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I tried another Budget Bytes recipe yesterday. Slow cooker non-fried refried beans!

I don’t have any pictures (not very photogenic) but they turned out awesome!!! SO much nicer than canned refried beans, and way cheaper. Also they must be pretty healthy because the only ingredients are dried pinto beans, water, onion, garlic, jalapeno and some spices! No oil whatsoever, they just cooked in the slow-cooker for 8 hours and then I mashed them.

The recipe made about 5 servings of beans for less than $2. I bet I could even get cheaper dried beans if I bought a bigger package or got them in bulk. We ate yummy shrimp burritos last night, and we froze the remaining four servings for another time.


Scott did end up making the choc ripple cake. He whipped the cream by hand!!


It was tasty. I ate it with breakfast….. I’m still off chocolate after the morning. Actually speaking of sleep I’ve been pretty good at it lately! I fall asleep much quicker than before, although I still do have the occasional insomnia night when I’m really anxious/nervous but it’s really way less frequent than last spring/summer.


Dinner last week. Quinoa with shrimp, avocado, butternut pumpkin, corn, red pepper, green onion, lime. I made the quinoa in the rice cooker, stir-fried all the vegetables, removed them and seared the shrimp, then mixed everything together, added avocado, and doused it all with the juice of one whole lime. YUM YUM.

I’ll be back with another awesome gift post later today.

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Natasha made me an awesome record bowl. Katrina and the Waves, of course!


Such excellent proof that cool presents don’t have to cost lots of money. A thoughtful DIY gift means so much. I love it.

Scott had to work a weird shift today so I’m on my own at home tonight. Enjoying it thoroughly actually. Watching bad TV, and probably a movie later that he’s already seen.

Monica and Brad were stayed with us last night. We met up with them at Broadway Station Sushi, and then came back here for Settlers and catching up. It was fun. I love having so many visitors here…. one of the perks of living in Vancouver, everyone seems to stop through here!

Oh yeah I changed my blog layout again. Yet again. I’m quite happy with it at the moment. I just have to make a nice header photo and then I will be a lot more content. I never really fully liked the last layout.

Um um um I thought I had more to say, but I forget it all now. Until tomorrow!

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I’m a bit embarrassed at how long this took me to do, but over the holidays I received a whole bunch of really awesome, thoughtful gifts, and I really need to show them to you. My friends and family are awesome.

I think I’ll just do them one a time, maybe one per day.


This is a name draft, made by my family friend Jac. I think they look pretty cool even without an explanation, but they’re even cooler when you know what’s going on!

Basically he takes our full names and puts them into a computer program he wrote. It spits out a design and then he weaves them on his weaving loom in our favourite colour. The pattern is based on our name going from the outside to the inside, on all sides (mirror image).

Scott’s is the green one on the left. His is bigger because he has two middle names that make his name very long. Mine is on the right in purple.

My favourite part of the weaves is that since Scott and I have the same last name, the very inner part of each of our designs is the same! I haven’t checked, but the inside of Rosemarie’s, and the one Jac made for our mom should also be the same. So cool.

Jac and Laurie made name drafts for us, Rosemarie, and the Monnon kids and their partners, and put them in these nice frames for us to display. This was such a nice gift, something that I will keep forever. Thank you Jac and Laurie!!!!!

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Holy moly, that dumb video of me in the aqualoop has 81,000 views. I’ve made more than $30 from it! Youtube videos are pretty lucrative compared to blogging, at least at the amateur level.

It’s Australia Day today! Well over there it is. Here it is tomorrow. Confusing.

Perhaps it’s finally time for Scott to make choc ripple cake? I’m not sure entirely what it is, but every Aussie I mention it to seems to get pretty excited. Choc ripple biscuits on their own are pretty good…. they’re kind of like the outside of a crunchy fudge sandwich cookie? I just tried to find the ones I’m picturing in my mind but no amount of image searching chocolate and fudge and cookies is bringing up what I want.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the cake!

Now he has to make it, cuz I blogged about it. Muahahahahha.

School is going really well. I haven’t had that much work yet, which is nice. I’m feeling pretty good about this semester.

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Yesterday after school I went skating with some of my classmates. Aside from missing our bus stop and having to walk in the rain it was a very fun afternoon. I like hanging out with my classmates. I had a lot of fun skating fast laps.


Scott and I went out to Broadway Station sushi for dinner last night. We hadn’t had any sushi so far this year, and it was Scott’s first time eating sushi with fish in it since becoming an omnivore again. I had the avocado combo (avocado roll, salmon and avocado roll, tuna and avocado roll) and Scott had the sushi special (tuna roll, yam roll, california roll). Om nom nom.

Rosemarie met up with us at the restaurant and we came back to our place to play Settlers and Agricola. I finally won Agricola after a very long losing streak. Woohoo.

Today we went to Ikea to look at beds and couches. All we bought was a new whisk (our old one is rusty!) and some jars. Then we took the bus over to Costco. Aghghghghghhhhhhh Costco in Richmond is horrible. It was SO SO SO SOOOOOOOO CROWDED. We went in with intentions of buying more salsa and a few other things, but it was so uncomfortable being in there that we just did a quick lap of the store for a few samples and then left. Gah.

I am pooped now from those errands. An evening of Top Chef and movies awaits me.