So yes, I quit my job yesterday. I was so nervous handing in that letter. And of course, the two people who needed to see it yesterday were not around! So nobody really knows I have quit yet! LOL. I even suck at quitting!

This was a decision I have been thinking about for months. It took me so long to decide what to do. I tried forcing other people to make the decision for me, but that never worked. LOL. I prayed lots about it. Leaving this job and working at the farm got more and more appealing the more I thought about it. So yes, I will be working at the farm, part time. My hours will be mostly 8-2, Monday to Friday. I might have to work some weekends. But those hours alone give me almost 4 more hours a day at home! I am so excited to have more time for everything! The work is not as exciting as my current job though, but I don't really care. I have already thought up my daily schedule!:
7:55 am - Roll out of bed and drive to work
8am-2pm - Work
2pm-6:20pm - Go on Facebook and maybe blog
6:20-6:30pm - Quickly make Kraft Dinner before Eric gets home.
7pm - bedtime - More Facebook and possible some TV.

LOL! Just kidding. But that is what I told Eric I would do! hehehe. Anyways, for real, this is how I want to use that extra time:
7:30 - Get up and go to work
8-2 - Work
2-3- Do some sort of physical activity
3-4 -Clean anything that needs to be cleaned in the house. Possibly do Flylady tasks
4-6:30 - Do hobbies, maybe more cleaning, make supper.
And then I will have the evening to do whatever, and not have to worry about squeezing in exercise or cleaning in the evening! I really hope to stick to this plan, but we will see.

Sorry my exciting news wasn't what some of you thought it would be. That would be nice...

Goodbye Gimli Vet

December 29, 2008
Dear Lisa, Eileen and staff:

I am writing this letter to inform you of my decision to resign from my position as RAHT at Gimli Veterinary Services, effective two weeks from this date.

This was not an easy decision on my part. I have enjoyed my two and a half years working with everyone, and I loved taking care of all the animals. I will definitely miss everything !

I would like to thank you for taking a chance on me, a brand new AHT with not much experience or confidence. I have learned so much from everyone and have sharpened my skills as well as gained new ones. I have appreciated all the freedom and flexibility you have given me. It was awesome of you to give me 3 months off! I would also like to thank everyone for their patience with me as I was learning; you were always encouraging and forgiving when I made mistakes.

I have decided to take a job that is closer to home and that has fewer hours. This will give me more time for my family, my animals, my hobbies and myself.

I wish everyone all the best in the future. I will continue bringing my animals to Gimli Veterinary Services as I have full confidence in all the staff and hope to keep up our friendships.

Sincerely,
Lindsey Dueck
Registered Animal Health Technologist

Christmas Time

I have had a great Christmas break! 5 days off work is awesome! It was very busy though!

24th - Eric and I had our own Christmas. We did stocking and opened out gifts, but slept too late to make breakfast! LOL! It was a good afternoon! And I finally got a new straigtener and it is awesome! I was still snipping quilts and washing them that day. In the evening we headed to my cousin's place for Christmas. Apparently I was supposed to bring homemade buns, but nobody told me! LOL. My cousin Mallory and I always exchange gifts, and this year she gave me an Easy Bake oven! LOL I was so pumped! I have wanted one for SO LONG and for the last couple years I have told people to buy it for me but no one has! YAY! I had a great time with the family, and during the gift exchange game, I got #1! The best number to have. I picked a really nice frame that I have the perfect spot for in my living room! Late that night we drove out to my parents at Matheson Island.

25th- Of course we didn't sleep in much with my bro around, so we work up pretty early and opened gifts there. I got and beautiful knit purse from American Eagle and matching gloves, among many other things including a spice rack. We really needed one of those. I was sick of always knocking 10 spices out of the cupboard everytime I want to use 1! Then we drove back to Mennville and spend the afternoon and evening with Eric's parents. We had a great time there as well! We got good knives from them! Finally. The only knives we have is a $10 set Eric bought from some dude in a WalMart parking lot. LOL.

26th - We headed to the city for a gathering of Eloa's family. The whole family was there this time! We played some good games of Carcassone ( I love that game) and ate amazing food! We were going to go to a movie but we ran out of time!

27th - The Dueck gathering at Grandpa's house. I hade lots of fun at this one. We played lots of Blokus and Apples to Apples (Got both of those as well). We went to Dahlen and Chantal's for a bit after to hang out with Ryan and Kelsey before they went home so we got home pretty late. Eric got Batman Begins and The Dark Knight from Grandpa, so we watched all of Batman Begins and half of the Dark Knight. They are awesome movies!

Today! - After all the busyness of the past 4 days, we took today to relax. I got a bunch of cleaning done, we finished watching the Dark Knight, we went for a fun walk in the bush with the big dogs, watch Marie Antionette, and I got alot of knitting done for my new baby blanket. I took the old one apart and I am following a pattern on this one. Looks much better already. Now I can smell the Chili simmering! MMM. We might be heading to the cabin tonight for a little bit!

Stay tuned, tomorrow I have a VERY BIG annoucement that is going to change my life! Exciting!

On Monday we got our Christmas photos from Walmart.( I know! WAY too late!) I got 60 printed and thought it would be WAY too many. Turns out it was not nearly enough. So if you did not get one, I am sorry but here is our picture! Next year I will print more, but it is too late now!

The Kylee

I LOVE THIS ONE! It is probably my favorite. It turned out so much better than I thought it would! The green on the back is the same as the green on the Kassie. I LOVE that green. So pretty! I can't wait to give them to them! Actually. WE SHOULD BE THERE RIGHT NOW! LOL

The Amy

I love, love, love the colors of this one! I was so pumped when I found that army print! It is blue, yet still girly!

The Hillary

I wasn't sure how this all yellow one would turn out, but I love it! My favorite fabric is the lighter yellow one with the darker yellow dots!

The Kadence

I love the stars! And I have never used embroidered flannel before. It is so cute!

The Kassie

Here is the first one done! I really like it, it is very western. Eric likes it too! It is not very little girlish but she LOVES horses, and I LOVE the pattern with the horses. It was hard to find stuff to match it. I also LOVE the green on the back, it is such a pretty color. It still needs to be de-balled. I am done another quilt as well, it is in the dryer, and1/5 done another. That is progress I would say! There is hope!

The Christmas Tree

I am always pondering things, and wondering how they came to be and what is the point of them. Usually I look it up and never share with anyone, but today things change. LOL


The questions that were running through my mind: Why do we cut down a pine tree, put it in our living room and decorate it to celebrate Jesus' birthday? When did this start? Do most people just put up a tree because it is the "Christmas" thing to do? ( I certainly do. I have no idea why we put up a tree! We just do it!) Here is what Wikipedia had to say, in Lindsey:

-The tradition of the "Christmas Tree" originated in Germany, possibly as early as the 16th century. There are many differenent ideas and stories about how it started:

1. Saint Boniface (no, not St. Boniface the quirky french neighboorhood of Wpg but Saint Boniface the patron saint of Germany) disrupted a pagan child sacrifice under an oak tree by flattening the tree with his fist. Then a fir tree sprouted up, and St. Boniface told the pagans the tree represented Christ. ( How random is that?)
2. Martin Luther was walking home one night, and thought the sparking of the stars through the branches of a pine tree was delightful, so he decided to take a tree home and decorate it with candles and silver and gold tinsel. (Fire alert?!?! Any why did he have tinsel just sitting around his house?)
3. Some guilds in the 1500's would erect fir trees in their guild halls at Christmas time and decorate it with all sorts of goodies for the guild-members children to collect on Christmas day.

- The Christmas tree was a tough sell to 17th century Christians. One priest said it was distracting from the Word of God.

- In the 18th century, it was gaining popularity in most larger towns in Germany and it was considered to be a Prodestant tradition. The Roman Catholic Church eventually "adopted" the Christmas tree because they could not prevent its use. (LOL)

-There are several people that think they brought the Christmas tree to North America. They are all dead now so I guess they thought they were the first. Anyways, the first Christmas tree was erected in the US somewhere between 1777 and 1821 apparently.

-Traditionally, the Christmas tree was erected on December 24th and taken down by January 7th. It was considered bad luck to have it up any longer than that (Oops).

-Some churches use their Christmas tree, stripped and bare, as a Cross on Easter!

-in the 60's, Aluminum christmas trees were very popular!

If you want to read the whole story, click here.

This still leaves me with unanswered questions. I feel like the article I found was avoiding my questions by talking about other things! LOL. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is anything bad about a tree. I just think it is a bit weird that we all do it and don't really know why other than it looks pretty and "Christmasy". (Well maybe some of you do know why, but I still don't)

According to this site, people began decorating trees with apples to represent the Paradise tree they saw in paintings in the 15th century, on December 24 to celebrate the feast day of Adam and Eve (WHA?!?!). Somehow it evolved into a Christmas tree and became popular with the royals : For Victorians, a good Christmas tree had to be six branches tall and be placed on a table covered with a white damask tablecloth. It was decorated with garlands, candies and paper flowers.

This is an excellent article. It talk about a bunch of different Christmas traditions and why we do them. However it kind of glosses over how the christmas tree started. Probably because the author's brain became scrambled eggs when he started researching it, just like mine!

Honestly, I am done. I have read a bunch of articles online, parts of my questions have been answered, but what I really want to know is: What is the purpose of putting up a Christmas tree? What does it symbolize?

Answers anyone?

8 Days

I only have 8 days to piece these together...

I will post the finished products as soon as they are done!

USA Shopping Trip!

I was going to post about this on the weekend, but my internet was not working!! ARGH!! Anyways....

Our shopping trip was lots of fun! I was really glad to get away with girl friends for a change! Sarah and Chantal met me in Gimli right after work and we only had one goal, get across the border ASAP. The roads were not great, especially in the city, so that slowed us down a bit. We told Sheri we were not stopping to pick her up, and we didn't! LOL! We got across the border at 7:21 with no problems, despite Sheri looking at guilty as a fox!

I thought I knew where our Super 8 was, but when we passed one on the way into town I wasn't so sure! Instead of worrying about it, we found our way to the Red Pepper, a local fast food place on campus. We all had Grinders:

They were amazing, until the last couple bites. Sheri and I tried to finish Sarah's second half, but we were way to full. It makes me gag just looking at one right now.

Then it was off to the hotel! Which was NOT where I thought it was. Sarah was sweating in her boots, but I knew how to get us there. We just had to turn around on a little emergency access road off the interstate! I am glad I spotted the Super 8 coming in to town cause it was the right one! We went to sleep pretty early that night!

The next morning we work up and shopped for 9 hours straight! With only 1 stop for lunch and one for Starbucks! We had gotten lots done and had lots of fun!

The next day we didn't have much planned. I tried to sleep in as late as I could! We sat in Starbucks for a while, waiting for 12 when the stores opened. We went to a shoe store, then to the mall, then to Gordmans. Gordmans was lots of fun! These pictures explain everything!

We were trying to kill time! After that we went to Target, Wendy's and then home! Our total US experience was 48 hours and 25 minutes long! Actually it was the first time Chantal has ever been in the US!! I can't wait until the next girls trip!

Open House!

I am quite happy right now! My open house turned out alot better than I had thought it would! Lots of people came and I got rid of alot of stock that has been taking up space in my house! YAY! I still have a lot of sale though, so if you are interested in anything, just let me know! I am glad to have a bit of extra money before Christmas. I should have phoned more people around the Mennville area though! I did a bad job of that!

My shopping weekend was lots of fun. It was really great to catch up with Chantal, Sarah, and Sheri. We definatley got some heavy duty shopping done! I will post a full recap tomorrow along with pictures. There are some good ones. LOL

But that is all for tonight cause I should probably start packing this stuff up!

And I'm Off...Wait...Didn't I just....yeah.... i'm leaving again...home? Where is that?...

Yeah, that is how I feel. I always just say, "Ok, I will be busy until _____ and then I will relax and organize myself. It just doesn't happen! ARGH! I just want to be at home!! But I keep making plans and getting invited to events...:( My house is so unoranized and I just hate it! At work and so organized and I try to keep things tidy, it is the total opposite at home.

Even tonight I thought I would be home, but then I got invited somewhere and I had to do a bunch of other little things. I just feel so crazy all the time. I always have a million things lined up that I have to do. I JUST NEED A BREAK!

My friend and I are going on a shopping weekend to the US tomorrow. I am excited for hanging out with friends, but I am not sure what I am going to buy! I really have no clue. Maybe some bath and body works stuff. That's about it. I plan on sleeping in everyday this weekend! LOL

I have went to bed early the past two nights, and it felt really good to have that much sleep! I should really try it more often.

I am also stressed about making a life decision. Where should I work? Should I work part time (Eric thinks i should), but can we afford that? Is that being selfish to work Part time when I can work full time? I dunno. I could probaby take one whole day just thinking about stuff in my life.

Hmmm... this was a depressing post... sorry...