Closer to America!

I got an email yesterday from the NVC -- my Visa application has been pre-approved and I've been scheduled for my interview in Montreal on December 13th! *jumping for joy*

What a relief.  I finally have an actual DATE to look forward to -- and the best thing of all, is that we'll be in Chicago for Christmas :) -- assuming I pass the interview, that is.

Passing time

I've been here in Mississauga for a week now, and the adjustment has been challenging.  I don't have a car, so I don't have as much freedom to go out whenever/wherever I want.  The up side to this is that I've been walking a lot more (pushing Xander in a stroller) and getting some much needed exercise -- we've walked to and from the mall a couple times (my sister's condo is a little over a kilometre from Square One Mall), and we've even walked to the grocery store a couple times.

The down side is that the weather is getting pretty cold, so we have to dress appropriately.

Double-decker firetruck stroller?! Heck yes.

Bought myself a beautiful wool coat from Express the other day, since my winter coat is in a box... in storage... in Wheeling, Illinois.  The coat is lovely, oh so lovely.

Aside from walking, I've been going to the gym regularly AND I've challenged myself to walk up the 30 flights of stairs at the condo, at least twice a week. That's 450 steps!  It burns.. but it feels so gooood.  Getting so much closer to my goal weight.. just a couple more pounds to go!

The boys are still not always getting along.  I just don't even know what to do about it anymore.  I feel like I'm always giving Xander heck, even when he's not at fault -- poor guy isn't even 2 and a half, and he probably just doesn't know any better - plus he's adjusting to having another kid in his face 24/7 (literally, in.. his.. face), which must be tough.
I don't know if I'm just over-aware, but I feel like I'm always the first one to jump in and mediate the battles between them -- I feel like the bad guy, but someone has to do it.
*Sigh*  It's stressful to say the least, and sometimes I wonder if coming here was a big mistake.  Being here has caused chaos in my sister's family routine, and the squabbling-boys situation doesn't seem like it's going to get better.  In fact, I'm already seeing a change in Xander that I can't say I'm particularly happy with.  He's become a very different boy since we've been here - he gets angry and frustrated very easily, which is very uncharacteristic of him.  We'll see if time changes things, or just makes it worse.

In his 'spot' (i.e. sitting on my luggage)

At the library

Something to look forward to

Brian will be here tomorrow, to visit for the weekend :)  Oh, how I can't wait to reunite with him.  He's only here for 3 days, but I'll take whatever I can get, lol. I'll be sure to post something later on, all about his visit!

Lastly, a big WOO-HOO to President Obama for his re-election!  I was super nervous watching the election coverage, and I'm so glad he got the win.  Feeling much better about moving to the US, that's for sure!

Holy Whack-a-mole-y!

Last weekend, I chose to delve into a MAJOR project -- organizing my closet. GAAAH!

It's one week later and it's *mostly* done (aside from this pile of clothes on my office chair, that I'm sitting on because I ran out of hangers).  I haven't taken any 'after' shots, but I wanted to share the 'before' pics:  

This is what my bed looked like when I pulled out all of the clothes on hangers:

 And this is what the closet looked like:

 AIYAAAH!!

Okay, so maybe I own a lot of clothes. Yes, clothes on the bed, clothes on the chair, clothes on the floor AND clothes in the basket(s).  *sigh*


I'll work on the rest of it this weekend and hopefully get around to taking photos of my progress.
Wish me luck!

I think the turkey dug me..

Xierra's school BBQ wasn't looking like it was going to pan out -- during the day, we had sheets of rain come down, a power failure at home and super high winds...

But surely, come 5pm, the sunshine decided to make an appearance and all of a sudden the evening became glorious and amazing.

I bought this super colourful short-sleeved dress last week, but with our weather being BRUTALLY cold and gloomy, I didn't get a chance to wear it...until now:

I threw on this blue 3/4 length cardigan that I bought before I got pregnant, and wore a light turquoise beaded necklace:

What a great opportunity to break out an old pear of navy tights that had been stuffed in the back of my closet for nearly 2 years!  Oh, and those magenta glittery flats?... Uh, yeah...I went there.

 The evening was pleasant, and filled with screaming kids and patient parents...but the highlight of the entire event was this guy:

Gosh, I'd never seen a turkey this up close before (you could PET HIM!)... he walked in circles in the middle of the petting cage, grumpy as hell -- and even let out a few GOBBLE GOBBLE's every now and then.  Hilarious.
I'm fairly certain he liked my outfit though :P

A casual day

There was nothing really special about this day, aside from the fact that I finally got a chance to wear my 'stringy' scarf that I bought in Grand Forks on my last road trip with my girlfriends.

I bought it from PacSun and it was on clearance for $4.  I'd never seen anything quite like it, so I snagged it up, knowing that I'd eventually come around to wearing it.

My striped tunic is from Forever 21 (is anyone ever surprised by this anymore?), and I'm wearing a pair of black denim Ecko Red capris -- another pre-pregnancy article of clothing that I can proudly say I FIT!

I'm not a fan of capris with flats -- I already know that these capris are not flattering - cutting me off at the widest part of my leg, making my legs appear short and fat...and then to wear flats that have zero lengthening power, on top of that??! COME ON ROX!.... ugh, I disgust me.

Oh.. but did you see my cool scarf?

A sunny-day...Sunday.

Met with a client this day and then went over to my aunt's place to celebrate my little cousins birthday.  I was super excited to wear this dress that I bought from Forever 21 a few weeks ago.  The weather hasn't been very nice lately, so I couldn't wear it sooner.

I think I'm secretly in love with stripes and the colour yellow :S

I didn't get a very good pic, but those shoes are brown (I kinda' like how they clashed), AND I bought them from Target for $3.54!  Uh yeah.  Awesome, right?

 Just in case it rained, I wore my 3/4 length trench coat over top

I'm also excited to share that I have dropped a couple of pounds in the past few weeks.  Good? Yes, of course.  Except, I haven't been doing anything to try to lose weight... so I think it's stress-related.  EEk.

Cinco days in Mayo

A blanket of blog-laziness came over me these past few days...actually, to be completely honest -- because I know that nobody is following my blog, I kinda' felt a little discouraged to update.  I really didn't want this to get me down though, because the reason why I'm here isn't to build a following.  I have to remind myself of that.  I started blogging because I needed an outlet -- so here I am, with an overdue post:

CINCO DE MAYO

Brian and I have made it a tradition to go to Don Pedro's every year to celebrate Cinco de Mayo (even though NOBODY celebrates it here in Canada).  Thursday night was the Bulls game, and we  weren't going to miss it for dinner out.  Instead, I got dressed up and met him for lunch -- just the two of us...and it was nice :)

A warm summer-y day called for a light-coloured outfit.

Offwhite cardigan and flowered tunic from Forever 21, white (pre-prego size FOUR) capris from Zara and my silver sequin flats from Target: 

Mmmmm...those are some goooood cheeeeeeeps.

With time to kill after lunch, I popped into Mike's General Store on St. Anne's.  The place is pretty tiny, but I've always wanted to check out what kind of antiques they had -- perfect day to do it.

FRIDAY: 6am yoga class...The rest of the day was lazy, at home with Commander Xander. I did some client work during the day when X napped, and I crafted at night (more to come about this project).  It was a fairly nice day, so I took Xander for a walk to the store to pick up a few things, and timed it with daddy coming off the bus.  We walked home together - Xander kept us amused, the entire way...

old-man-sucky-face

DAAAAATE NIIIIIGHT.
Saturday was chill during the day -- it consisted of cutting Bri's hair and cleaning the house.  This was the night that we were having a sitter come over to watch Xander, while we went out ON A DATE :D
Since both of us completely dropped the ball on making dinner reservations (we're amateurs - who knew EVERY good restaurant would be completely booked on a Saturday night?!) we wound up at Earl's St. Vital -- which was completely fine, no complaints here.
After dinner, we caught a show at the Theatre (we both say that with our poor English accents, so as not to be confused with a 'movie theatre'...we're FANCY!)
We watched The 39 Steps @ MTC, which was hysterical at some points, and enjoyable all around.  

MAMA'S DAY

The day started off great, with this fantastic breakfast:

Look at my husband's culinary skillz: EGGS IN A BASKET!

After breakfast, Xander took his first REAL steps!! What a fantastic Mother's Day gift :D xoxo...
Unfortunately, Mr. Brave bonked his face on the coffee table and gave himself a shiner :(  He's a tough cookie though, and didn't cry for very long.  I think I was more devastated than he was.  But to make light of the situation, the black eye made him look pretty bad ass...


Later in the afternoon, we were off to my cousin's house for Mother's Day with the family...

Papa Bear and Baby Bear

Mama Bear and Baby Bear

Mama Bear, Baby Bear and Sister Bear

We all did our part and helped prepare a few dishes -- great food, good company...made for a pretty enjoyable day.


Here's Xander with Great-Lola (grandma):

MONDAY: 6am yoga class that completely wiped me and induced a 3-hour-long nap with Xander in the afternoon.  It's alright though, cuz it was gloomy outside anyway.  The weather made staying in, a little more bearable.  

Spent the rest of the day doing chores and hangin' with the kids.  Cooked dinner, ran out to Michael's to pick up some supplies, crafted the rest of the night and went to bed....and now it's Tuesday.

Am I boring or what?!

• A bit of client work this afternoon
• Pick daddy up from work
• Soccer game at 6:10pm, which means dinner at The Thirsty Penguin

Feelin' a bit BOHO-ish

Although typical boho fashion incorporates a lot of loose-fitting pieces, I have found myself constantly shying away from buying these types of clothes because I feel that they make me appear LARGER than I really am.  Based on this photo...

...it would seem as though my assumption is true. 

I am gonna' go ahead and say this though -- even though I look kinda' wide in the photo above, I did actually like this outfit, primarily because it was comfy-cozy and because the loose fitting top made me feel less self conscious of my (still-needs-some-work) mid-section.

The top is a comfortable and super light fabric -- think about that super old pyjama tshirt that you have that you can't bear to let go of even though it is 2x too big, and has been washed so many times that the screen printing is falling off, and the fabric is so worn down that the shirt is practically see-through...uh, yeah... it's kinda like that, but nicer.

I bought it from Target, and I got it in a size XL for a few reasons: 

1) that was the only size they had left

2) it's loose-fitting enough to fall off my body 

3) I can cinch a belt just above my ribs and tadaah! it's a totally different top! 

4) it has 't' back that makes my back feel sexy and 

I love the asymmetrical detail of these ruffles, only found on the one side:

Paired the top with some skinny jeans, and threw an off-white cardigan over top.  Chose to go with my grey high-heel boots (very boho inspired) and wore these off-white metal earrings from Forever 21.

I'm going to slowly add some more pieces to my wardrobe and hope that I can, one day, be comfortable sporting this style of fashion..

You See a Shutter, I see a....

I went to the Habitat for Humanity ReStore for the first time.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but while browsing, I happened upon this :

Just looks like a plain old shutter, right?  Right.  Because it is..

This was my only purchase that day.  TWO BUCKS! Yes, one toonie, was all it took to put the cheeeesiest smile on my face, for a project that I have been waiting to do for quite some time now.  Well... I'm not sure that this can be considered a 'project' -- maybe more of an 'idea'?

I took it home and didn't really alter the shutter whatsoever.

Hm.. well, I CLEANED it and mounted a picture hanger on the back of it...does that count??

I thought about painting it, but the ugly orangey-coloured wood kind of matches the mirror in my room, so for now, it’s just gonna stay that colour.

And since the suspense is killing you, here is the reason for the excitement...*drum roll*

TA-DAAAAH!! An awesome earring display :D

Oh yes my friends, I DO have that many earrings.  In fact, I just bought 3 new pairs yesterday, which aren’t in the photo.  *sigh*  Love them.

I took a trip to Home Depot and picked up a few packages of ‘S’ hooks for a couple bucks -- I intended to use them to hang necklaces off of, but realized that my hoop earrings needed a home, so after hammering them into place (apparently the s loop wasn’t quite large enough) I created a little living space for the hookless earrings

I eventually plan on hanging the shutter on the wall, but not until I find a chair for the corner - just in case I have to shift the dressers, I didn’t want to have to re-centre the shutter and put an un-necessary hole in the wall.  Y’dig?

E-I-E-I-OOPS!

En route to Xierra’s Spring Concert:

Today was the furthest thing from ‘warm’ or ‘Spring’ -- the only thing today had going for itself was the shining sun.  Since we know that sunshiney days inspire me, it’s no surprise that I got the itch to get fun with my outfit.

THE LOOK: This dress was one of my Target purchases - the only thing I paid full price for ($25).  No regrets.  I love the colors and the feminine floral pattern.  The ruffles do my body a favour and hide my lumpy bumpy’s. 

The magenta cardigan was also purchased from Target, on clearance for $12.80.  It’s got 3/4 length sleeves, which I like because it allows me to wear bracelets, without having the awkward ‘sleeve hits or covers bracelet’ issue.

I chose to accessorize the dress with a black patent leather belt -- the dress has a garter line, exactly where the belt falls, so the addition of the belt didn’t alter the shape at all -- it just accentuated the waistline and added a nice bold separation.  The belt originally came with a little cropped jacket from FOREVER 21.  

Glammed my wrists up with a couple beaded bracelets that matched the dress and belt.

I wore a pair of purple teardrop earrings to match the cardigan.  The little flourish design suited the floral dress, I thought.

For my makeup, I went with some purple shadow, blended the crease with a midnight blue shadow and lined my bottom lashes with a purple pencil liner.

Since it was a cool day, I slapped on some thicker wool patterned tights.  I love pairing these tights with my suede chunky-healed ZARA ankle boots.  There’s something very retro about them that I dig.

Xierra’s concert, “E-I-E-I-OOPS!” was a blast to watch....even though she was dressed up as a MULE :S