried to publish the entry, losing all of my work! GRRRR! I'm typing this one in wordpad and am going to copy and paste it in, that way if it times out again I'll still have it in wordpad.

It seems to have been a while since I've updated on my Weight Watchers progress, so you may not be aware that I'm still on the program. As of last Sunday, I was down 70 lbs. I'm so happy with my progress, but a little bummed that I won't be down to my goal (down 100 lbs.) before Carrie's wedding. I'm not going to beat myself up though, I'm very happy that I've stuck with the program for nearly 9 months and have done as well as I have. It's taken a lot of will and determination, but it's paid off and I've been losing at a safe and healthy rate. It's impossible for me to lose another 30 lbs. in 5 weeks, before the wedding, so I'm just going to take pride in what I've done so far.

One thing I'm finding now though that I haven't experienced before, is I'm having extreme cravings and find myself thinking about food a lot. For example, back in January while browsing online, I came across a recipe for peanut butter cake...and that's all I've been thinking about since...is having a big slice of that cake. Ryan's birthday is in April, a week after Carrie's wedding and whether he likes it or not, his birthday cake is going to be a peanut butter cake! I will satisfy this craving at one point or another! LOL.

Those you friends who are doing WW as well and who read this, have you experienced anything similar? I'm hoping it will pass soon. I have a couple of theories as to why I may be suffering from E.C.D. - extreme craving disorder. Now that I'm down to a low daily points budget, I'm finding it harder to stay within my daily target. I rarely use my weekly 35 allowance points as well for treats because I feel so guilty using them and I feel that it will take me longer to lose weight, having to burn off those extra allowance points. Before Christmastime on every Friday night after work, I would treat myself to supper at a fastfood place, to help myself not feel like I was on a quote on quote "diet". I cut out going out on Friday nights regularly because of the expense and also because I found that I was starving myself during the days in order to ration my points for the fastfood, to avoid going into my allowance.

Maybe I should just get over myself and start using my weekly points allowance as they're intended to be used, lol, and start indulging in my cravings, to get myself over this hump, lol.

History Lesson

Melissa, your comments in yesterday's post gave me an idea for today's entry, lol :). I have been getting a lot more traffic here recently and since I've been talking about Carrie's wedding quite a bit, and will more than likely continue doing so since we're getting closer to the wedding date, a lot of people don't know who Carrie is and why I'm so involved with her wedding, lol. Here's your history lesson for the day.

Carrie and I have been best friends for 10 years now. We were both born in Fredericton, in the month of August of 1978. We shared homeroom together in high school for 2 years, had neighboring lockers for two years and are sitting beside each other in our class photo...but it wasn't until we both got a job at a gas station in 1997 that we became the best of friends that we are today.

Carrie and I share the same bizarre, stupid humor and we're both smart a$$es, so we always have lots to laugh about. Carrie understands me completely, I never have to explain things out to her...she always knows. She's knows me as well as I know myself. I know I can always count on her to be there for me, for anything. She's such an important part of my life, I don't know what I'd do without her.

In spring of 2003, Carrie got accepted to the Honors in Social Work program at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We were living together in downtown Fredericton at the time and I was so sad to be losing her as a roommate and for her to be moving out of province as well. Carrie and I spent so much time together, that I knew that my life would be forever changed with her moving.

With Carrie's move to Thunder Bay, my life did indeed change. I no longer had Carrie with me everyday, but she was never far from my thoughts...or the telephone :). Ryan moved into my downtown apartment to take over Carrie's old room. Ryan and I had know each other for 6 years prior to his moving in, but it took his moving into the apartment for us to kindle a relationship other than friendship, so I guess if Carrie had never moved to Thunder Bay, Ryan and I may not have gotten together.

Carrie finished up her Honor's degree in the spring 2004 and moved back to Fredericton. To say I was happy with her return home, was an understatement. In the fall of 2004, Carrie landed a great job with the provincial government of Ontario in a small community called Waterford and was once again on the move. I admired her ability and courage to head off on her own to a strange community and start a new life for herself. I don't think I would have been able to do that on my own.

In February 2005, I boarded a plane for the very first time in my life and flew up to see my Carrie girl for a week. It was a fabulous trip, with us venturing together to Niagara Falls and Toronto. In the summer of 2005 Carrie met Chris, her now fiance and they knew that they would be together forever. In October 2005, I flew up to see Carrie again and got to meet Chris. Never before had I seen a better matched couple. I was so happy for Carrie and knew we'd be seeing an upcoming wedding soon, lol. Although I knew in my heart that Carrie and I would probably never live in the same city again, I was so happy for her.

In July of 2006, Chris popped the question to Carrie. Carrie accepted of course with the terms that they could get married in Fredericton, seeing as she will spend the rest of her life with Chris in Ontario. Chris agreed that this was a good decision. Two days after the engagement, Carrie's grandmother passed away. It was a bittersweet time, we were sad with her grandmother's passing, but happy and excited at the same time for the engagment. With Carrie home for a week at this time, we started planning her wedding and she even found her dress.

With Carrie living in Ontario and getting married here in Fredericton, I have been taking care of a lot of the planning. I feel honored that Carrie trusts me and my judgement for such an important event in her life.

I love ya my Carrie girl! I can't wait until your big day and to celebrate with you and your new husband!

Weekend Of Wedding Stuff

Holy crap the weekends go by way too fast! This weekend was a weekend of starting to get together things for Carrie's wedding.
I managed to cut out, pin, sew and complete three drawstring purses for us girls in the wedding party to carry during the reception. I also made a whack of t-shirts to wear the night of the stagette party, made a bunch of favor cards and tied them all to the favors for the stagette party, did some digital imaging for the wedding program and worked on some of the text for the program.
Angela was over last night to watch the Amazing Race. I love that show, it's so much better than any other reality show...even Survivor! lol.

Weekend's Almost Here

Yeah it's Friday! I'm savoring these last few Fridays that will be the end of a work week for me. With my new shifts that will be beginning towards the end of March, I will be working Saturday mornings and will have Sunday and Mondays off. This will last until September more than likely.

I don't really have much planned for the weekend. I imagine I'll go up to visit my parent's after work tonight. Tomorrow will be house cleaning day, always fun I tell ya. Sunday will probably be laundry and dinner with my family. Exciting stuff really! LOL.

It's starting to get down to crunch time for Carrie's wedding. I have to get my dress made within the next couple of weeks. I have lots of other little things to start looking at now that we're getting closer. Programs, sewing purses, cake details, stagette party, etc. etc. etc. lol. I've loved every minute of this though :).

We-ear-d

Ok yesterday was a very strange day. From 10 til 10:30 yesterday morning I was answering calls for Brand B, as we have been doing for a couple of weeks now, since we've switched brands. I then get this call from our scheduling department, asking me if I could do Brand A calls, because they were so swamped with calls on that Brand. I agreed and found myself missing Brand A and their computer system, after switching back to them for yesterday.

Then at around noon the main server starting freaking out for Brand A, Brand B, another one of our competitors and some travel agencies. It was so frustrating, we couldn't do anything! We were down for the entire remainder of my shift.

I then come into work this morning and am asked if I can do Brand A calls again today. I agreed, but low and behold, our computer system was still down! I couldn't even get online at all either until well after lunch time. We're back up and running as usual now, but for how long, lol.

Bad Shifts...

Today is going to be a long day at work. Today is shift bid day for me. I'm not looking forward to this at all. With the merge of Brand A and Brand B with my company, the shift bid is all messed up. As of late yesterday they were out of weekends off and up to start times at noon. I was expecting to be working nights and weekends, but it still sucks to know that that is a definate now. It sucks also knowing that you're just a number to your company and that your seven years of service means nothing. Anyway, end of rant here.

I made homemade turkey soup when I got home from work last night. It was super yummy...but it was no pancakes and sausages! After I cleaned up the house for a bit and let my soup cool enough to put in the fridge, I went out to Ryan's parent's house to spend the evening with him. His parent's will be home from Arizona in a couple more weeks, so I'll be savoring my "retreats" to their house from here on out, lol.

I asked Ryan jokingly if he made pancakes for supper and he goes "What is up with this pancakes for supper stuff today...every church I passed by today said Pancake Supper tonight out front". I told him it was Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day and he said he'd never heard of such a thing as pancakes for supper! LOL.

Shrove Tuesday

...or "Pancake Day". Pancakes were never really a big favorite of mine. We always had eggs more often than we did pancakes when I was a kid, and that was always just fine with me. I never really disliked pancakes, but never really enjoyed them much either. Once in a blue moon, like once a year maybe, I get a craving for pancakes. Today is one of those days and I know exactly why. Because it's pancake day and I can't have any.

I went up to visit my parent's for a bit last night, as I hadn't seen them on our usual Sunday dinner day. They told me that they were both volunteering at their church tonight for the church's pancake supper. My Dad is in charge of the most important thing...making the pancakes, but I'm not sure what my Mom will be doing. Last night my Mom says to me "You and Ryan should come to the church for the pancake supper". We won't be going as it's over at 6:30 and I don't get off work until 6:15...and because pancakes and sausages are a big "Red Light" when it comes to Weight Watchers. I'm shuddering right now to think of how many calories that meal would consist of.

Anyway, since I left my parent's place last night, that's all I've been thinking about...pancakes and sausages, and how badly I want to eat both of them right now! LOL. It's so weird because as I said, I don't really enjoy pancakes and I know the only reason I'm craving them, is because I can't have them. I have Mick Jagger saying in my head right now "You can't always get what you want", lol.

By the way, I was curious and looked up the meaning of the word shrove...yes I never knew what it meant all these years. I knew that Shrove Tuesday was all about giving up something for lent for 40 days before Easter, but I never really knew what the word "shrove" itself meant. The definition is "to hear the confession (of a person)". Um...confess to what? Their addiction to pancakes? LOL.

Not So Busy Weekend Afterall

So the weekend didn't turn out to be as eventfull as anticipated. Friday night I went and bought a turkey in order to have two days for it to thaw out, with the plans of having Ryan's brother and his girlfriend over for dinner on Sunday. I then went home, made something quick to eat and then went up to my parent's place and did laundry until 11 p.m.

Saturday morning I got up and went and paid bills (always a fun time I tell ya), stopped at the Dollar Store for a couple of things, then at Tim Horton's to bring back a coffee for Ryan and I. In the afternoon I cleaned the house and made baked haddock and cheesey-scalloped potatoes for dinner (no, I was not in attendance at the wedding...didn't end up going as the argument of no "formal" invitation won over the decision).

In the evening I went up to Walmart and picked up some thread to make drawstring purses for myself and the two bridesmaids in Carrie's wedding. We got some extra material for me to do this with, when the material for our dresses to be made out of was picked out/up. I just forgot to pick myself up some thread at the time. I didn't end up making the purses on Saturday night as planned, but atleast I've started thinking about it, and picked up the thread, lol. Later that night Ryan and I watched some Mad TV, Saturday Night Live and I made some pita pizzas for us at around 1 a.m. I'm getting old because it's been a while since I've stayed up so late on a Saturday night, lol.

Sunday I slept in until almost 11 a.m., which is really unusual for me, as I can't seem to sleep in past 9 a.m. anymore. I guess staying up until well after 2 a.m. the night before helped me stay in bed longer, lol. The whole "having Brad and Amy over for dinner" thing was a bust yesterday. They didn't arrive back to Ryan's parent's house until after 3 in the afternoon yesterday after staying at the hotel where the wedding reception was held. They were not in the best of shape and opted to rest up for their return trip home today, rather than come over for dinner. I was disappointed upon hearing that they wouldn't be making it over, after organizing a big turkey dinner, but I understood that they were here for a special occasion and took full advantage of the occasion.

So dinner last night was a massive turkey supper for two, Ryan and I. We will be eating turkey leftovers for a couple of weeks I think, lol. I made a pot pie for dinner tonight and I think I'm going to make a big batch of turkey soup tonight. Hopefully with those usuages of turkey and then with turkey sandwiches this week, the bird won't be lingering around my place too much longer, lol.

On an end note, after talking about Carrie's wedding with the mentioning of the purses, It's hard to belive that my best friend is getting married in a matter of weeks. It seems like yesterday that she told me her and Chris were going away to Niagara-on-the-Lake for their one year anniversary and I told her to have a good trip and to call me when she got home and was engaged! LOL. I really had no clue that Chris was going to pop the question to her then, I had just been teasing her for a while saying he was going to propose to her on this trip and I guess my intuition was right, because he did! It has been an absolute pleasure helping you plan this wedding Carrie and I'm honored that you trust me to make such huge decisions regarding your wedding for you!

Friday's Here!

The weekend is almost here! Yeah! Although it may end up being a busy one and not overly relaxing. Tonight I plan on a fun-filled evening of doing laundry! Woohoo! Good times I tell ya! haha.

Tomorrow I anticipate a morning of house cleaning and then we may be attending that wedding that Ryan's brother is in. Ryan wasn't "technically" invited by invitation, but the groom asked him to come last weekend when Ryan was at the bachelor party...so that makes me really leary on going, because I don't want to show up to the reception and them not have planned on us being there (ie - with meals, etc.). Who knows what will happen, lol.

Sunday I'd like to have Brad and Amy over for dinner before they leave on Monday to go back home to Newfoundland, but Ryan's not sure what their plans are, so I'm not sure if they'll be over or not.

Valentine's Surprise!

So I have to say that I had a pretty great Valentine's Day afterall. My sweetheart totally pulled a fast one on me. When I left him yesterday morning, we had no plans for Valentine's with a) the weather and b) his brother flying home.

It was around 4:45 yesterday afternoon. I was at work and had MSN messenger on (as per usual). I went to the restroom on my break and came back to my desk and saw an orange bar blinking at me on my screen. Ryan had come online and sent me a message while I was away from my desk. He told me he was back home now, that he had picked up his brother Brad and his girlfriend Amy at the airport and they had no problems getting in. He wished me Happy Valentine's Day and then asked me if I'd like to go out to dinner. I was all like "Wow, sure, but it's pretty bad out there with the storm". He then told me he had made reservations for us and Brad and Amy at El Burrito Loco for 8 p.m., seeing as I was scheduled to work until 7. I hate Mexican food, but I figured this was so amazingly sweet of him, that I can't turn it down! I told him I would love to go, but that I didn't know if I could have a shower and be ready in time (remember, we had no plans, so I didn't think I'd have to prepare to go out after work), that I really didn't want to drive anywhere and that just the thought of me driving home from work in that storm was making me nervous. He told me no problem, that they would come and pick me up. I said to myself "Screw this working thing, I'm going home "sick" " and that I did for the last hour and a half of my shift, lol.

I went home and had a shower, did my hair and make up and selected an outfit to wear out to dinner. You see, this was a huge deal, because Ryan and I rarely get to go out for dinner, a couple times a year if we're lucky. I also hadn't seen Brad, his brother in a long, long time and had never met his new girlfriend, so I was a little nervous about the "date" too.

There's a knock on my door and I open it and find Ryan there with flowers and gifts and a card. I almost started bawling right there, lol, it was so sweet! We set the items inside on the dinning room table and then went out to the truck and drove to the restaurant.

I was relieved to know that Amy, Brad's girlfriend was not a fan of Mexican food either, so I wasn't the only one! lol. I had a chicken and cheese quesedilla and a Rickard's Red...in honor of Valentine's Day. Us ladies also received a chocolate rose at the restaurant.

Brad dropped Ryan and I off at my place and we went home and had some wine and gourged on chocolate...Goodbye Weight Watchers last night! LOL. It was a fabulous evening, despite the poor selection of restaurant. Thanks so much My Valentine! I love you! :)

"The weather outside is frightfull" still right now. Brad was supposed to pick Ryan up at my place this morning, but when Ryan called him, he told him that he didn't think he could get out of the driveway. My awesome Dad had his friend plow me out last night, so my yard wasn't too bad. We just had to shovel off the steps and un-bury my car. The rest of the shovelling and digging out at my place will have to be done tonight, but as far as us being snowed in, we were in pretty good shape. I managed to arrange an "arrive late" to work this morning, so that we could get the car out and that I could take Ryan home to his parent's place. The roads in town weren't too bad, but once we hit the Hanwell Road it got crazy bad...especially at the top of the hill. We get to Ryan's parent's place and there is WAY more snow out there than what we got in town and there are insanely huge chunks of ice at the end of the driveway. Brad wasn't kidding, there was no getting out. They were planning on going skiing today, but their plans have changed to shovelling all day, lol.

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! Although it's not shaping up to be a very pleasant one, with all the snow we're expected to get! I absolutely hate it when it snows heavily! I don't really anticipate any plans today for Valentine's Day and there's a possibility that I may not even see my Valentine today...although I did see him this morning when I wished his sleeping head a Happy Valentine's Day before I left for work, lol. Yes, I spent the evening and the night out at Ryan's parent's place. I love having their place to "retreat" to while they're away in Arizona for the winter.

Ryan's brother and his girlfriend are flying in from Newfoundland today. Hopefully they'll make it in no problem, but I expect that Ryan may be waiting for while at the airport for them. With the snowstorm approaching, I imagine they'll be delayed. Ryan's brother is in a wedding this coming weekend (the guy who's bachelor party that Ryan went to last weekend).

Given that Ryan's brother is flying in today, because I work until 6:45 p.m. tonight and the fact that there's a storm on the way, I sincerely doubt I'll be doing anything but shovelling for Valentine's Day, lol. Oh well :).

In other news, check out the link on the right to Floobie's Blog. She had a beautiful baby girl yesterday!!! Congratulations Floobie and family! Also congratulations are in order to the Funky Cowboy (check out his link too!) as he's the Godfather of the new Floobie-baby :).

Fa-reakin' Cold

Holy crap-ola! Is this cold snap that we've had for the past 3 or 4 weeks ever going to leave us!?! This is insane! It's -18 out there right now, but with the windchill it feels like -30! I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or because I've lost 65 lbs and don't have as much blubber on me to keep me warm, or what, but I'm really finding this winter harder on me than any other.

I went shopping with my Dad last night. I went with him to help him pick out a gift for my Mom for Valentine's Day. I have got to say that I have got THE best Dad on the planet! He bought me a new microwave while we were out! I told him he didn't need to do that and he said he wanted to, for his other Valentine...awh how sweet! He's currently planning a trip, taking my brother to Montreal this summer for a Nascar race, so he said he wanted to do something for me now too.

My microwave sort of blew up so to speak, the week that I was off work with my face injury from fainting. They're building a new warehouse by my house and there was a power surge in the power lines during construction, and that well, fried my microwave. It happened right at supper time too, like 5 minutes before I went to use it. I was PO'd to say the least. My parent's had a little cheap one sitting in their basement that I was currently using in it's place, that has the dial that you crank to operate it, no power selection setting, no defrost, as basic of a microwave that you can get. It was super annoying to use because you couldn't defrost anything in it, as it just cooked it and if you were making a bag of popcorn, you couldn't just stick it in and walk away from it for 3 minutes. You had to stay right there with it the whole time, doing like 3 - 3 minute intervals just to pop the bag.

Thanks again Dad, I love you! :)

Scott Free from Maine!

The weekends are never long enough! They just pass by so quickly!

Friday night I made pita pizzas and caesar salad for Ryan and I for supper. He was a little leary of this "diet style" pizza, but rather enjoyed them. I then talked to Shelly on the phone for a bit and we hashed out our plans to travel to Maine the following day.

I rose early on Saturday morning and was at Shelly's place by 9:30 to head to Houlton, ME. There was quite a line up of cars waiting to cross into the US when we hit the boarder, but we only had to wait a short time and had no problem crossing over.

We hit Mardens first. I found a few deals, but didn't leave with an abundance of items. I got a pair of Old Navy jeans for $1.00. They're not very nice and I don't think I'd ever wear them in public, but they're good for house cleaning and laundry days. I also got a pair of Calvin Klein jeans for $13 (which I love), a fridge magnet that's of a bulldog for my brother and a really cool salad bowl thingy that has a cover that snaps on and handles for carrying it, perfect for potlucks, for $3.

We then had some lunch and headed to Walmart. I didn't get too much here, some Vaseline bath beads, which aren't really "beads" and a few grocery items. Shelly scored a super cute pair of sandals for her daughter for only $3!

Next off to the Shop and Save supermarket, where I had a hard time restraining myself from over-buying. I left with $80 worth of grocery items, but would have left with double that amount as I was originally buying two of everything that we couldn't get here in Canada. I put the majority of "seconds" back, realizing I was spending way too much, lol.

We hit the Canadian boarder at about 5:30 and saw that there were absolutely no cars waiting to cross back. I thought to myself "Lovely, we're definately getting hauled in to pay the tax and duty". We pull up to the window and woman asked us the typical "What's your citizenship, how long were you in the US, whadya buy etc." We told her and she said "Ok, you're all set". I couldn't believe it...she was letting us off! I figured for sure since there were no other cars waiting, that we'd be going in to pay. It was awesome!

After I got back to Fredericton and dropped Shelly off, I went up to my parent's place to deliver their turkey and my dad's Bush's baked beans, lol. I stayed and visited with them for about an hour or so and then headed home. Ryan was at a Bachelor party on Saturday night, so I just took it easy and went to bed early. Ryan arrives home at around 2 a.m. after having a good night out with his buddies. We got up yesterday and had a big breakfast, then I took him to pick up his truck and I headed to my parent's house to do laundry.

I went to the mall yesterday afternoon with my parents as they wanted to buy a wedding gift for Carrie and Chris, using the Sears registry they set up. They weren't sure how to do it, so I went along and helped them. While I was at Sears, I tried on a couple of dresses, as I need one to wear to the rehersal. I tried on four and all of them were too big! It was a nice feeling, knowing that my hard work with Weight Watchers is paying off, but it was also disappointing that the dresses I'd chosen were all too big.

Long and Short, Anna Nicole and Maine

TGIF! This has been both a long and short week...if that's possible, lol. My classroom days this past week flew by, but yesterday dragged on. Here's hoping today goes by quickly!

So was anyone else floored by the news of Anna Nicole Smith passing away? I was flipping through the channels last night just before Angela got to my place for Survivor and I caught the last like 30 seconds of Entertainment Tonight before they went to a commercial, and found out that way. It's not like Anna Nicole was my idol or anything, I guess I was just floored by her death, because she's been in the media so much for the past six months or so.

While I was having some breakfast this morning, they were talking about her death on Canada AM and the host was asking some magazine editor why we were all so "into" her. The magazine editor said it was impossible not to be, that she lived a very bizarre life (to say the least)! The thing that I want to know about it, is what's going to happen to her baby?

They showed clips of the baby on Larry King last night and she is the spitting image of this Larry Birkhead guy who is right now filing emergency orders for a paternity test. Anna Nicole's sister was on Larry King last night as well and she said she is going to make sure that Howard K. Stern does not raise that baby and that she believes he is not the father...something nobody believed, really.

Tomorrow I'm planning on heading to the great state of Maine with my friend Shelly. We're in search of good deals and American grocery items that you can't get here in Canada. I discovered a coffee about 3 years ago once when I was in Maine and have been addicted to it ever since. I've got maybe 3 brewing pots worth of it left, so I'll be stocking up on that while I'm there. My parents love American turkeys, so I'll be bringing one of those back and my father has instructed me not to come back without some Bush's baked beans, lol.

School's Out

So today I'm back sitting at my regular desk, having completed my cross-over training for "Brand B". It feels good to be sitting in my regular spot and not in some classroom, struggling to stay awake, lol.

The cross-over hasn't been too bad so far, it's just taking some time to get used to Brand B's computer system and getting used to saying Brand B and not Brand A to customers...that has been the tricky part. All of my responses to customer's questions are sort of pre-programmed in my head with Brand A, having worked with Brand A for seven years, it's hard to break the habit of not slipping that company name in there.

Survivor starts tonight! Yeah! I've been suffering from Good-TV-Withdrawal for the past couple of months. There really has been nothing good on at all! I'm happy that I'm soon back to having regular shows to watch...(The Amazing Race starts on February 18th). Angela is coming over tonight to watch Survivor with me. I'm happy she's coming over, but sad at the same time, realizing that this will be our last Survivor together, as Ange is getting married in June and moving to San Diego.

Training Day 1

With the weekend completely flying by, brought Monday...my first day of training in switching to my company's "Brand B". I must say, that I am actually quite pleased so far with the training and switch over and think that I will enjoy, no wait, handle working in a call center better than what I had before. Basically I don't have to deal with a lot of the bull$hit that I did before with "Brand A". I basically handle one type of call only and that's it. I don't have to worry about all kinds of different scenarios or what do you do if this and that's happened. I'm still looking for a new job, but in the mean time, I can handle whatever "Brand B" throws at me. The biggest thing is going to get used to saying "Brand B" and not "Brand A" while talking to customers on the phone. There may not be an entry here on my blog everyday from me, as I'll be in a classroom for the majority of the week.

So what did I do this past weekend? Friday night was an exciting night of laundry at Ma and Pa's house. I did my laundry on Friday, so that I would be freed up for Sunday. After I got home from doing laundry, Ryan came home from Friday night poker and we watched some tv before retiring for the evening.

Saturday my Dad brought me down a cabinet for my dinning room that he made for me. I then went out to Ryan's parent's house and prepared for Ryan and I, a yummy dinner of caesar salad, my Weight Watcher shrimp and pasta specialty dish (which you'd never know was diet food, it's so amazingly delicious), and strawberry shortcake made with angel food cake for dessert...which was so good that I'm now actually salivating thinking about it! LOL.

Yesterday morning I got up earlier than usual for a Sunday morning and showered and got ready to meet Angela at the Delta Hotel for the wedding show they were putting on. I then went to my parent's place and we went out for Chinese food for dinner, to celebrate my Dad's birthday, which was Saturday. Weight Watchers took a heavy beating yesterday with the sampling of cake and chocolates at the bridal show, Chinese buffet for dinner, birthday cake and ice cream at the house and then perogies and sour cream last night when I went over to my brother's house for the Superbowl...I don't even like football, it was another excuse to eat bad-for-me food! LOL!

Last Day

Today is my last day taking calls for "Brand A". I got word yesterday afternoon that my training to convert to taking calls for our organization's alternate brand, "Brand B", will begin on Monday at 10 a.m.

It feels like I'm actually working my last day on a job... It's very strange. I'm still going to be employed with the same company, so not much is changing. I'll still be coming to the same place for work, I'll still (hopefully) sit at the same desk, I'll still be getting paid the same amount of money and I'll still be working at the same call center job, which I hate, lol.

T.G.I.F.!...This has been one stressful week at work and I'm glad that this is my final day to work this week. I don't really have much planned for the weekend. Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday, but we're celebrating on Sunday. We're going out for Chinese food for supper and then back to the house for cake and gifts. Weight Watchers will have to take a break on Sunday...hopefully I won't gain any with this cheat day! I'm now down 64 pounds!

The End Is Near

I hadn't even walked to my desk yet this morning when Jim, a supervisor here at work stops me in the aisle. Remember a while back how (it would have been on my old blog) how I'd mentioned that the brand that I work for (I'll call it Brand A) is moving their operations from Fredericton to Mexico, but all hope was not lost, as another brand the company owns (I'll call Brand B) was taking us on.
Anyway, Jim asks me "Kelly, have you had your Brand B training yet"? I say with a laugh "No, I'm trying to prolong it, as long as possible". I've worked for Brand A for seven years, so I'm extremely comfortable taking their calls (not that I actually enjoy my job though) and know the company policies inside out, so I'm not looking forward to switching brands.
Jim then says "Well, we just found out yesterday that next week is the last week that Fredericton will be handling Brand A, so we have to get everyone trained for Brand B by the end of next week".
He then tells me that there's two training sessions and that training will be either Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday or Thursday, Friday and Saturday...and they may be nights. He asks if there's a day training available if I'd prefer that, to which I was stressed yes!. I also said I prefer Monday-Wednesday as opposed to working the weekend.
You see, I anticipate that I'll be working nights and weekends in another month's time, being a "newbie" with Brand B and with the restructuring of our center. I want to have as many evenings and weekends free as I can from now until then!