Who Peed In Everyone’s Cereal This Week?

Have you ever had one of those days or weeks where it seems that anyone and everyone you cross paths with is in such a terrible mood?  Well, I happen to be experiencing that this week and I honestly can’t figure out if it’s just a big ole coincidence, or if someone out there in the city has actually peed in everyone’s morning cereal?  I’m starting to think that it has to be the second one, because since I’ve been in (or was in) a pretty good mood, it has to come down to the fact that I don’t eat cereal for breakfast.

In all seriousness, though, I’ve had strangers slam doors in my face and I’ve had others who don’t even batter an eye lash, let alone utter so much as a thank you, while I patiently stand at the entrance for thirty seconds holding the door open for them.

The majority of my co-workers have put their heads down as they pass me in the hallway or the lunch room making me feel like I’m imaginary, and even the ones I’m close with just seem really “off”.  Drivers seem more irritable and impatient than normal, and a little thing known as customer service seems to have completely disappeared.
 

Even my morning coffee routine has been less than enjoyable.  I mean, when I get my coffee I don’t expect any chit chat, but I do expect a “hello”, or at the very least, the basic “that will be $1.70”. But, when they just stand there, staring at me with such a crooked face waiting for me to pay and then slide my coffee across the counter without saying anything, well that just makes me want to hand my coffee back over and tell them that they obviously need it more than me. 

I try not to let little things like that bring me down, but sometimes I find I can’t help it.  Like did I really deserve getting the finger yesterday afternoon as you flew past me because I didn’t see the light turn green right away?

How many times have you started your day off feeling pretty great, when all of a sudden it started to go downhill after interacting with someone who was in a bad mood?


You know, I truly believe that our moods are contagious. I believe that you can lift someone up just as quickly as you can bring them down. I believe that a small gesture can instantly brighten someones day, while an act of rudeness can quickly morph others into a state of unhappiness. We all have the ability to change someones mood, and when I actually stop and think about that, it’s both pretty amazing and pretty powerful.  We all have a choice, and it’s completely and entirely up to us. 
 

Now, I don’t want to give anyone a false impression around here because I don’t always prance around with a smile on my face, and believe me when I say that sometimes I would rather smack someone than actually be nice to them. But I always, always, always try to be pleasant and courteous to others and have consideration for them, regardless of the kind of day or week it is that I’m having.  In fact, I’ve never really understood because I’ve always felt like it actually requires more effort to be rude to someone than to actually be nice to them.
 
So, with that said, if there’s anything you take away from all of this today, it’s that it never hurts anyone to smile a little more and it’s probably best to stay away from eating cereal for a few days.  Okay? 
 
 
 


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Recipe// Creamy Apple Dip


You know, there’s just some things in this world that I will not do and eating an apple without this dip has recently become of one those things.  I know it sounds funny, but I swear it’s true.  If I don’t have the ingredients to make this dip then I don’t look twice at those apples that are staring at me when I open the fridge door.


I found this recipe on Pinterest a few months ago and it is ahhhh-mazing.  It’s healthy, it tastes almost dessert-like, and it literally takes two seconds to whip up.  What’s not to love about that?  And believe me on the two seconds to whip up part.  I’m sure many of you know by now that if I’m actually sharing a recipe, the difficulty level is not too far off from boiling water.




 


Here’s what you’ll need:


-Apples


-Honey


-Cinnamon


-Peanut Butter


-Plain Greek Vanilla Yogurt


-Optional: Protein Powder




 

ONE// Mix 4 tbsp of plain greek vanilla yogurt and 2 tbsp of peanut butter. I prefer the chunky peanut butter in this recipe, but both are really good.
TWO// Add in 1 tsp of cinnamon


THREE// Add 1 scoop of protein powder (again, it’s optional).
FOUR//  Depending on how sweet you want the dip, add 1- 2 tsp of honey (I usually add 1). 

FIVE// Slice your apples
And that’s it, easy as that.  See, I told you it was pretty simple.




 


This recipe makes enough to have with a couple of apples.  So, luckily for me, I have some with me at work today, because you could be sure that if I didn’t, my apple wouldn’t dare venture out of my lunch bag.




 


 




 


 




Linking up with Ashley and Jessica


 


 


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I Have My Pumpkin, Now What?




No, not that tiny thing. 
Well that’s a lie, I did take this little guy home with me because he was just too cute not to, but I also got a few others that were much bigger because the word on the street is that I have to do something with these pumpkins now.  You see, a little while ago I mentioned that I had never carved a pumpkin before, and I’m pretty sure I shocked a few people and made their faces go all funny when they found that out. It’s true, though, I’m guilty! 
But I’ve now had some time to look back and re-evaluate what I’ve been doing with my life in all of the Octobers that have passed, and I’ve come to the conclusion that I must have been missing out on something pretty important.
So, because my life has not been complete yet, I made it a mission this year to put carving a pumpkin on my fall to-do list. Luckily me and Todd had a free day together last weekend, where the the weather was actually decent, so we took advantage and made our way to Lester’s Farm to find me some pumpkins.
 





It was the perfect fall day so I made Todd participate in a little photo shoot.  And I have to say that I was pretty impressed with how these pictures turned out (which is why you’re seeing a gazillion of them posted here).  Maybe after three years with a DSLR camera, I’m finally getting one step closer to knowing how to actually work it. Possible, but not likely.

 
 


“Go big or go home” was my motto when I was picking out these pumpkins, so I ended up getting four large ones and two teeny tiny ones.  I mean, I figured it couldn’t hurt to have a few extra as “back ups” just in case if the task of carving them is as difficult as it seems.


 


 

As you can see, I am now officially one step closer to scratching this task off my list. 
 
Stay tuned for the next part; the result of what it is that I’m actually supposed to do with these.
And please, wish me luck!

This may be my first and last time ever doing this.

 

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The Closest To Being In A Magazine/ Five on Friday

Ohhhh Friday, we meet again!
Despite having to work the Thanksgiving holiday and not having a short work week, this week just flew by. I seriously can’t believe it’s Friday, and guess what? I don’t mind it at all!

Here are some things that stood out to me this week:
 

THE GOOD LIFE BLOG
ONE//
Have you ever bought a piece of clothing and then happen to see the exact same thing you picked out featured somewhere after? Now I’m sure there are a lot of people out there that would cringe at this because they want their style to be different and unique, but not me. I love knowing that I’m not going too far off the fashion beaten path, because I can guarantee you that it wouldn’t be very pretty if I happened to stray.
Remember that sweater I bought from Old Navy about a month ago?
Well a couple of days ago Todd was reading flipping through my People Style Watch Magazine (yeah, so there’s a pretty good chance that I’m going to be single after he reads that) and he pointed this out to me:
Then a couple of days ago I finally broke out this sweater that I had bought at Banana Republic when we went to Halifax at the end of summer (there was a 40% off sale and I immediately flocked to this sweater).
Debating collar or no collar!
And guess who happens to have the same sweater? The very fashionable Veronika posted this outfit Wednesday night:
TWO//
I finally got my lip waxed a few days ago because it desperately needed to be done. You know it’s time when you happen to look down at your lips while you’re eating and all you can see is hair staring back at you. And Todd wasn’t afraid to tell me that my mustache looked worse than his (thanks for that, by the way). 

It was funny, though, because I went into my appointment and the lady who I had never had before started brushing out my eyebrows. I said, “nope, it’s just the lip” and she looked at me and said, “oh they need to be done”. And before I knew it she was trimming my eyebrows.  So, apparently I needed my eyebrows done too (thankfully for no charge).

THREE//
We booked our flights to go to Toronto in December so we can spend Christmas with my family. My sister is having baby number two and there was no way that I was missing that. We usually celebrate Christmas back home here in Newfoundland but I’m really looking forward to doing something different this year.  And plus I am just too freaking excited to meet my new nephew or niece!

FOUR//
I signed up for the Bigs/Littles Network and I wanted to introduce you to my big partner, Jessica.  You need to check out her photos like right now.


FIVE//
Wednesday was mine and Todd’s anniversary and since I didn’t have any clue what I could get him, I figured I would buy a bunch of his favourite things. After finding the idea on pinterest (surprise), I decided to put the items in a beer box and he loved it, and it also made me feel a little creative, which doesn’t happen too often.

Todd always steals (and then loses) my nail clippers and lip glosses so you could be sure those two items were being added.


 

Before I go, I wanted to share this video with you that I saw on YouTube this week that really struck me.  It might help if you’re looking for some extra motivation over the weekend, for whatever reason it is that you may need it for.


Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!


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Renee. Yup, That’s My Name!

  

When I first saw that Jessica, Miranda, and Kelli were doing a link up that revolved around your name, my initital thought was that I probably wasn’t going to join because there was nothing that special about the name Renée, especially not enough to center a whole post around it.

Even though I wasn’t participating, I was still curious enough to type my name into google just to see if anything interesting would appear.  The first thing that it told me was that it’s French origin, but there was really no surprise there because I guess the é kind of gave that away. I did find out, though, that the word means “to be reborn”.  Huh! Cool! Learned something new.  Still not really exciting, though.

I mean, yes, my name is one that children can never pronounce. If you happen to have a child under the age of four, try to get them to say Renée and see what they come up with.  If they happen to nail it, well then I’m pretty sure they just landed themselves a spot in the guiness book of world records too. 

My two year old nephew, along with the majority of other children, calls me Nay, but that does not bother me one bit. In fact, he could call me whatever his little heart desired to call me, because whatever it is that he utters out of that cute little mouth of his just melts my heart.  And everyone in my whole family thinks it’s pretty hilarious that he was able to master saying Uncle Todd before Nay.

But other than that, I figured that’s pretty much all I had to share.

Until it hit me.  Wait!  How could I have forgotten about this? 

See apparently my parents, along with the doctors, were convinced that I was going to be a boy.  For the first time that just made me question why the doctors thought I was going to be a boy?  I wonder did they see something that made them think that?  Or were there no ultrasounds back then?  I’m going to pretend I know the answer here and say it’s the latter.  Anywho, obviously when I was born things wern’t what they thought they were going to be and, instead of Ryan, I turned out to be the little girl with no name. 

So, what do your parents do when they don’t have a name picked out for you?  Oh, just let the name of their daugter lie in the hands of their other four year old daughter and let her pick it.  I was told that there was a Renée on Days of Our Lives back then and my sister happened to love that name. Again, I just questioned why my sister was watching Days Of Our Lives at four years old.  Gesh, I have so many questions for my family.  I guess I should just be thankful that she was watching Days of Our Lives and not the Care Bears because you could be calling me something like Grumpy Bear right about now.

Well, there you have it.  I think that was worth sharing, wouldn’t you say?  I mean, how many other people can say that they were named by a four year old?


 


 


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