My Birthday!

I love this time of year, it's when I get to see my mom the most!  She comes into town lots to do Christmas shopping and to run errands.  (And to gossip with her little girl).  We always have a blast each time she's up, and Thursday's visit was no exception!

One time when my sister and I where teenagers, we where browsing the seasonal section of Wal-Mart with mom.  Mom starts picking up all of these toys that move and talk.  Then she started turning them all on.  I mean ALL of them.  Then she put them on the ground and laughed as every single toy was squawking and jostling about on the floor and making a HUGE ruckus.  My sister and I where mortified!  I remember us saying, "moooooom! People are looking at us!"  So, she turned them all on again, and walked away.  Making it look like my sister and I had created this giant mass of chirping and squawking toys on the floor!  We heard her giggling an aisle over too.  Now I'm not embarrassed by my mom, in fact when we hit up a seasonal department it's usually both of us running through turning them all on now and giggling.

On Thursday mom and I headed to the mall.  Our first stop was a Jewelry store.  Mom just got her wedding rings back from being soldered together.  I haven't been able to wear my wedding rings for a good year, so I dropped mine off to be soldered and sized.  My rings weren't huge to begin with, they varied from 7.25- 7.5 in size.  Well, when they sized me we found out my new ring size is 5.5!  No wonder they didn't fit anymore!  I hope to have them back by mid December, so I can show you all a picture since I forgot to take one before I dropped them off.

Seriously, I dropped TWO ring sizes!! I have stick fingers!

While in the mall we cruised around and looked at the new Holiday kiosks opening up.  There's a new one this year called "Log Barn".  For some reason they had giant dinosaurs and Tigers set up around their Kiosk.  (We found out later that the Dinosaurs are celebrating the fact that we're getting a Dinosaur museum here!)

He see's you!!

They are coming up with some sort of scheme....

So after the mall we headed out to Boston Pizza for lunch.  I'm glad they have so many options to choose from!  I was torn between a Salad and this meal...

Chicken Stromboli at BP's

Chicken Stromboli is what it's called.  I have no idea what it is, other than the description made it sound delicious!  It's made with pizza dough and was filled with chicken, peppers, sauce and cheese.  It was a little bland, but adding salt helped out.  It was pretty hefty 660 calories, but I was full for a really long time afterwards.  I will totally order that again (if I have the calories for it!).

After mom left town I had to head into work.  For lunch I went to a restaurant that is my new favourite! It's called Chopped Leaf.  They only have a few locations in Alberta, but seriously I'd go out of my way to get their food!  Their sandwiches and soup are to die for!

I had a Pesto Chicken sandwich with Spicy Creamy Tomato soup! It was so good, and very filling.  Their only 3 doors down from where I work, and I like to go here for a bit of a treat.

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Yesterday happened to be my birthday!  Unfortunately because Black Friday has seeped across the border I had to get up early to open the store.  I was supposed to get up at 5AM but my alarm never went off, so I slept in by 20 minutes.  Then when I got out of the shower I found out my hair dryer went kaput on me! (RIP hair dryer! I've had it for 10 faithful years!)  Then once I got to work I developed a nasty headache and a very cranky attitude.  (My poor boss, he worked with me and I'm pretty sure he avoided me because I was Miss. Cranky pants!)

After I got off of work I laid down for a bit and had some food which made me feel a million times better! Dan and I headed off to the mall for the afternoon.  It was pretty cute to see a lot of kids dressed up to have their photos taken with Santa! At the mall I picked up a new hair dryer at Shoppers (Toni & Guy brand, same as my flat iron.  I hope it's a good brand!) and used up a $10 gift card I had for it.  Then we wandered around and ended up at "Log Barn" where we found out that they sell fudge.  (A serious weakness for me!). They didn't sell just ANY fudge.  They sell Peanut Butter Chocolate fudge!

I couldn't resist taking some nibbles before pulling out my camera.  I had about 1/4 of it and gave the rest to Dan.  It was A-MA-ZING!

So after the mall we headed out to get my license renewed.  I found after waiting in line that I am in fact renewing a whole year early (oopises!) but I don't have to pay as much if I do it so early.  Plus, I told the lady I really wanted to get my photo re-taken and the weight changed! Hah!

Old licence photo

After talking to the lady at the counter I found out that I had actually helped her at work the night before.  I had talked to her about video games for a gift, and had told her about other stores in the city where she could go to find everything on her list.  She was so nice!

After our little chat, I went into the room to get my new photo taken.  Right as she was about to take the photo their machine went down.  (So I broke my hair dryer, and my mug broke their camera! Oi!)  So I have to go back today to get the photo taken.  They also did a vision test and found that my left eye is  super duper (my dad calls it my "eagle eye") and my right eye is pretty poor.  But the lady said it was fine, that together they work great.  So long as I don't go blind in my left eye that is... ;D

When we got home Dan gave me my gifts! He went all out and got me tickets to a concert tonight. We're going to see JOURNEY! How cool is that?!  I guess him and my boss worked together to make sure I had tonight off so Dan could buy the tickets.  Dan also got me a Nintendo 3DS, something that I've been hemming and hawing about for awhile.  It's a pretty purple colour, which is exactly what I wanted!

I wanted to take photos of myself this birthday for comparison.  Here is a photo of me last year at my birthday. (It was a Movember/Birthday party.  All the guests got mustaches to wear!) Some people call it "No shave November" instead of "Movember".   

Birthday Nov. 2011

Nov. 2012

Nov. 2012

Nov. 2012

My cheeks are definitely less chubby now, haha!  Also, I lost a mustache! (Heh!)

Last night we went out for supper at The Keg.  One reason why I picked The Keg is because they having a really great way of customizing your meal to meet your nutrition needs.  You can pick the steak you want, the sides, veggies, whatever and it'll tell you how many calories are in each item.  That way if you want to substitute a baked potato for mashed, then you know how many calories difference it is!  

Instead of getting dessert or a birthday cake I opted for some drinks.  I had red wine at the meal with my steak, and before the meal I had a drink called "Pink Kitty".  It was made with CAKE flavoured vodka! How cool is that?  It was VERY delicious and very strong.

I know I went over my calorie limit for the day.  But only with the drinks.  When I planned my day, I'd forgotten to think about drinks at dinner.  I'm not too upset though, I didn't feel like I was bingeing and I was quite satisfied afterwards.

So, did you celebrate in the American Thanksgiving?  Or did you dare go out shopping for Black Friday?  Here it wasn't too busy!