what am i supposed to do with this?

Vulcan, Alberta = Awesome!

2012-01-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

I recently found myself travelling between Calgary and Lethbridge and realized that, while not exactly directly en route, Vulcan Alberta happens to be situated between the two. In case you are not familiar, Vulcan Alberta is home to a Vulcan Starship. Imagine my delight to find that I would have the chance to swing by and add another amazing landmark to my collection of photos with Canada's Tacky Lawn Ornaments!

Not only is there a starship, but there are also two commemorative signs...one in Vulcan and one in Klingon! AMAZING!

Also, if you are fortunate enough to be travelling with someone, you can take each others' photos in the faces of various crew members... Sadly I was on my own and had forgotten my tripod at home. Sigh...another time, perhaps!

And, for a change, a post about ...Knitting!!

2012-01-24T18:02:00.001-07:00

I've been a knitting machine lately (Da wonders if I'm knitting in my sleep), and have done some work that I'm quite proud of. First, I made up my own pattern using a "faux cable knit".

Then I finished up my little mousie. I was pretty tired last night when I finished up the legs and decided Mousie looked chilly and that I should probably make a cowl for warmth. Everyone else gets a cowl, why not Mousie??

I;m not going to lie, Mousie was the most twiddly knitting project I've attempted yet! I've used a coffee cup so you can see the scale.

Ryann's Hippo - updated

2012-01-21T18:29:00.001-07:00

While I've been visiting Leah, I finished the Hippo from the Wee Ones collection. I finished off the hippo last night (waaaay past my bedtime) and the shirt today. The sleepiness I feel today is totally worth it when I gave the little hippo to Ryann!

Update: His name is Hank.

More Knitting!

2012-01-16T06:10:00.005-07:00

Update: Yesterday I watched an online tutorial and learned how to knit on double pointed needles! WOOT! I started with the easiest pattern I could find for a toy and could not stop until I was done. This resulted in being up until midnight last night. Whoops! I'm not going to lie though, it was totally worth it!

My New Hobby (read: "obsession")

2012-01-15T11:49:00.001-07:00

On January 1st, for the second time in my life, Mum taught me to knit. This time it made sense and stuck. She sent me on my way back to Swift Current with a variety of yarn, a set of needles and an assortment of knitting notions and accessories to get me started. I've since become fairly obsessed and have started buying patterns and downloading patters to try new ideas and techniques.

This was what I worked on during the drive from Smithers to Swift. I had intended to make a really big scarf, but by the time I got back I had discovered the plethora of patterns online and decided to start fresh. Notice the inconsistent shape and the random hole? Ah well...
These are the three cowls I've made so far. Each one took me about two evenings (the beige one was first, followed by the green, and the white one is the most recent).

I wore the green one to work one morning and showed my coworker who was totally impressed and declared that it "doesn't even look homemade!" I'm seriously very proud (probably disproportionately, but whatever).
So, since I don't want my first project to go to waste, and I'd like to have it as a reference point (where I am now compared to where I started), I've put it to use:

~next, I'm moving on to stuffed toys. We'll see how THAT goes!

A Fabulous Holiday!

2012-01-15T11:25:00.001-07:00

Brad and I had Christmas with my family this year (2nd year in a row!). We spent two weeks here and it was wonderful! Basically I'm just going to post the pictures so you can see how awesome it was. :D

Halifax

2011-12-10T13:33:00.006-07:00

Things have been happening in my life, but due to the busy-ness, I don't ever seem to have time to blog them. Sigh. I've recently uploaded the photos from my camera to my computer and have about 15 minutes which I can dedicate to blogging, so here goes!

First off, two weeks ago I was in Halifax (go figure!). I had a really great time walking around the city. It really is beautiful and has so much character. The weather was cold, rainy and blowy on Wednesday, but I went out for a walk anyway to take some photos. The rest of the week had gorgeous weather! We became so spoiled though, that coming back to cold, snow and sleet was a rude awakening. Ugh. Hello again, Winter. On Thursday night myself, Rachel and Maureen went to the Neptune Theatre to see a live performance of the Jungle Book. It was a ton of fun with fantastic costumes, ridiculously catchy songs ("friend of the jungle!" LOL!) and truly fantastic sets!

On my last day in the city, Maureen took me to the Sweet Hereafter, a Cheesecake cafe. Yes, that's right. Could a place have been created that is more suited to me??? It was fantastic! She had a groupon that got us two pieces of cheesecake (I had chocolate Irish cream) and two coffees. It may have been my lunch.

This was my third trip to the Maritimes and, as I was saying while I was there, I have yet to have a bad experience. Beautiful cities, the friendliest people. gorgeous weather...what's not to love?

A Night of Murder

2011-10-31T19:27:00.006-06:00

After weeks of planning, hours of prep time, and days of building excitement, Saturday arrived and we were finally ready for our night of murder! The kit we bought from www.nightofmyster.com came with everything we needed, but there was still the printing, cutting, labelling, organizing and preparing of the information to make sure the party went off smoothly. Karlene spent Saturday making her house look fantastic by creating giant decorative dice, a Vegas skyline, and a poker table in her kitchen. I made 72 maimed sugar-cookie men, a double batch of cheesecake brownies and hot spinach and artichoke dip.

Due to a higher number of girls than guys, we didn't have enough girl characters to go around. The game came with a couple of girl/guy characters of which I took one and decided that I should probably have fun with it and be a boy. As I started drawing on thicker eyebrows and a goatee (complete with a soul patch) I started to make myself a little uncomfortable).

The party involved a murder mid-party (we made sure there was one extra character so that whoever was murdered wouldn't have to sit out for the night as everyone else enjoyed the game). The murder went fine (a sentence I never thought I would say) and only one person guessed the right murderer! It wasn't me, but I had a few people fairly convinced that it was me. Mwahahaha!

Back row: Landon - Aces High the High Roller/Agent Avery the FBI Agent; Ben - Elvis the Elvis Impersonator; Lindsay - Lucy Legs the Showgirl; Karlene - Hustlin Hailey the high roller; Lisa - Security Sam the security guard; Brad - Jack Black the blackjack dealer
Middle: Kyla - Mimi Martini the cocktail waitress

Front row: me - Cole Conway the sports book manager; Chelsea - Precious Trump the floor manager; Jackie - Iguana Trump the wife of the casino owner; Darrin - Ronald Trump the casino owner; Cody - Jim Beam the bartender; Rick - Paul Piano the lounge singer.

Getting ready for murder!

2011-10-20T20:05:00.003-06:00

Over the summer, a group of my friends and I decided that we should have a murder mystery party for Halloween, so, with the day quickly approaching we've launched into the preparations for our night of murder! As a scrapbooker I was totally against the idea of just sending out the printed invitations that came with the game, so one evening after yoga, Karlene came over and we set to work assembling the invites. We're both pretty pleased with the result and the best part of it all was that Karlene discovered that she really enjoys scrapbooking! We've since had two Sunday afternoons of scrapbooking! Feels so good to get into it again! I realized that I haven't done any scrapbooking since Mare was visiting! RIDICULOUS!

Here is the invite that we created. Excitement is mounting! Can't wait to get our murder on!

Something to write home about

2011-10-19T21:49:00.004-06:00

It's been forever (yet again) since I blogged. I now have something to blog about though! Incidentally, the something I have to blog about is something that I am currently blogging with, I bought myself a netbook! With my job I find myself on the road rather a lot at certain times of the year and staying in hotels. This leads to rather a lot of tear-your-hair-out-boredom. So, when I saw netbooks on sale, I suddenly (and quickly) convinced myself that this was something that I must purchase. Why, my life would be infinitely better with such a devise! However did I live without one before?? So I bought one. :) Happy day! I have it up and running fairly smoothly and am pleased to say that the keyboard, though smaller than normal, is quite comfortable to use. The screen, though small, is clear and pretty to look at. Yes, so far I am pleased with my purchase! Here are some fancy pictures (uploaded from my camera to said netbook via the built in sd card reader)

Ooooh!! So fancy!
(and yes, that is a tub of popcorn from kernels...I love the air caramel! ...and I love Happy Bunny!)
~

The cover has a super-fancy ripple effect. Sadly, the high glass means it shows fingerprints like nobody`s business. Oh well...I`ll just have to keep a microfiber cloth around at all times.

See how small it is? Why, it's exactly Jessica Size! How convenient!

I'm practically a world famous artist!

2011-08-21T10:39:00.006-06:00

Back in July Groupon had a deal for a photo-to-canvas through 44Wide. I've seen canvases that people have had made up of their photos and through it was a fantas tic idea. The deal was $69 for a 16x20 print (regular $209). I bought two. I started going through my photos to find something that would look good as a canvas and decided on one of the pictures I took at Peggy's Cove when I went to Halifax in 2009. It needed a wee bit of work, but I tidied it up and sent it off for print. The canvas came 4 weeks later.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-08-21T10:14:00.004-06:00

Brad and I are celebrating our 2nd anniversary today! Earlier in the week a friend of mine said "it's hard to believe it's been 2 years, isn't it?" and my response was "actualy, it's hard to believe it's only been two years! It feels like much longer...in a good way, haha!" And it's true. It does feel like longer. Since our anniversary lands on a Sunday this year, Brad and I went to Medicine Hat yesterday for some shopping and a fancy supper at the Cracked Peppercorn. It was very tasty, but the company was the best part. He also surprised me with a beautiful pure silver bangle (even though we had said no presents this year).

A big day!

2011-08-04T07:40:00.004-06:00

At last calculation still getting 95mpg! When I bought gas last it was $4.64 for 3.94l which means that it costs me approximately .03/km to drive. Hahahahahahahaha! LOVE it!

Zip-Lining!

2011-08-03T07:38:00.006-06:00

For my birthday, Brad paid for me to do a zip-lining tour at Cypress! I was super stoked to go when Karlene told me they had installed it and when I realized that we would actually be camping at Cypess for a few days, I became very excited at the prospect of actually doing it! Mum was right on-board with me (despite both of us being afraid of heights and bridges). And so on Tuesday the 19th, we suited up and went zip-lining!

A new fashion statement? I think so!

Mum, all harnessed up!
~

The first platform was 42 feet up and involved climbiing a very wobbly rope ladder. Not as difficult as I thought...though definitely a challenge.
~

Mum, getting going on the ladder
~

We made it!! On top of the first platform
~

Look how close I am to the tops of the trees!!
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Mum, zipping along
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Me, on the longest line: 600 feet.
~

We did it!!

So Many Photos! (because we had so much fun!! Clearly!)

2011-08-03T07:07:00.011-06:00

My blogging hiatus has been partly because June wasn't a very exciting month, but mostly because in early July my parents made the drive from Smithers to come visit me and Brad! They arrived on July 7th and stayed until July 25th for the best three weeks ever! We played lots of games (including Settles of Catan, Rummoli, and Angry Birds), and visited until the wee hours just about every night (making it very difficult to go back to getting up at 630 for work. booooo!). Here are some of my favorite photos:

Oh, Angry Birds...how I love and hate you all at once!
~

Catching up on the scrapbooking I've done since Mum was last here
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Playing a game of Settlers of Catan
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At Lac Pelletier for lunch
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It's my birthday!!
~

Birthday Bushpies!! YUM!!! (Mum and Da are now sold on bushpies...not that they were doubters, but they haev definitely hopped on the bandwagon)
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My Birthday Raspberry Cheesecake Bushpie - with a candle on top!
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See? Totally on the bandwagon!
~

After my birthday supper we played Rummoli and I won. All was right in the world. :)
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At Bald Butte in Cypress
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Mum and I at the Cypress Hills Winery after an afternoon wandering around Maple Creek
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Da and I at the Winery
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On our last morning camping at Cypress, Brad and I had my parents "come over" for breakfast of pancakes.

~I taught Mum and Da how to play Mario Kart...which was enjoyed by all (though pretty ridiculous)
~

One more game of Rummoli after supper before Mum and Da left on their long drive back to Smithers.
~

Sold!

2011-06-05T18:05:00.002-06:00

Bucking the trend of preserving one's wedding dress in a box with a clear window, I placed mine on ebay, hoping a thrifty bride would be interested in buying a pink Sottero Midgley. Turns out, one was! It took several months of attempts to sell, but this morning I received an email from ebay telling me my item sold! The bride, a woman from Quebec, is apparently moving to Cuba next week to marry her one and only. Despite feeling disappointed each time my dress didn't sell, I found that rather than feeling happy that it did, I actually felt a little sad to see that it had sold. What can I say, I'm a bit sentimental. The feeling was fleeting though; I'd rather someone else get some joy out of it. Also, I don't want to just stash it in the closet for years and years and carry it around with me for the rest of my life. It's not the sort of thing that can be shortened to wear at another occasion either. I've got a little bit of money out of it and hopefully it will bring as much good luck to a new bride as it did for me.

All Growed Up!

2011-05-27T18:04:00.003-06:00

I'm feeling all grown up and mature as of last night. That's right, we (finally) have a grown up bed frame! I had painted one wall in the bedroom last weekend in preparation and it looks pretty spiffy, even if I do say so myself. haha! I love what a coat of paint can do for a room. So here are the pictures!

Before:

Ollie is so helpful!
~ The finished product!
~Yay!

Now THAT'S High Tech!

2011-05-27T18:00:00.002-06:00

Pirates of teh Caribbean 43D! And you thought 3D glasses were uncomfortable!

Minor Home Improvements

2011-05-22T16:34:00.004-06:00

With spring settling in (finally) and the knowledge that snow will not (likely) be falling again for a few months, Brad and I took to the outdoors and started working on some landscaping. I have no trouble figuring out what will look great in room in a house, but when it comes to a yard I am at a total loss. I mean COMPLETE and total loss. So I rely on Brad's ideas and inspiration to make our yard lovely. We decided a long time ago that the front yard needed a tree (after we tore down the sad and dying evergreens when we moved in). The year after removing the evergreens we planted a small amur cherry tree. It was growing quiet well and then suddenly died. We think the soil was too acidic from the pine needles. As it's been 2 years since then we hope that the problem is no longer an issue and optimistically planted again. This time we went with a Golden Eclipse Lilac tree. Brad wanted to create a raised planter in the front yard for this tree, so we bought some cindercrete retaining wall bricks and he built the planter.

I am demonstrating what a tree will look like in the spot we picked out

And this is what the tree actually looks like.

We packed in quite a lot of potting soil and black earth. Should manage alright. Here's hoping!

It was a very successful and productive weekend so far. Still to come: photos of the bedroom makeover. I'm still waiting for our bed frame though (sigh). When it's all done, I'll post some pics.

The Ukrainian Domestic Goddess

2011-04-24T09:59:00.003-06:00

When we lived in the Lowermainland, Easter for my family was always spent at my Nana and Papa's house. They would make lavish spreads of food for supper for the extended family. So this year, Brad and I have undertaken a (somewhat condensed) Ukrainian feast. I started making Easter Babka (an Easter bread with a dozen egg yolks, YUM!) on Friday and left it in the fridge to rise over night. Yesterday I put the 12 egg whites to use and made a chocolate angel food cake, baked the Easter Bread, and boiled potatoes for perogy filling. I finished making perogies (only 50 this time, as compared to my usual 80+) around 3 and, let me tell you, my feet were KILLING me. Today Brad started some borscht in the slow cooker, and he'll be making cabbage rolls later in the day. To finish it off, I'll be making some nelesniki (a crepe filled with ricotta cheese. I also add spinach for fun).

How many projects can I have on the go? This is in the midst of two I believe...bread and cake.
~ Post-baking. My THIRD set of dishes for the day. I had already run a load through the dishwasher as well. Sigh. A Domestic Goddess shouldn't have to do this many dishes. Note to self: get a minion.
~ My brand new acquisition. A must have for every Domestic Goddess who intends to make perogies: a marble rolling pin. Does half the work for you!
~ My cake is big and fluffy!! I've never had success like this in an angel food cake before! Victory!
~ The spoils of my day: 5 loaves of Easter Bread (cooling on a cloth covered pillow, rotated every 5 minutes to prevent settling), Chocolate angel food, 50 perogies.

A fantastic weekend!

2011-04-24T09:47:00.003-06:00

Last weekend I hopped on a Westjet flight (courtesy of a seat sale and a $100 coupon they gave me when they lost my bag and I picked it up instead of having it couriered to me) from Regina to Edmonton for four days with Vassy! We planned our whole weekend around the best times to go to certain malls, stores and areas of the city. She took me out to fantastic restaurants and I had to start playing dirty in order to pay the bill once in a while. We went out for drinks on Saturday with her work colleagues who made me feel very comfortable and welcomed.

It was a truly fantastic weekend! I took a half-full suitcase and returned with it packed to the brim. My haul: 7 shirts, 2 dresses, 1 sweater, 1 movie, 1 bra, 2 pairs of shoes, and 1 (my FIRST) pair of lululemon pants. HEAVEN! I couldn't have asked for a better weekend!

Hooray Spring!

2011-04-13T22:23:00.004-06:00

at the risk of jinxing the warm weather, i will post this entry. i love spring.

Black Diamond Anyone?

2011-03-27T13:48:00.004-06:00

Karlene had the brilliant idea to go to Hidden Valley in the Cypress Hills for a day of snowboarding. We loaded up the little Golf and hit the highway for the 2 hour drive to Elkwater. The roads were truly terrible from maple Creek to the Alberta border, but cleared up afterwards and all in all, we made pretty good time. We suited up, strapped on our boards and hit the hill. Thanks to the recent resurgence of winter (grrrr) the hill had some fantastic spring powder (yay!!) and wasn't terribly icy or windy. We put in 4 runs before lunch and afterwards headed back out, exploring some of the runs that branched off of main runs. Each time we went up the chair we would crane our necks around trying to see what some of the other more challenging runs looked like from above.

Towards the end of the day we came into a beautiful little glade of powder and small hills that seemed to be the final end of a black diamond run. We stopped at the bottom of the hill and looked up to see what it looked like, and it looked good! So, after getting off the chair, we headed towards the black diamond run called "Suicide". I went off ahead and was shooshing along the soft snow at a really gentle incline wondering why this run was black diamond. I started to approach a ledge. The closer I came, the more alarmed I became, realizing I couldn't see the other side of it. I came right to the edge and sat down, laughing. Directly in front of me (below me), was the steepest drop off I'd encountered in a winter sport. The hill was covered in moguls. Karlene came up behind me and asked what was so funny. I pointed over the edge at the moguls and she simply said "oh, no....moguls." We sat there and laughed as we tried to decide how best to get down the hill. I went down a couple of meters on my heel edge, all the while looking down the hill. Before I left yesterday morning Brad made me promise not to break my leg. "This is how legs get broken," I thought to myself. So I sat down, unbound my board and proceeded to go down the hill on my arse, board held with one hand and sliding down beside me as I put a nice ass-groove into some of the softer moguls (sorry about that, expert skiers). About halfway down, I let go of my board knowing it was strapped to me with the runaway-strap, and hoping it wouldn't tug too hard at my leg as it slid down ahead of me. It picked up speed faster than I did, tugged twice at my left, and broke free. (Thank you runaway-strap for not doing the only job you were designed to do). Karlene and I laughed hysterically as we watched it careen down the hill on it's own, hoping that it would slow down and maybe even stop, but each time it appeared to be losing momentum, it hit a mogul and launched itself with renewed enthusiasm, finally coming to a stop once the decline evened out. I slid the rest of the way down on my ass until I was on a more level part of the hill and could strap myself back to my board. We were (thankfully) alone on the run, until we reached the bottom of the steepest part and I was putting my board back on. I don't think they were any the wiser that the bum-groove down the middle of the hill came from my bum.

We finished off the day with a couple more blue runs with a little more powder.

Things that are New

2011-03-16T22:40:00.003-06:00

With the coming of spring (it IS coming, damnit!!), I find myself looking forward to the lovely days of sun and warmth that must be on their way - believe me, if I could push spring simply by force of will, we'd have been prancing around in t-shirts and gumboots for a solid three months already. Alas, my superpowers are underdeveloped just yet.

Yesterday we reached 6.5 degrees (according to the thermometer in my car). Despite really loving my teal Steve Madden winter coat, I flat out refused to wear it during any of the trips I had to make around the city for work. Yes, I wore it to work in the morning, but that was just a formality and I threw it carelessly in the backseat of the Golf on my way home after work. My co-workers scolded me, saying there is still snow on the ground and that "it's warm, but it's not THAT warm". Still, I refused. The way I see it, I'm just coaxing the sun to come out and melt away the rest of the snow by proving that it is, in fact, the time of year to start warming things up. "See? I'm not wearing my winter coat anymore because it's practically summer, Mr. Sun! Honest!"

I've got a lot of things to look forward to in the next few months. Mum and Da are coming to visit in July (for the whole month, right guys? Right?), I'll be heading to Penticton in June to meet Mare's little boy, and en route will hopefully have the chance to stop in Calgary and meet Leah's little one. And the thing that's closest for me to look forward to is a trip to Edmonton to visit Vassy in April! I booked my flight not two hours ago and am so excited! Thank you Westjet for your seatsale, and for losing one of my bags on another flight and giving me a $100 credit for picking it up myself! WOOT!

KITCHEN!!!!!

2011-02-26T14:08:00.003-07:00

Here it is; the finished product! (minus toe-kicks, and trim).

It rather looks like a kitchen!

2011-02-23T06:28:00.003-07:00

Unfortunately we weren't able to have the kitchen finished prior to Mare's arrival and the weather played a truly evil role in preventing a lot of work from being done (the countertop couldn't be brought over in the -20 weather because the extreme changes of temperature may have caused the arborite to pop off of the base). Brad put in some of the door fronts and installed our over the range microwave over the weekend which has made the kitchen useable (and REALLY nice!). Then yesterday we had a wonderful treat and Ben and Nick came and installed our countertop! YAY!!!!!! Ben did an amazing job making this custom countertop and it looks fantastic in the house! Next step is to have the plumber come in and finish up with hooking up the sink and dishwasher....then we will officially have a working kitchen!!

A weekend of scrapbooking? Yes, please!!

2011-02-23T06:17:00.003-07:00

Mare left yesterday after a spending just shy of a week in Saskatchewan visiting with me. I picked her up from the airport on Wednesday evening and we spent the night in the city to avoid a long drive home at night and to get in some good shopping the next morning. We came to town on Thursday and proceded to do some serious relaxing in the form of hours of Big Bang Theory episodes, a night watching Emma, a surprise pedicure and three days of scrapbooking! A perfect long weekend, if I do say so myself!

Cupboards, IN!

2011-02-13T16:11:00.002-07:00

Things are moving along nicely and we now all of the cupboards installed! The pantry isn't in yet, but that'll come last I believe. Next is the countertop which Ben has been kind enough to offer to make for us, but the aborite won't be in until tomorrow or Tuesday. Then the plumbing, and the microwave, and by george, I think we'll hvae a new kitchen! WOOT! (Oh, and the light fixture is new, too)

FINALLY, a picture or two!

2011-02-11T16:28:00.004-07:00

Our floor is in and the walls have received their final coat of paint (Brad has conceded that I am a better painter than he). SOoooo, here are the photos!

Teaser

2011-02-10T06:12:00.002-07:00

The floor is in and looks AMAZING!! And the first coat of paint is on the walls. But I'm not posting pictures until the second coat is done. So you're going to have to wait with bated breath!

A coat of paint makes me smile

2011-02-05T16:47:00.003-07:00

As part of the renovations to the kitchen, we (I) decided it would be a great idea to paint one of the living room walls. I had the brilliant idea after painting the spare room downstairs that it would be really amazing to have a feature wall in the living room in a nice sage-type green. So I picked up a slew of samples and stared at them for months, finally deciding on the colour last week. The wall was going to require a coat of paint with the creation of the new pass-through anyway, so I decided to take the opportunity to change things up. One coat is done and the next will come tomorrow, but I couldn't wait to post the pictures.

(yes, that is an inflatable minion from Despicable Me peeking in from the scrapbooking room through the hall. I bought the blue ray and there was the option of getting a minion too for the same price! I'd have been crazy NOT to!)

Who Put that Giant Hole in Jess's Kitchen Wall?

2011-02-04T06:08:00.005-07:00

Our new kitchen has been sitting in the basement in pieces since November when IKEA was having a sale on kitchen cabinets. We ordered (me), received (Brad), counted (Brad) and assembled (Brad) the cabinets and have been waiting for a slightly more opportune time to demolish our kitchen. Why renovate the kitchen? This is why:(Ewwwwwwwwwww)

So we debated on colours (finally I vetoed with the "you've liked the other colours I picked, just go with it" card) and flooring and counter top, etc and Brad decided to take the week off to get cracking on this fairly major project. Here is our (Brad's) progress so far:

Demolition begins!

Waiting for the plumber to come and fix this monstrosity of old plumbing. (fyi, we needed it plumbed in for a DISHWASHER!!! WOOOOOOOO!!!!)

On Tuesday Ben and Brad started working on the ginormous pass-through we planned for the wall between the kitchen and living room.

Pass-through complete on Wednesday!

Wall is plumbed in for all that we need, electrical work is done, and the wall has been insulated, vapour-barriered, drywalled, and mudded! Also, the carpet *cough*gross*cough*cough* has been removed and the floor is ready for a new sub-floor.
~

And this, is how IKEA tells us our final product will look (minus counter tops and sink, etc)! Getting excited!

Look at me and my fancy credentials!

2011-01-30T15:02:00.003-07:00

I had the opportunity to take a course through the Institute of Professional Management to teach the finer points of recruitment. Being that I am a recruiter by day (scrapbooker by night?), I thought it would be beneficial, so I signed up and took the 20 hour on-line course. Granted, I received the CD-Rom in the mail in June and didn't put my nose to the grindstone until November. Regardless, the course took less than the promised 20 hours and I sent off my final exam to the institute for grading and acceptance into my official professional association! I received an email in December that I had passed, but my certificate officially arrived in the mail this month! That's right, I'm now officially a Registered Professional Recruiter, with the fancy letters RPR after my name! Hey, it may not PhD, but I'm pretty proud. See?

Christmas...more than a month late, but whatever!

2011-01-30T14:29:00.004-07:00

The risks of this blog becoming nothing more than a photo album are far outweighed by my desire to post photos. So, I'm posting pictures from our Christmas holidays.

We drove the 20 hours to Smithers on December 17th and 18th to spend Christmas with my family (the first in four years, I might add).

During the stay, I baked 45 butter tarts, made over 120 perogies from scratch, showed my Mum the joys of embossing, relaxed, drank gallons of tea, went cross country skiing with Carly (Carly: "I thought we'd do the 5k track." Me: "Sure, sounds good!" Me, inwardly 30 mintues into it: 'Oh dear god, I'm going to die!' Carly: "Just three big hills to go" Me: "you mean the last ones don't count?" inwardly again: 'I'm DEFINITELY going to die'), went up the hill for an afternoon, visited with Maureen and Barry and had the chance to see other friends, played wii, learned that I am pretty much a master when it comes to Settles of Catan, and taught Brad the joys of a game of rummoli!

Hello, My name is Judy Jetson

2011-01-10T21:14:00.002-07:00

For Christmas this year Santa brought Brad and I a Roomba. We are now the proud new owners of a robot vacuum. The first time we set it up to run, Brad and I were in the kitchen making supper and Brad asked if I ever thought I would own a robot vacuum. "This is Jetson's stuff, right here!" he declared. I agreed and said it was about time. I want to know where my flying car is, but for the time being, having a robot doing the dirty work around the house will suffice. When the Roomba first became popular, I recall wondering about the brand name: IRobot. I believe they first climbed the stairway to popularity following the Will Smith movie "I, Robot" and it crossed my mind at the time that this was perhaps not the greatest time to really push a new product to the masses. Please, buy our robot vacuum of the same name as the movie about servant robots that revolt and attempt to bring down humanity. Hmmm... I don't know which came first, but the irobot Roomba has stuck around, and it's clear why. Regardless of the ever-present fear of a robot insurrection, I delight in the little circular bot puttering around my living room cleaning up after my slovenly ways while I lounge on the chaise eating bonbons and watching soaps with curlers in my hair...or something.

My Vapid Blog

2010-12-12T11:06:00.005-07:00

Over the past few months I have become increasingly aware that my blog is vapid. It has developed (or regressed, perhaps) to a glorified photo album with the occasional quip or witty caption. My blog has become an obligation for friends and family; "I better check to see if the blog has been updated in case she references a photo. Ho-hum". Well, it stops here. Or, I rather hope it does anyway. I have some fairly substantial obstacles in writing a truly captivating blog. Many of the things I find ironic or interesting are off-limits in the realm of blogging.

Here is my list of blogging no-no's:

1. Work. - I work for the Health Region. When I started, I signed a Confidentiality Agreement. This means, if I write, speak, whisper, sing, chant, or otherwise write in code anything learned at work in the context of work will get me fired. Basically immediately. I love my job: the people I work with are great, my work is enjoyable, and it helps to support my shoe and cheesecake habits. I can't afford to lose it by utilizing my blog for the common "venting" that seems natural.

2. Uncharitable thoughts about people I know. - You're wondering who I could possibly have such uncharitable thoughts about, aren't you? Well I can't tell you. It may be someone you know, it may be your best friend, it may be your boss, it may be your coworker, it may be a family member. Hard to say. But Why would I wan you to be annoyed with me because I can't stand ___________? Exactly. Off limits. It's that lesson I learned in kindergarten: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

3. Other uncharitable thoughts. - If I'm annoyed, it sure can't come out here! Chances are the thing I'm annoyed about is something that you love and will therefore result in you ostracizing me. Neither of us want that.

So, with these sorts of limitations, I find I have only a few topics I can discuss:

1. Ollie. SO CUTE!!! Hahahaha, and while I KNOW you all love him, there are only so many times I can post pictures of him snoozing under a blanket, or wearing a cute t-shirt before I become the crazy person who treats her dog like a baby. And believe me, it's a slippery slope.

2. Brad. I'm fairly certain he doesn't read my blog often...and I can chance some embarrassing stories here and there.

3. Hobbies. UBER boring for anyone who is not interested in the same things as me.

4. Random anonymous anecdotes with peoples' names removed to protect me. I.e. "Don't you hate when A PERSON does SOMETHING really annoying?? Me too! It happened to me just THE OTHER DAY at THAT PLACE I WENT TO."

So, while I seem to be experiencing some rather substantial writers block, combined with some serious off-limit topics, I will be striving to write entertaining blog entries, if not for you then for me so I can actually want to blog again.

in the meantime, here is a photo of Peet, our budgie. She is dangling upside down by one foot in her cage, and looks like she's starting to doze off.

A Christmas-y Weekend

2010-12-05T18:23:00.003-07:00

It's a tradition in my family to not turn on the Christmas lights until December 1st. So, on December 2nd (whoops! TOTALLY forgot about the 1st) we turned on our house lights which Brad hung while I was in Halifax. In keeping with the theme of the tradition, I don't decorate the house until December. This weekend,. being the first weekend of the month, was the first weekend of Christmas-y tasks, including creating Christmas cards and decorating! Last night I sat down at my scrapbooking table and made 20 Christmas cards to deliver to friends, family and coworkers. I continued on today and have officially made 28, though I still have another 8 to make.

Today was our official decorating day as well! Brad and I did a clean of the living room and I put up our Christmas Tree, front and centre in the bay window so it can shine for all to see!

The next tasks inlude wrapping prezzies, buying stocking stuffers, and doing a lot of Christmas baking (though I think I'll be doing that at my parents' house when we get there!) The past few years I've been late in getting the Christmas spirit, but this year, well, I'm diving right on in!

Sha-Na-Woot!

2010-11-20T09:13:00.003-07:00

Mare is officially comng to visit! It's been three years since she's been to Swift Current and will be coming to stay on February 16th! Sha-na-woot!! She will be the official first guest of Chateau Giesliams since we renovated. We decided that the flights would be our Christmas prezzies to each other and what could be a better prezzie from one's best friend than to have her visit for 6 days during which all we will do is scrapbook, shop, watch chick-flicks, and wear comfy pants? Merry Christmas to me!

Halifax 2.0

2010-11-17T06:11:00.004-07:00

This year I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go to Halifax for a career fair. The weather was fantastic (especially coming from -12 in Regina when I left) and I'm a big fan of the east coast. I stayed with Maureen to start with though she was unfortuantely (for me) called to work in Nevada to learn how to do some sort of underground geology stuff (that was all I was able to understand from her explanation. Whoosh...over my head!). We had Saturday to spend and went around Point Pleasant and the water front, but her flight left early Sunday morning so I was left with Sunday to myself. What does one do in the Maritimes on a gorgeous Sunday? Why, one drives around looking for the World's Largest roadside attractions, of course!

On the boardwalk in Halifax
~ This is not a "world's largest" but it is a pretty freakin big anchor!
~ A big wave in Halifax at the waterfront
~

The World's Largest Blueberry in Oxford, NS - self proclaimed Blueberry Capital of Canada!
~

World's Largest Lobster in Shediac, NB - the Lobster Capital of Canada
~

A big freakin Rooster in Shediac, NB. It's advertising for fried chicken.
~

The World's Largest Silver Fox in Salisbury, NB - Home of the Silver Fox
~

My last stop was at the World's Largest Axe in Nackawic NB - Home of the World's Largest Axe.
~

Halloween!

2010-11-02T07:23:00.002-06:00

Another Halloween came with Brad and I scratching our heads as to what to dress up as. In a last minute trip to WalMart we found our inspiration: plastic skull necklaces. We would be Cannibals! So we gathered some props, shredded some sheets (fyi, it is impossible to find animal print sheets in Swift Current), and painted our faces ferociously. I hot glued a piece of bone to an old nose screw and put it through my nose ring hole for a final touch.

One More Window

2010-11-02T07:15:00.005-06:00

On Saturday Brad, his Dad, and Nick spent a good portion of the day installing our new bay window! It looked like a ton of work and they did a marvelous job!

New Windows!

2010-10-24T09:50:00.011-06:00

Brad and Ben worked their arses off Friday and yesterday to get our new upstairs windows installed. It was a very exciting day for us to see the huge difference it made to have new windows. It feels like a new house! I tried to take pictures along the way, but to be honest, they were so speedy, they'd have an old window out before I had a chance to take a picture of it, so I'll post some older photos of the rooms so you can see the difference.

Spare Bedroom: This was where they started on Friday:

(very) Old

New

~
On Saturday they started with the Master Bedroom:

(very) Old

New

~
The Kitchen:

Old (notice the truly hideous awning)

New(goodbye awning!!!)

~
Bathroom:
Old

New

~
Living Room:

Old (it's too bad you can't actually see the draft that came from this window)

New

Living room from outside:
Old

New

~
When they started removing the old window in the spare room, Brad realized it would probably make a mess, so he covered my scrapbooks with a towel to protect them! What a good man!
~
Ollie wasn't quite sure what was going on, but, ever adaptable, found a patch of sunlight to lay down in.

~
Ollie. Completely confused by the hole.

~
We're still waiting on the front bay window; it wasn't quite done when they went to pick up the others on Friday. When it's done, Brad and Ben will install that one, along with the basement windows. Yay! I have to say, it's already making a huge difference. I don't feel a breeze coming off of any of the new windows! I'm not quite as afraid of winter this year.

Practically Famous!!

2010-10-06T20:39:00.006-06:00

When I started looking for a wedding dress in 08 after we got engaged (ok fine, after Mare got engaged and I started helping her with the search and looking a little extra for my own pleasure) I found that I really loved the designs of Maggie Sottero. I spent a lot of time on her sites looking at the different lines available. One thing I loved about the site is that they would post the stories of bride who had bought their gowns. When Mum and I found my dress, a Sottero Midgely, I decided I would submit a picture to the site to see if I would be posted. It took a long time before I actually got around to sending a photo but I checked yesterday evening and they had posted the photo I sent and my story! I'm a Midgely Bride! Hee hee! Clearly I took a screen shot (they are always updating the page and putting new brides up, so I won't be featured forever), but here is the link to the page.

ebooks: not written, but CREATED?

2010-09-15T20:04:00.002-06:00

I spent the morning driving a rental car which was thankfully endowed with satellite radio. With this glorious tool I tuned into BBC Radio 1 and the Chris Moyles show who had Stephen Fry on as a guest. Having grown up with many a Blackadder reference/quote thrown around the kitchen table, and being one of the few people I know who knew Hugh Laurie was actually British prior to seeing him on an awards show with his accent coming through, I was excited to hear the interview. It proved to be truly entertaining as Fry is an incredibly intelligent and eloquent person who is inherently silly (the perfect combination for radio, really). Moyles talked about Fry's new book, The Fry Chronicles which has apparently just been released and covers his life from 1987 (when he met Laurie) on.
When I got home this evening I was very interested in seeing if I could track down a copy of this memoir and went to the kobo site to find it isnt available there. I skipped over to chapters to see if it has even been released in north America yet, and it doesn't appear to have been. As a last ditch effort, I tried the BC public library catalogue of ebooks. I selected the search function and entered "Stephen Fry", then clicked the drop down menu to choose author... But it wasn't an option. I could choose ISBN (the numbering system for all books), Title, or Creator. Maybe it's just that I'm over-tired right now, but using the term "creator" seems, well, a bit grandiose, doesn't it? And really, if it's a memoir, aren't we now treading into existentialist territory? Fry has written about his life...is he the creator of his own life, or did someone/something else do the creating for him? If so, doesn't that make all authors who are dubbed "creators" by the BC library system just plagiarizers? Yeah, that's right, I went there. Chew on that for a while...

Anniversary Photos

2010-09-13T18:08:00.005-06:00

For our first anniversary, we asked Rob, once again, to take some photos of us (I thought it would be a fun bookend to the engagement and wedding shoots). They were in our mailbox this afternoon when I came home from work! Here are a couple (ok, a few) of my favorites!

Harvest

2010-09-05T12:28:00.002-06:00

(Farmer) Brad was out in the garden this morning digging up the spoils of his work in the garden. Last year was the first year we had a garden and we learned a few things from it. 1) leave some room for things to grow. 2) don't plant too many potatoes or you'll be trying to pawn them off on other people who also planted potatoes. 3) plan carrots into soil that allows them to grown deeper so you don't just have little fat squat carrots. ~
4) only plant or two tomato plants because they seem to like the location of our garden and grow to a daunting and unmanageable size. ~
And 5) you better like cucumbers because you're going to get an assload of them.

~
I'd say we learned our lessons and this year had pretty good results.

Living in a Scrapbooker's Paradise

2010-08-25T22:19:00.003-06:00

With the completion of the spare room downstairs, I was able to overtake the previous spare room and turn it fully into a scrapbooking room (ok, computer room too, but in all fairness, I do use the computer for scrapbooking sometimes). This is my new room! It's fine, you can be jealous. ;)

Project Spare Room: Success!

2010-08-22T19:17:00.005-06:00

Today Brad finished up our spare room downstairs and we moved the bed and other furniture down into it! We now have a functioning, dedicated spare room for our guests! It's come a long way...(in case you don't remember what it looked like, here is the blog entry from January when we started the demolition).

Here is our finished product:

(please note, the bottom right framed picture is a piece of the wall paper we ripped down...you can't just throw that stuff away! Tribute must be paid!)

Has it really been a year?

2010-08-21T12:18:00.003-06:00

A year ago today Brad and I officially became husband and wife. It's hard to believe a full year has passed! It's been the best year of my life and I know we're both looking forward to years and years to come, knowing that we can face whatever comes our way.

Happy Anniversary, love!

Things I saw at Street Dance

2010-08-08T12:21:00.002-06:00

The Swift Current Kinsmen and Kinettes put on an even each year in August called Street Dance. They cordon off a full block downtown, set up a stage, drink booths, and a tented area with tables and welcome the people of Swift Current to drink their faces off and generally be very silly. Brad and I went last night. I had finally gotten over a grinding headache and was more or less stone cold sober. This state of non-drunkenness gave me the opportunity to observe.

At 2010 Swift Current Street Dance I saw:
A man in red long johns
This particular guy was trying to climb up on the shoulders of many girls. I watched him try to balance and inevitably fall from the shoulders of at least three girls and one guy for about 20 minutes.

A man wearing a green and while bobsled uniform with a fanny pack
This guy is actually a friend of a friend. I don't feel like admitting that I know him.

A woman who was likely in her late 60's stumbling around drunkenly
I watched as this woman stumbled around and went up to a number of young guys to talk to them before stumbling away with who I can only assume was her husband (also reasonably drunk). Brad thinks she was easily in her 70s, but I'm putting 60s on the basis that if she has gone her whole life going as hard as she did last night, she may look much older than she actually is.

A man in a wedding dress
I don't really know what to say in particular about this man...he was wearing a wedding dress...it was funny.

A woman in her wedding dress (followed by the whole wedding party)
This group of people made me very sad. I can't figure out why you would go to Street Dance after your wedding. If you really have nothing else to do, go home. Furthermore, if you really truly MUST go to street dance, regardless of having just tied the knot, go home and CHANGE out of your wedding dress!! I specifically wore jeans and a t-shirt because they are easy to wash and I knew I was guaranteed to come home covered in spilt liquor and beer.

And quote of the night goes to Brad. As we were making our way out of the street dance area, we passed by a giant BBQ that was selling hot dogs and hamburgers. (Pure genius, actually). Brad had a double cheeseburger and I had a hot dog. I ate about half on the walk home and gave the other half to Brad. He, being slightly intoxicated, finished my hot dog and said "I wish life were like a video game and you could run around and find hot dogs in bushes and stuff". I laughed so hard I nearly fell off the sidewalk.

Colouring my thumb with a green marker

2010-08-07T21:07:00.004-06:00

When we were in Smithers I found myself admiring my Mum's houseplants. I have not been known for having a green thumb. I always assumed this particular gene had skipped a generation with me as Mum (who has a very green thumb) has occassionally had to rescue the unlucky plants that came into my possession over the years. I have recently had three relatively successful years of flowers in the garden, though each year I plant these knowing I can always blame the Weather if they don't do well. My admiration for the greenery at my parent's place struck me and I resolved to buy some houseplants when I returned to Swift Current.

Yesterday I went to Walmart and bought three plants and fancy heavy pots (harder for Ollie to knock over). I repotted them when I got home and have crossed my fingers that they will not become yet another cautionary tale for plants entering my home.

Not quite what I had in mind...

2010-08-07T19:56:00.004-06:00

I had heard there was a Victoria's Secret store opening in Edmonton this summer, so I thought perhaps their website might offer Canadian shipping, so I thought I'd take a peek. I typed in http://www.victoriassecret.ca/ in hopes that the .ca portion would lead me to a Canadian version of the site. Apparently not. This is what opened:

I hope someone in their marketing department got a raise over this one.

Other Smithers Photos

2010-08-07T18:43:00.005-06:00

Our arrival on Sunday afternoon. We drove to Prince George on Saturday which made for a quick final leg on Sunday.
~

Me getting my birthday prezzies! MUCH scrapbooking wares! How did she know??
~

Me and my buddy, chillin out one evening
~

Mum enjoying the dogs and proving that it is in fact, Books that tame the savage beasts.
~

Enjoying my kobo in the sun
~

Brad golfing at the Smithers Golf Course
~

Preparing for my last drive on the 18th hole
~

Me, completely amazed at the sweet drive I just did on the 18th hole
~

Brad and I hiked up to Twin Falls, which is a totally fantastic view and a really short hike.
~

Brad went right up to the falls and was totally soaked
~

The other falls at Twin Falls...always gets ignored because it's not as easy to get to
~

My Brother's Wedding in Photos

2010-08-07T18:13:00.003-06:00

Frank and Christi got married in Smithers on July 31st, and it was pretty much the perfect day! The weather was gorgeous and hot, the ladies looked lovely, the men were handsome, and they said their vows with maybe just one or two little tears (I was just about sobbing). I'm so delighted for them!

(I threw this one in of me and Christi's bridesmaid Nicola who I totally hit it off with! Birds of a feather and all that!)

Happy Birthday to Me...Again!

2010-07-20T07:09:00.002-06:00

Apparently 28 was my Pink Birthday :) Pink Snuggie is courtesy of Mare, and pink cheesecake (raspberry jello) is courtesy of Brad, my creative husband.

The Garage Sale

2010-07-11T10:16:00.004-06:00

This weekend we hosted a garage sale to get rid of stuff. I'm all in favor of a cleanse every now and again and getting rid of things that you just don't need/want anymore, but what I can't fathom is how two 27 year olds without children have been able to collect so much STUFF.

Regardless, we put an ad in the paper (for $11) and set up Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday morning. All in all, I would say it was a success. We sold about a third of what we put out and made $192.63, which as my Grandpa would say is "better than a poke in the eye". The only other garage sale I've been involved in was the one we held in Surrey before moving to Smithers in 1994...so it was a bit of a new experience for me, but I think we did fairly well. It feels good to have gotten rid of all that stuff and feel a little less bogged down.

Garage Saling has always been somewhat perplexing for me. I've known friends and relatives who are enthusiastic (to say the least) about garage saling. I've been woken up at 6am by friends who are determined to get there first and get the "really good stuff!" I have a hard time wrapping my head around it...why would I want to go to someone's home, rummage through the stuff that they don't want anymore and give them money to haul away their junk? Granted there are circumstances where it is beneficial; I have heard parents saying that garage sales are the best places to get near-new items for babies because a family that has just one or two kids might be selling a stroller, or crib or highchair that would otherwise cost a couple of hundred dollars...and occasionally you can find a good second hand book or old movie...but really? Most of the things I've seen at garage sales are just junk, and usually dirty junk and I am opposed to paying someone to cart off their junk for them. Maybe my lack of enthusiasm prevents me from making it to the "really good" garage sales and finding those amazing treasures...maybe not.

...that being said, if you want to pay me to cart off my junk, please feel free! I'll even negotiate the price! And of course, MY garage sale was not filled with junk...true treasures and good stuff only.

Well, you don't see that ever day...

2010-07-04T09:10:00.003-06:00

Brad and I went to Brett's place last night to watch UFC 116. While we were watching the first fight he got a call from Broden, his son, who was on his way to the movies to say that there was a cab in the creek just down the street from Brett's place. Clearly, we jumped up and went to see.
There were a number of stories going around. The first was that it had been stolen and ended up in the creek, then, as we stood around, the real story came out. Apparently the cabbie had been delivering pizza to a house across from the creek and accidentally left the car in gear. After making the delivery he turned and saw that his cab was no longer there and ran back to the house saying it had been stolen...which I guess is what you would automatically assume if your cab was not where you left it.

The whole gamut of emergency crews were called in and divers to check for anyone in the car. When the divers came up I heard them say "it's not much fun getting in, but once you are, it's a TON of fun!".

Where's Tom Sawyer when you need him?

2010-06-28T07:16:00.003-06:00

Brad and I decided to be productive and check something off our list of home renos/imrpovements this weekend. We painted the fence between us and the neighbours. (Too bad it wasn't soundproof paint). On Sunday we laid down landscaping fabric and poured some gravel between the deck and the fence to finish it off and stop the incessent weeds from returning.

Tell me that doesn't lookl ike the sort of place you'd like to sit down and have a beer!

Hello, Kobo!

2010-06-19T13:09:00.003-06:00

Brad, best husband ever, bought me a Kobo for an early birthday prezzie! He gave it to me when he came back from UFC in Vancouver. I was totally delighted and so excited to get started (I had already purchased a couple of books online in anticipation). So I plugged the little marvelous ereader devise into my computer to charge it as the instructions told me to do. But the little red light that indicates a charge never came on. This was distressing and I read a number of reviews online. I started to become even more distressed with the truobleshooting reveiws I read saying it was certainly not responding as it should. I emailed the Kobo customer service team and received a response within two hours "It sounds like you have a glitchy devise. If it has been less than 14 days since you bought it, please return it to the store where you purchased it". Brad bought it in Vancouver...I can't imagine I'll be able to zip on down to Metrotown to exchange my little ereader, so I contacted Coles in town and they called Regina's Chapters on my behalf and arranged to have a unit set aside for me as I was going to be heading to the city anyway. So, with a new Kobo in hand (and a new orange coloured case which I also purchased in Regina at Chapters), I must say I am still delighted! Even having experienced a "glitchy" unit, I'm still impressed and happy with my ereader. I've heard people complain about them, saying it doesn't have a text-to-speech function, and it doesn't have a backlit screen...well, to those people I say "neither do books. It's not a computer, it's a book". I Love it! Happy early Birthday to me!!

Happy Birfday!!

2010-06-08T07:11:00.001-06:00

Yup, that about sums it up! Happy Birthday, love!

FINALLY

2010-06-07T07:26:00.003-06:00

Sunday was such a beautiful day that Brad and I were actually able to put plants in our garden! We went camping on Friday and Saturday and upon our return to town we went to the greenhouse, picked up some bedding plants and spent the afternoon in the sun (being eaten by mosquitos).

The middle marigold is the little one I grew from seed!
~

Our front flower bed. The teeny tiny plants in the front row (spaced every two or three) are the pansies I tried growing from seeds. Frankly, it will be a miracle if they make it!
~

The Big Bike

2010-06-03T07:14:00.003-06:00

Last Wednesday was the Big Bike Ride for the Heart and Stroke foundation. The Regional Office went up against the Hospital team in a fundraising battle. The losing team had to wear "ugly hats" that had been made to mortify people on their birthdays. The Regional Office Taj Mahaulers lost. We raised just over 1500 and the hospital was closer to 2500...though in all fairness they have a MUCH bigger building and staff compliment. Regardless, we wore the hats.

Janet (brought a helmet of her own), Me, Shari, Carolynn, Norma
I just don't see how this is a punishment. :)

Afterwards most of us donated our hats to the Big Bike...so teams everywhere may enjoy them.

"Sold to Very Nice People"

2010-05-27T22:21:00.003-06:00

Why, yes, I think we are! The sign was hung in the window of our new VW Golf from Medicine Hat. I'm still a little stunned at having a new vehicle, but we're both really happy with it. It's super fun to drive, really roomy, very quite, very comfortable, has lots of pep, gets great gas mileage...etc, etc, etc.

Yay!

My Grandmothers

2010-05-24T16:40:00.004-06:00

Last weekend I went to Vancouver to see my parents and visit my grandmothers. I flew in from Regina on Thursday and when my parents picked me up at the airport we went and did a bit of shopping right off the bat before heading back to the campground where my parents had parked the trailer. On Friday we went to Pitt Meadows to see my Nana, Da's mum. She's going to be 95 this August. She seemed quite pleased to see us all.

After visiting with Nana, we went to have supper at my Auntie Valerie's house. It was lovely to see her, as I haven't seen her in roughly 5 years as well. She was very nice and welcoming, but refused to be in any pictures. So, it's just photos of me and Mum and Da. On Saturday we went to see my Gramma, Mum's mum. The facility she's in is gorgeous and her window looks out onto the courtyard and fountain. We spent the afternoon playing BINGO, which was a hoot.

That's right, I won a game! Four corners.
~

Since it's been so long since I saw either of them, I was expecting the worst, but was actually pleasantly surprised. It was an exhausting whirl-wind trip, but I'm glad I had the chance to go (thank you to my parents and their Airmiles!)

Oh, and a picture of me and Gus on the fold out couch bed that I slept on in the trailer. He was quite pleased when Mum folded it down and was pretty sure it was meant for him.

Dear Seally,

2010-05-18T07:20:00.005-06:00

Dear Seally,

Thank you very much for the new mattress. It was such a relief to find that a large international company such as yourselves will still take the steps to honour a warranty. It doesn't bother me at all that the bed which we spent over a thousand dollars on when we were right out of college and living in a basement appartment only got 3 good years out of it, followed by over a year and a half of back trouble and finally another 7 months of not being slept on. Of course this is not the sort of thing that happens often, what with the stunning 10 year warranty you advertise with your beds. A lengthy warranty like that brings to mind beds that last longer than the owner wishes to have them, which I'm completely positive is exactly what Seally produces.
So I'm sure you can imagine our surprise when the sides of the bed bulged, the middle sagged, and the "Eurotop" disconnected from the mattress. Thankfully though, Seally has that 10 year warranty to assist in these awkward and unexpected situations.
I sincerely appreciate the assistance your sales representatives provided to me over the span of 7 months from the time of my initial call to the furniture store in Saskatoon where we purchased our bed in June of 2005. I can also completely understand how there would be no one to return my calls when your sales representative for the province of Saskatchewan quit and did not follow through with her final calls back in October. I certainly have no hard feelings towards your regional sales manager in Edmonton who repeatedly called a phone number in Rosetown despite clearly being told several times that the number is out of service and that we don't live in that town anymore and haven't for 3 years. Rest assured, Seally, this doesn't sound at all like an excuse. It's very understandable that this sales manager would be reluctant to send any other sales representatives to see my dilapadated mattress in Swift Current, being that we are "so remote". Absolutely. That large highway that runs straight through it...what's it called again? Oh yes, the TransCanada Highway. It has definitely done nothing to connect Swift Current to the rest of the country. It's understandable to have that perspective all the way over there in Edmonton. I certainly wouldn't want to put anyone out of their way just for the benefit of my sleep.

I also greatly appreciate having the "do-it-yourself" warranty kit sent to me at our previous address in Rosetown (which, as I said, we haven't lived at in three years). A new warranty kit was received a couple of weeks later and I can absolutely understand why a large company such as yourself would want to set such strict regulations on warranty claims to make it a little difficult for people to claim warranty...you wouldn't want to make it too easy and have just anyone getting a free mattress when their bed failed to withstand the test of a couple of years. I'm sure you can understand my reluctance towards filling out the warranty card information when the problems my bed seemed to have didn't fit into the descriptions (the sagging wasn't "at least 1.5" deep when measured with a ruler and broomstick).

It was such a relief to find that my emails (I'll admit they may have sounded just a touch frustrated at this point) to customer service were responded to immediately and that, despite a change in policy, you were willing to send a sales representative to my home to look at my mattress herself. I can understand why you would have denied my request at first, scolding me for not purchasing my mattress in a furniture store (though I did), and there is nothing suspicious about your regional sales manager stating that he had been confused and had been emailing ANOTHER Jessica in Swift Current with a bed problem who also wanted a home inspection as well (my isn't is a small world afterall!!).

It was no trouble waiting for your brand new Saskatchawn customer service representative to plan a day to come to Swift Current. The meeting was brief and she acknowledged the bed was certainly defective. I certainly wasn't concerned that she would have any preconceived notions of what "kind of customer" I would be from her supervisor forwarding my emails to her. No, I am certain she viewed me from a totally non-biased position.

Imagine my delight when she called me a week later and told me they would credit my bed at a furniture store in town! How exciting! I understood from very early on that the credit for a bed warranty was an ammount that would allow the customer to purchase the today-equivalent to the bed that was being warrantied. This was excellent news! Our bed was quite good (prior to it's total deterioration). So Brad and I went off to the furniture store and looked at mattresses with a very helpful woman who gave us the ins and outs of Seally mattresses. We decided on one that felt and appeared very similar to what we had before. Imagine our disappointment when we found the credit from Seally was $649, an amount that would not cover the ful cost of their lowest end mattress (which was certainly not what we bought 5 years ago). We learned the mattress we wanted would cost an extra $150, plus tax on the entire mattress at $79, plus the cost of a mattresspad at $99 that would allow us to be eligible to receive the 10 year warranty again, should this unlikely event ever happen again.

But don't worry Seally, we weren't at all put off by having to pay an extra $320 for a new bed only 5 years after "investing" in a mattress that would "last a lifetime". No no, we don't have any hard feelings at all and are sleeping peacfully on our new mattress completely confident that we will never have to deal with this again.

Thank you so very very much for all of your speedy assistance in this matter,
A Passive Agressive Future Serta Customer.

Correction

2010-05-03T17:41:00.002-06:00

This evening Brad and I were looking at our littel greenhouse and realized somewhere along the way it got turned around and we've been looking at it backwards. Which means the little shoots that I thought were his (that are doing so well) are my little pansies! YAY! (and take THAT Brad with you little teeny sprouts!!).

Grow My Minions!!

2010-05-03T07:25:00.004-06:00

Brad and I decided to be ambitious this year and attempt to grow some of our own plants, so we bought a little plastic greenhouse and he planted some peppers and tomatoes. I had taken the seeds from my portulaca, marigolds, and pansies last year (I only took the seeds from the pretty coloured ones) and saved them in sandwich ziplocks for the winter. We planted the seeds into our greenhouse about two weeks ago and waited impatiently. Brad's started poking up first much to my disgruntlement. But this weekend some of my wee little flowers started to appear! Now we're just about neck and neck for who has the most growing!

I think this one is a marigold. (actually, it's one of Brad's peppers)
~

This is Brad's. BOOOOO Brad! (correction: I have just discovered this is mine! Yay!!)

A Weekend's Work

2010-04-26T07:22:00.004-06:00

Since Brad has been hard at work in the basement over the past few weeks drywalling, mudding, sanding, priming and all that jazz, it was the plan that I would paint the room this weekend. I had decided on a colour and then promptly lost the paint chips. So, I went to Home Hardware this weekend, spent about 10 minutes browsing the chips and decided on the colour on really nothing more than a whim. Of course, I did take the chip to the front window to see what it looked like in actual daylight. I got my puckets of paint tinted and walked out with our new spare bedroom colour.
When I opened the first bucket, I was a little startled to see just how purple it was. I was going for sort of a smokey purple. Something bordering on grey. The colour I chose was decidedly not grey. Nor very smokey. As I started to cut in the corners and ceiling I was wondering what Brad would think...Oh well! He had told me to pick whatever colour I wanted! So I continued on and painted the whole room in "Heather Field".
So yesterday we put on the second coat and Brad painted the door white. The next step is to get the ceiling stippled, then put in the new floor (likely laminate), new windows, some baseboards, and we're done!

(Oh, and, Brad likes it)

Las Vegas: We came, we saw, we walked until we could walk no more, we left.

2010-04-21T07:07:00.009-06:00

Vegas was pretty awesome. As I've told anyone who will listen, it was super overwhelming and everything was big and loud and bright. But we enjoyed ourselves and walked so much we don't ever want to walk again (much to Ollie's dismay). I took a few pictures while we were there and will display a selection of them here along with some witty repartee.

Me and Brad on the plane leaving Regina. This was intended to be the "before" photo, however there is no "after" photo, as I was haggard and wretched looking on the flight back and don't care to remember. Food poisoning + too much wine and festivities will do that...but that's not till later.
~I love Spanish.
~

This photo was taken on Friday morning. I hauled Brad out of bed bright and early with exclamations of "We're in Vegas! Time to get up!! We're in Vegas!! Time to get up!!" He obliged and we left the hotel for a breakfast at IHOP. We then went to the monorail where I took this photo.
~

A random shot of the strip from a walkway
~

The fountains at Bellagio. They weren't running at this particular time, but I thought it was a neat spot and an awfully impressive building. Also, a quintessential "Vegas" photo.
~

A fountain outside of Caesar's Palace. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a neat looking fountain.
~We went to Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum at the Venetian. This is me with Mel back when he was dreamy. I am expressing my disappointment at what he will become. Also, he is rather short, which seems weird to me.
This one's for you, Mare!
~Me and Cameron Diaz? Oh, we go way back! She's such a card!
~

Who could resist George Clooney? Is it weird that my husband obliged me and took my photo marrying another man? (I couldn't bring myself to put on the wedding dress they had there...the thought of how many sweaty people had worn it prior gave me the heebie-jeebies.)
~

Proof that Brad was actually there too.
~

The gift shop had Elvis Sunglasses. Like you're surprised.
~
That is the end of the photos I have for Friday. We wandered around the strip for a while longer and bought tickets to David Copperfield that night. It was a pretty good show at the MGM Grand. In one of his illusions he appeared to turn into smoke and pass through a fan only to appear in another cloud of smoke directly in front of our table. I'll admit, I didn't' see him coming. Once he appeared he leaned over and shook our hands. Brad commented after that it was kind of neat to shake his hand, but that it was strangely smooth and delicate feeling. I agreed.

After the show we went to Carnival Court at Harrah's where we met up with Leah, Mike, Stacey, Randy, Andrea, Ian, and some others who I hadn't met before. We had a few drinks and then bailed quite suddenly when we realized we'd both had enough for the day and needed to go to bed.
~

Saturday morning we didn't get up quite as early. The night before Ian and Andrea had given us a voucher for 2 for 1 tickets for Cirque Du Soleil KA at the MGM Grand, so once again we got on the monorail and made the 45 minute trek down to the hotel at the other end of the strip. We bought tickets for the show and then went to the Imperial Palace to see the world's largest classic automobile collection.

The show was for Brad's benefit, but I did find something that I wouldn't mind having. Hello, Jaguar!
~

Brad's favorite.
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Another quintessential photo: Me with Palm Tree.
~
That's the end of Saturday's photos. After the car show, we went back to the hotel, relaxed by the pool (while Brad gambled) and then went for supper at Fellini's. It was a fantastic supper and we headed back down the MGM for the Cirque Du Soleil show. KA was completely amazing. The set alone was mindboggling, and the acrobatics were breathtaking. I was completely blown away and would recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it.

After the show we went back to our hotel room.
~
Sunday morning we got up reasonably early and went for Brunch. Afterwards we decided to explore the hotel a bit more and go to the top of the Stratosphere tower. Our hotel room came with free admission and I was itching to try the thrill rides. The view was incredible and the rides were on the very top of the tower which was exciting. I rode the Big Shot, which shoots you up in the air and drops you back down. This one actually scared me a bit as it shot up so quickly it knocked the wind out of me. I also rode the X-Scream which is like a teeter-totter/roller coaster. You're strapped into seats and when it teeters down, the seats slide down to the end, so it feels like you're being shot off the edge of the building. Not terribly scary, but fun anyway.

Me on the Big Shot...or, my boot anyway.
~

Brad and Me on the top of the tower looking out over the strip.
~
I spent a bit more time at the pool while Brad gambled a bit more and then it was time to get ready for the wedding. Leah and Warren were getting married at the Bellagio, and Brad and I were all dressed up and didn't feel like dealing with buses or monorails, so we cabbed it instead. this made us arrive insanely early, so we explored the botanical gardens at the Bellagio.

Leah was stunning and she and Warren couldn't' stop smiling at each other. It was a beautiful ceremony. It lasted 11 minutes, according to the person who video taped it.
~

Words to the wise. Apparently what happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas. Apparently it can be broadcast all over the internet.
~
After the ceremony Brad and I walked to the Cheesecake Factory for a bite to eat (it was next door at Caesar's Palace, but still took us 30-40 minutes to walk the distance). (Oh, and I had white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. Delicious.)
We went back to the Bellagio after supper and gathered at the suite they had rented for the reception where I proceeded to drink probably too much wine. Then we went to a lounge/bar in the hotel called Caramel. It was pretty hoity toity. By that time I only wanted water. The waitress informed me, rather haughtily, that they only had bottles of Evian. So that's what I ordered. $8, barely half a litre, opened, tasted like tap water. Oh well. I took the bottle home in my purse. I left in in our hotel room, but I wasn't about to let them get the deposit back. Ha!

This is me and Brad at Caramel. It was dark. I blame the dark and the startling flash for the foggy look on my face. Yup, that's what it was for sure.

So there...that was our Las Vegas vacation....my feel are still sore and covered in blisters and I'm still a bit tired. In all fairness, we had to be at the airport on Monday morning at 6 and I didn't get any sleep that night...hence to lack of "after" photo.

I don't want to talk about it

2010-04-10T09:36:00.003-06:00

The wind started Thursday night, carried on all day Friday and still howls today. It also brought snow on Friday morning. It has since melted, but I don't want to talk about it.

A Sigh of Relief

2010-04-10T08:51:00.004-06:00

Brad's passport came yesterday. PHEW!! If you're counting down, like I am, we were at 6 sleeps till we leave for Vegas. No pressure. Ok, so that's a lie, there was a ton of pressure and I was on the edge of a full panic moment. Brad contacted the passport office on Tuesday though and was told it was going to print. I also sent in an emailed inquiry and received a response on Wednesday saying it had been shipped. It finally arrived yesterday and I breathed a sigh of relief. NOW I can start getting excited for our trip! A tidbit I never knew; if you mail your passport application, it takes 20 business days to process, whereas if you take it in to a passport office, it only takes 10 days. That would be why I received my passport less than two weeks after dropping it off in Saskatoon, and Brad's came a month after mailing it. I guess it all makes sense, but it is something that I really would have liked to have known ahead of time and might be good information to have included on the application form instruction page. Anyway, no harm done, we've got it and we're going! WOOT!

(Please note, the above picture is not, in fact, Brad's passport. In googling passports I found a blog entry about a woman whose cat needed a passport to move to Ireland. Clearly this amused me to no end).

Saskatoon, Vassy, John Mayer, Oh My!

2010-04-08T19:21:00.004-06:00

Back in the fall Vassy sent me a text that said "Do you like John Mayer" to which I replied "Ummm, YES!" Then she asked if I would go to his concert with her in April. My reply was "CLEARLY!!!" (or something to that effect). So April finally came around and I packed up my little suitcase and left for Saskatoon on Monday.
We wined and dined and shopped to our hearts content (well, almost...let's be real, I cuold NEVER shop till my heart was truly content, but we did what we could with what time and finances allowed). It also ended up being the perfect chance for us to get together before she leaves for Edmonton on the next page of her bright career!
Here are the photos:

We treated ourselves to a little pampering and had manicures. The manicurists were absolutely hillarious and entertained us while making our nails pretty.
~All dolled up for John Mayer
~We went for supper at the Freehouse. Amazing food. And the wine went down real good too!
~~We meant business! (Don't judge, it was a long walk to the bar!)
~
I love the zoom on my new camera! This is what it looks like from the 44th row on the floor
~And this was what he looked like when I snuck up to the 6th row and took a picture with the zoom.
~~~

Big Bike

2010-03-18T07:06:00.002-06:00

In May I will be one of these smiling people riding the Big Bike for the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Heart and Stroke is one of the organizations that I never hesitate to donate to and when I found out the Regional Office where I work was starting a team, "the Taj Mahaulers" (the building we work in has been refered to as the Taj Mahal since it was renovated probably about 10 years ago...not because it's really nice, but because everyone thought it was a waste of money). I get the opportunity to ride a giant bike around town and look like a fool? Um, CLEARLY!!

We're having a competition with another Health Region facility and the team to raise the least money will have to wear stupid hats. While I will do some active fundraising, I am secretly hoping the other team raises more...silly hats doesn't sound like a punishment to me. :)

So, now comes the good part, the part where I hit you up for money! Mwahahahaha! If you would like to sponsor me and donate to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, you can click on this link: http://blba.us/i.asp?id=331127-284558335-1 which will take you to my team page and you can sponsor me.

Thanks so much!!

Vegas, Vegas, Here We Come!

2010-02-23T22:59:00.003-07:00

The time off has been booked, the flights have been booked, and our hotel is arranged; we're goin to Vegas!
My friend Leah (former twin sister from Smithers) is getting hitched in Vegas in April and she invited us! So we searched and searched and found a reasonable deal. The difficult part was definitely that we`re going down over a weekend. I hear the deals are just ridiculous if you travel during the week, but we think we did pretty good for a Thursday-Monday deal.
We`ve booked at the Stratosphere and opted to pay the extra .73 per night for a room with a view (14th floor or higher). We're there for four nights and essentially three full days (plus Thursday evening) and other than Leah's wedding, we have no idea what we'll do while we're there, but I'm definitely extremely excited about it! Maybe that's why I'm still awake at 12:19 on a work night?

Now the only question is what to do with Ollie while we're gone. Mum, wanna come puppysit? :)

Blog Interupted...

2010-02-19T21:06:00.004-07:00

...by fog. A thick fog descended upon Swift Current this week, coating the trees, houses, car antennas, and anything not moving under it's own free will with hoar frost. Sure it looks pretty, but hoar frost on power lines means power goes out. On Wednesday and Thursday I can say without exaggeration that the power went out more than a dozen times. So, the computer stayed off.

I went for physio on Wednesday morning and while I was standing there waiting for my appointment to begin one of the "good ol' boys" came in and, as sacred tradition for said Good Ol Boys Club mandates, commented on the weather.

Here is the conversation:

Good Ol Boy: "Some fog, huh? Well, you know what this means...in 90 days it'll rain. Good news for the farmers."
Receptionist: "Really? Fog means rain in 90 days?"

Good Ol Boy: "That's what they say...either that or wind"

Hmmmm, so what we've learned from this exchange is that fog is a surefire way to predict that in 90 days there will be either rain or wind. In Saskatchewan. Rain. Or Wind. So if it doesn't rain, it'll definitely be windy. Huh. You don't say. And people scoff at superstition.

Pictures from the Past Month or So

2010-02-19T20:43:00.006-07:00

Since I've been away from the blog for so long, I thought rather than write a summary of everything that's happened in the past few months, I would just post some photos with some captions.
~

Brad, Me, Ollie, Mum, Da, and Gus on a walkie down to Riverside (aptly named due to it following the Bulkley River)
~

Mum and Brad with the dogs
~

Of course, we decided to go up the ski hill on the foggiest day of the week. It was hard to see more than a meter in front of your nose at the worst of it, but we still very much enjoyed the day and the snow was fantastic!
~

Me (the first time I willingly wore goggles and found them remotely comfortable), Christi, Frank and Brad.
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Frank and Christi being nauseatingly cute on the chairlift
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In the Chalet after the runs. Hot Chocolate and Tea never tasted so good!
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Supper at the Williams table (with some Gieslliams' and a Mulder)
~

Totally out of order, but this is me and Vassy in Drumheller as we drove from Calgary to Saskatoon. Vassy was in total disbelief when I told her that Drumheller has many many dinosaur statues decorating the town. So we stopped at one and took some photos so her parents would believe her. we didn't get a photo with the biggest one though as we were already on our way out of town and there was some road construction. (It was a gigantic T-Rex wearing red Olympic mitts. FYI)

A Return to Blogging!

2010-02-14T07:49:00.004-07:00

That's right, I'm back! It's only mid February and my second post of the year, what's the big deal?
The reason for my hiatus has been a mix of travel (to Calgary, Saskatoon, Smithers, and Regina), family related things, and a decomposing computer. Really, the excuse lies mostly with the latter reason.
My computer, fyi, was more or less the same one that my parents gave to me on my 18th birthday. It's had some parts replaced and upgraded, but for better or worse, the thing is just about 10 years old. For your horror, I'll tell you that the operating system (Windows XP) was running on a 10GB drive. As time went on I found myself deleting other programs just so it could run.
But yesterday Brad and I went out and purchased ourselves a nice shiny new one! By no means top of the line, but as I pointed out to Brad, at this point ANYTHING is a huge upgrade. And (surprise surprise) I was right! Where my old model sounded like I was operating an airnailer when it was thinking, this one is whisper quiet. The previous model would take a solid 5 minutes to start up, and this one is running in about 10 seconds. We didn't go for the 1 terabyte hard drive, but I think 500GB is far superior to 10, wouldn't you agree?
In all fairness, my computer did me well, it lasted through about a dozen moves, two years of College, and 9.5 years or blogging, gaming, photo editing, and general nonsense. A service will be held later this month.
So, the blog is back and I'll be posting photos from Smithers asap!

New Year, New Level of Ambition

2010-01-02T20:24:00.008-07:00

Brad and I decided that it was time to pick up our socks and get going on some more home renovations. A good place to start seemed to be the soon-to-be-spare-bedroom downstairs. Once renovated, the spare bed will be moved down from upstairs, along with some extra linens, etc. The free space in the upstairs current-spare-room will be converted into a highly functional scrapbooking(YAY!)/sewing/computer room. This will allow for a much happier Jessica, and an exponentially happier marriage*. SO, down we went to the depths of our basement and cleared all of the boxes and boxes of things from said soon-to-be-spare-bedroom. We then took down the wood paneling from the one "feature wall" (I assume that's what they were going for). Sadly, when we pulled it down, the painted wall underneath appeared to be cracked and rippling, a sure sign of water damage. Awesome. So today, armed with workgloves, protective eyewear, and N95 respirators, we went downstairs again to begin the demolition. I have provided photographic evidence for those of you who don't believe we actually achieved a level of ambition high enough to renovate again.

I know what you're thinking: WHY would I want to renovate a room with wallpaper and paint like that?! It's unfathomable.
~

Don't mess with me, gyprock! I'm gonna open up a can o' whoop ass on you! (and yes, my gloves are salmon pink. I chose them because of it)
~

The remnants of a big and useless closet. I kicked holes in the drywall to tear it down. I highly suggest trying this if the opportunity ever arises.
~

Brad starting to rip through the very weak drywall on the water damaged wall. GROSS.
~

The moult we found. (Brad is fascinated by these things and said "you should take a picture of this mould!" He also said these same words when we threw out two-month old muffins...please don't ask about the muffins. To this day he still says those were the coolest muffins he ever saw and he wishes he had kept them.)
~

Pfffft, wall...who needs a wall?!

~
All in all, we took a full truck load of junk, mouldy insulation, and rotten drywall to the dump. Tomorrow? We bleach.

*Note: This statement is not to be taken to mean we are experiencing marital troubles. Our marriage is quite solid, but as the saying goes: Happy Wife = Happy Life. A dedicated scrapbooking room will make me a VERY happy Wife.

Christmas at the Giesbrecht Household

2009-12-29T21:08:00.004-07:00

It was our third Christmas in Swift Current and I think we've done a pretty good job of incorporating some of my family's Christmas traditions into our own traditions. On Christmas eve we went for a drive around the city and looked at the beautiful lights. Darlene came with us this year and suggested some areas of Swift Current which we hadn't visited before and definitely paid off with some excellent displays of festive lights. She also got into the spirit of things and joined in the critiquing of displays (not "judging" as some would say, just deciding which were tasteful, which were over the top, which were gawdy, and which were "a nice try". Ha! I'm so judgemental!!). After our tour de Swift Current, Brad and I went home to watch the classic movie A Christmas Carol. Black and white, Alistair Sim, 1951. Can't be beat.

On Christmas morning we got up and had a delicious breakfast (waffles a la Jessica, eggs & sausage) and then got to opening prezzies. We opened the stockings first and then our presents. Once again, we were definitely spoiled with lots of goodies. After prezzies, we went to Ben and Brenda's house for a turkey lunch and lots of visiting with family well into the evening. Boxing day continued the festivities as we went to Darlene's for brunch and more prezzies. By the time Sunday rolled around, I felt like I needed a vacation from our long weekend! But it was a nice time to relax and visit and generally not have to go to work!

Now, here are some photos:

Our Christmas tree on Christmas morning, loaded with prezzies!!
~

Ollie feels it would be very much in the spirit of Christmas if Brad would share his breakfast
~

The stockings were hung by hour electric-fireplace-entertainment-stand with care...
~

Brad's new scarf!

Me helping Ollie to unwrap his prezzie (Yes, I am wearing a pile of ribbons on my head. what's it to ya?)
~

Love!
~

Ollie determines the best location to play with his new squeaky lion is on my new sweater. Who am I to deny him this fun?
~

Our first Christmas as the Giesbrechts (or Gieslliams, depending on who you ask)
~

Ollie is all tuckered out from Christmas, but is certainly not willing to part with his new toys while he naps on my lap (I swear I didn't put them there!)
~

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow!

2009-12-24T12:59:00.007-07:00

It was time for a change. BIG time! So I booked an appointment, and chopped the hair! I realized a couple of weeks ago that I've been trying to grow my hair out for three years. I finally did, and now what? All it did was annoy me, weigh me down, make me feel too hot, and cause issues. Sooooo, Goodbye hair! (In true makeover fashion, I took the before photo with no makeup, not smiling to really emphasize the transformation. Haha! )

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

2009-12-24T07:43:00.002-07:00

Last year after Christmas we bought two packages of LED christmas lights on sale. The particular ones we bought were solar powered. It seemed like such a great idea: no increase on the power bill, and totally self sufficient! So this year near the start of December, Brad was up on a ladder stringing our lights along the front of the house, and around the front window (we didn't buy enough to go around the house. whoops!). The solar panels were tricky to position where they would receive enough light but Brad did his best.
So, why was it not a good idea? Well, solar powered lights run on a battery. Batteries don't work too well in -28. Cold wires don't conduct electricity very well. Solar panels don't work very well when they're covered with snow. HA!
I wondered why there were so many boxes of them on the shevles of Canadian Tire when we bought them. They seemed like such a good idea! But I guess some other people were a little quicker than we were in determining the flaws. We do get points for trying though, right?

Merry Christmas to Me!!

2009-12-20T08:46:00.003-07:00

Upon selling my car I sat down to determine what would be the best way to spend my newly aquired funds. I was trying to decide whether to put it towards our Vegas trip in April, or a downpayment on a new car (or blow it frivolously on a shopping spree for cute new clothes and fun things...come on, I wouldn't actually, but it was fun to toy with the idea) when I remembered the letter we had receved the other day reminding us that our property taxes were due. Sigh. Sometimes I hate being a grown up. So I decided to do the *gag*responsible*gag* thing and give the city the money they tell me belongs to them.
BUT, there was some left over. So, in consolation, I bought myself the new camera I've been eyeing up! Scrapbookers, rejoice! Not that my old camera wasn't working, it just wasn't producing the quality of pictures I want. Being that it is Christmas time, this particular camera went on sale every other week at one or more stores in the city. Of course, the Saturday before Christmas meant that pretty much every single store was sold out. Except the Source, and they are now. (Sorry). The main selling features were the 10megapixels, and the 10X optical zoom. (yay geek speak!). I convinced the very nice teenager in the Source to give it to me for the sale price at Staples; they're not supposed to if the store that has the sale is sold out, but I found a loop hole and got him to cave (don't EVER get in the way of a determined shopper with a goal in mind).
So I started playing around with it when I got home. Here are a few of the shots my Canon SX120 IS has taken.

It may be blurry, but it was the first picture I took. Ollie was very curious

(the only picture from the Christmas party last night. Brad reminded me it was at a casino, and thus, no cameras allowed. Sigh. Scrapbookers nightmare.)

The End of an Era

2009-12-20T08:32:00.003-07:00

I sold my car on Thursday. It served me well, but just wasn't what we need anymore, so it was time to sell. It's funny though, I felt a little twinge of sadness to see it switch hands. That little cavalier carried a lot of sentimental value. My parents found it for me when I moved to PG in 2006 and with help from my mechanicl, Tony, it kept me mobile for that full year, with a ton of trips to and from Smithers in all kinds of weather. It had the tires stolen (I think we all remember that day. And if you don't, the blog entry is still here, just look for the one with all the swearing from November 10th, 2006). It got me to Swift, and carried Brad to and from Rosetown for a year. Yup, definitely a good little car.

Truly Upsetting

2009-12-15T19:29:00.002-07:00

In an attempt to annoy Brad this evening, I flipped through the tv channel listings and clicked on the Fireplace channel on Shaw. (not exactly his idea of rivetting suppertime viewing). To my horror and dismay, Shaw informed me that I was not subscibed to the Fireplace channel, and in order to view it I would have to pay $13.95!! That's right, 13.95 (plus a service fee, I'm sure) to watch a crackling fireplace on your tv. Occasionally a hand will reach into the shot and deposit a new log to keep the fire burning (usually that part scares the crap out of me if I'm entranced by the flames).
Good news though, the Christmas Tree channel is still free. Phewww!

Christmasy things

2009-12-13T09:03:00.003-07:00

Since we're just about at the middle of December with less than two weeks to Christmas, the activities have started.

Friday night was Brad's Community Health Christmas Party. We went to the Modern Family Restaraunt's Banquet room for supper, games and prezzies. Afterwards, a number of the people we were sitting with decided it was time to go to the bar, so we went off to the Big I where we stayed for about an hour. Anyone who's been there will understand that an hour at the Big I while sober is more than enough. We went home after. Ha!Karlene, Kyla, Myself, and Erin doing a very festive China White shot. Yum!

~
Me and Kyla (from Brad's office) at the Christmas Party.
~

Yesterday we put up the tree and decorated. It's nice to have some festive decor in the house. And so far, so good; Ollie seems disinterested with the tree. Fingers crossed it remains that way. The bottom foot of the tree remains bereft of ornaments in hopes that he won't get creative and learn how to use a stepping box.

Ode to Winter

2009-12-08T06:11:00.004-07:00

Holy CRAP it's cold!

And now, a montage of some thoughts I've had recently:

New Kids on the Block (groan if you will)
I have recently changed email addresses, so I only occassionally check my old address to see if anything useful has come in through the piles and piles of junk email. You may recall last year my intense excitement to see the New Kids perform in Saskatoon. Well, I signed up for their emails so I could hopefully get a pre-sale. I still get those emails. One that came the other day had this as it's title: Limited Edition Autographed Platinum Albums Now Available. Now, I may have been at the concert, screaming like a hormone charged teen, but I draw the line at spending $625 to have one of 100 limited edition platinum albums. And, to be honest, I judge those who do not draw their line there. I have, however, added the collection of 6 holiday ornaments featuring Joey, Donnie, Danny, Jordan and Jonathan for only $100. It would take any christmas tree to a whole new level of tackiness! (kidding! Kidding!!)

Christmas
It's December 8th today, which is pretty remarkable. Christmas is suddenly approaching very quickly and yet, I still don't find myself in the spirit. We've received a couple of Christmas cards, and Bev and I sat down and made a ton as well. I've even just about finished my shopping. Still, nothing. Maybe once we have the tree all decorated and some other festive items up, it will feel different.

Winter
DAMN it's cold out!!

The New Year
So far, I've got quite a list of things to look forward to in 2010, and looking forward, I am! At the end of January, Brad and I are hoping to get away to Smithers for a post-christmas holiday. In April, Vassy and I will be on the floor at the John Mayer concert in Saskatoon (this time, SHE'LL be the one screaming her undying love to a performer on stage). Later in April, Brad and I are going to be heading to Vegas for Leah's wedding (can't wait to see everyone from the Twin!!), and in July Frank and Christi will be getting married! It's looking like a good year so far!

In the meantime
Christmas...sigh...still feels weird. Luckily Ollie is in the spirit: His christmas list to Santa includes many squeeky toys, a couple of lovely bones, and more delightful clothing (he told me so!!)

Adventures on the East Coast!

2009-11-04T20:31:00.008-07:00

Last week I had the fantastic opportunity to travel to Halifax for a career fair. The major bonus (aside from seeing the other side of the country again) was that I was able to extend my stay a couple of days and see Maureen and her boyfriend Barry. They were gracious enough to let me stay with them and made sure I had an amazing time and got to see some of the many highlights the city (and Nova Scotia) have to offer.

~Drinking Champagne out of mason jars en route to the restaurant~

The night I arrived we went for supper and drinks at a restaurant known for their martinis. It was excellent and a nice cap to a long day of travel. Thursday Maureen took me downtown where we wandered the shops. We had intended to go to the Maritime Museum but never made it. Ha! Too many fun stores to look at before hurrying back to her place to help Barry make perogies for a supper with friends that night. We made a heap of perogies (around 80 I think) and everyone enjoyed the delicious meal.

~The restaurant owned by Mike Smith from the Trailer Park Boys! Love it! ~

~Maureen and I in front of Citadel Hill~

~Making perogies~

~At Barry's Brother's place~

Friday was the career fair which went very very well, and afterwards we went back downtown to look around and visit some more cool shops. The three of us went out for an amazing supper that night at a fantastic Italian restaurant downtown. Saturday Maureen took me for a tour of the Halifax Farmers Market. It was just amazing! The whole thing is held in a series of historical buildings and is jam packed with craftsmen selling their creations, as well as meats, cheeses, baked goods, and veggies. Maureen had promised to take me on the ferry from Halifax across the harbour to Dartmouth. Since we were short on time, we took the 12 minute ride over, got off the ferry, re-boarded, and came right back. It was a neat way to view the city though and reminded me of the Seabus in Vancouver.

~Taking the Ferry to and from Dartmouth~

Saturday night was Halloween and Barry's brother Robbie and his wife Sonia hosted a Murder Mystery Party at their place, 30 minutes outside of Halifax. It was a ton of fun and I loved meeting all of their friends. We spent the night there (long drive, plus a little too much booze) and left after breakfast.

~Dressed up for the Murder Mystery Party~

~The cast of Murder in Margarhitaland~

After showering, Maureen and I went for a drive to Bridgewater to try to find a huge Adirondack chair that was apparently somewhere in the town. We got mildly lost (it wouldn't be a roadtrip adventure for me if we weren't somewhat lost at least once!!), and asked for directions twice. Despite the help from locals, we couldn't find the chair and left the community to visit Peggy's Cove before going home.

Peggy's Cove was incredible! I was struck with how powerful the ocean is. And it was a pretty calm day at that!

~Peggy's Cove~

We left Peggy's Cove after sunset and went back to Halifax where Barry had made supper (yum!) and afterwards we went to a comedy sketch show with a local troupe called picnicface. I certainly laughed my money's worth!
Monday it was a ridiculously early morning and I was on my way by 7:40 Halifax time, arriving back in Swift at 5 Sask time. A long day of travel and a busy busy week, but so worth it!

I'm one of those people....

2009-11-04T20:27:00.003-07:00

...who dress up their pets.

I feel no shame.

Nick and Kim's Wedding

2009-11-04T20:05:00.003-07:00

Nick, my new brother in law, got married on October 24th to his girlfriend of the past five years, Kim. It was a beautiful ceremony at the Palliser Pavilion in Swift Current, followed by a delicious supper, and great reception also at the Palliser. I think we all had a great time and it was just what Nick and Kim wanted to mark the start of the rest of their lives together!

It just slipped out...

2009-10-17T22:26:00.003-06:00

It was one of those moments where I was thinking it and thinking it and thinking it and then suddenly realized I had actually spoken.
Brad and I went to see The Invention of Lying. The theatre wasn't very busy, but there were a few crowds of people scattered around, inluding two groups of teenage girls. They were giggly and a bit disruptive a few times but very briefly so I wasn't terribly bothered. Towards the end, however, I suppose their little girl brains became bored with the movie and they started making comments and laughing and talking quite loudly. I was becoming more and more annoyed and thinking ...well, a number of things, but the main one that kept resurfacing was "You're not at home; please be quiet". It went through my thoughts again and again and suddenly I realized that I was hearing myself actually saying it out loud in the theatre. The talking stopped immediately. I did see one head in the row in front of ours turn around and glance at me, but she didn't look like she and her friend were part of the crowd of adolescents. I wasn't sure though, if she was looking accusingly or not.
After the movie though, she and her friend came up to me and thanked me for speaking up. They said when the girls sat down in front of them she had said to her friend "oh great, we're behind the dumb blondes who are going to talk the whole time" and that they were glad I said something.
Brad said later he was a bit shocked when he heard me and I admitted I was too. At least I was polite and said "please".

I'm ok with this

2009-10-09T10:53:00.002-06:00

So it snowed yesterday. I spent the whole day in blatant denial of it, telling people I was quite content with the lovely sunny day and 30 degree weather we were experiencing (the manager of our Mental Health department, clearly decided I was off my rocker, offered me some drugs...but didn't follow through when I said yes please...tease). Everyone's insistance that it was, in fact, snowing had begun to wear on me, but this morning when I looked outside and saw a thin layer over the lawn and clinging to the trees I remembered why I don't always hate winter. There's something really beautiful about the morning after snow and the way it makes everything look brighter. I've come to terms with the snow today. That being said, I also haven't had to go outside and scrape off my car before being able to drive it. My opinion may change.

16 Hours on the Road + Just me = lots of time to think

2009-09-27T23:06:00.005-06:00

So you'd think I'd have come up with something really interesting, or really mind-blowing. Nope. Nothing. Just a few random observations.
1. When the wind is blowing just right, Brooks AB only smells a little, but when the wind is blowing wrong, it's enough to make a girl dry heave.
2. Sitting down with a friend from College for the first time in 4 years can feel exactly the same as it would have four years ago. And it wasn't even creepy that she knew just about everything about my life (I guess there are some people who read this!)
3. I still have no idea what that semi was doing with a full side ad for Rex Goudie heading towards Swift. Is there an underground Canadian Idol runner-up factory beneath the city that I am unaware of?
4. I am still very frightened of Bridges. More so after driving over the god forsaken Walterdale Bridge in Edmonton. My blood pressure rose exponentially. Terrifying.
5. It's best not to yell at that car with the out of town plates that darted in front of you like she didn't know where she was going. It was me. I didn't know where I was going. Sorry.
6. Sometimes cab drivers are some of the nicest people with really interesting stories to tell.
7. West Edmonton Mall is just a big mall. There. I said it.
8. First impressions of towns are everything. Vegreville gets my thumbs up thanks to the A&W that was still serving bacon & eggers after 11 (till 12 on sundays!!), and the giant Easter Egg that will forever make me giggle. It's on a stand that allows it to spin in the wind which is actually very eerie. Lloydminster, on the other hand, did not impress me. As soon as I crossed the border to SK, it looked like it had been 30 years since someone did any work to anything there. Plus the wind blew dirt onto my icecream cone as the girl passed it from the drive thru. (I ate it anyway).
9. A first, listening to the same songs is kind of fun, but after 8 hours, I don't really want to hear the following songs anymore: Cascada - Evacuate the Dance Floor, Nickelback - Never Gonna be Alone, Theory of a Deadman - well...any of them, Jay Sean - Down, Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling, Taylor Swift - You Belong With Me, Lady Gaga - Poker Face and Love Game . That being said, I could listen to Miley Cyrus Party in the USA on repeat for another 6 hours (sure, go ahead and judge me, but you know you want to dance when you hear it too...you just haven't admitted it to yourself). And I'm still enjoying Lady Gaga Paparazzi, and Owl City - Fireflies even if it is kind of weird. Though I imagine those will be somewhat short lived as well, especially if I keep listening to 001 on Sirius Satellite.
10. I sincerely hope that Karl Wolf has been careful with his money. A cover of Toto's Africa and one other single won't pay the bills forever buddy...and I don't think it takes a gypsy fortune teller to see that his career will not span decades (or even another year, for that matter).
11. A 4 door sedan with a spoiler is still a 4 door sedan. It just looks like you wish it wasn't.

There. That pretty much sums up my 16 hours of driving. Thankfully I've only got another 4 or so before I'm home on Tuesday night. In the meantime, here is my latest picture with one of the world's largests.

Not as bad as I thought.

2009-09-20T09:30:00.003-06:00

Any of it, really; I wasn't as bad as I thought I'd be, the game wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be, and I wasn't as drunk as I thought I'd be. Haha!
I think I caught on somewhat to how to golf...though really, any of the good shots I got were more than likely pure fluke since I still don't really understand how to do any of it. My team, comprised of me, Brad, Kyla and her fiance Landon was really supportive of my terribleness and gave me some tips and pointers that were actually very helpful. They were encouraging when it took me four (or more) swings to finally hit that little damn ball, and they were excited with me when I made a really good (albeit totally fluked) shot. The major downside was the extreme heat. We reached a high of 34 degrees at 3 oclock, right smack dab in the middle of our 18 holes (by the way, 18 holes is waaaay excessive). I pounded more water than I ever have in my life and still ended up with minor heat stroke - really disappointing since I'm pretty sure a 6 pack would have drastically improved my game. Hahaha!
Anyway, here are some pictures:

Highlight of the day: careening around the course in a golf cart. I now totally understand why people love/buy these things. (I still think Scoots would have been fun...if only I could strap my clubs to it somehow...)
~

Our team members, Kyla and Landon
~

Ok, so before you start snickering to yourself about how I swung so hard (looks like I was trying to murder that ball) and the ball is still sitting there, know this: The white ball is not mine. We played best ball and my ball (which was purple) actually went reasonably far. So there. Ha.
~Me standing next to my pink ball (which I later lost in the water). This was my first really good shot and it was the best ball! I was so proud of myself! The next highlight of the game for me was a few holes later when I got a birdie! My drive was best ball, and my putt sunk it! I literally jumped up and down with my putter above my head screaming "Woohoo!!!"
~
Now, as to whether I will play again...definitely next year in the staff tournament, and maybe once or twice before. But don't you go thinking you've found a permanent golf partner, Brad. (I do take bribes though)

Golf...?

2009-09-19T09:18:00.004-06:00

These are my golf clubs. Brad bought them for me yesterday (don't worry, they're used, he's not delusional enough to think that new clubs were a good idea).
I am participating in the Cypress Health Region Staff Golf Tournament today.
Allow me to break down my Golf-Related History.

Age 8 (ish) - I take golf balls and club to the field at the end of my cul-de-sac. Swing club. Hit ball. Ball hits 9 year old neighbour boy on the head and knocks him unconscious. I run.

Age 20 - Friend takes me to driving range. Thinks hitting a bucket of balls will be "fun". I hit a total of three balls a total of three meters (including the ones that roll three inches behind the marker when I knick them with the club). Remaining 10 don't go anywhere. Friend gets frustrated and confiscates balls and clubs.

Age 26 - Purchase Nintendo Wii. Really good at golf game. Become delusional that I am actually a natural at the game.

Age 27 - Sign up for staff golf tournament. Begin to suspect that my practice on the Wii will not equate to actual talent at game of golf. Become terrified. Consider running again.

More Pics!

2009-09-11T19:51:00.001-06:00

The squeeling has started again! Rob has updated his blog with more pics from the wedding!! EEEEEE! (Linked on the sidebar)

Rat Population several hundred... minus 1

2009-09-07T08:54:00.002-06:00

Apparently Swift Current has a rat problem. Not that I'm denouncing it, or sitting in my house with my ears plugged shouting LA LA LA LA! I just haven't seen any rats. I make regular trips to the hospital for work and haven't seen any in the field behind where they apparently hold their daily rat parties. I've been to the Southside where apparently they congregate. I've been down allies, past garbage piles...nothing.
Until Friday. Brad and I were leaving Movie Gallery when we saw a man (who shall now be refered to as Slack Jawed Yokel...or Mr Yokel for short) run across the street with a vehicle window scraper. In front of Mr Yokel was a medium sized rat scampering desperately across the street. The pair made it to the lawn of an apartment building on the other side and Mr Yokel began wailing his window scraper at the grass. We watched with disturbed facination as he enthusiastically began stomping his boot. His travelling companion who I can only assume was Mr Yokel Senior laughed from beside our Escape. After a few moments, Mr Yokel strutted confidently across the street laughing to himself and saying something akin to "I got him good!"
Now I believe that we have a rat problem, but more disturbing in my mind, is the hillbilly problem. How much money will the city put towards dealing with these rabbid hillbillies?

OMG OMG OMG!

2009-09-01T17:24:00.004-06:00

I had a sneak peak and I want to share!! Rob, our amazing friend and stunningly talented photographer posted one picture from the wedding to his new blog. I've linked it on the side, but I'll link it here too: Rob's Sente.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! It's all I can do not to start squeeling like a 13 year old at a Jonas Brothers concert (or me at the New Kids show in April...this totally trumps that for my most-squeeled-moment)!!!!!
Thank you Rob, you're a genius, I tell you!!

Mr and Mrs Giesbrecht

2009-08-29T18:40:00.007-06:00

It was perfect. Every last moment of the wedding and the days leading up to it. Having my parents, my brother and his fiancee, and Mare (Maid of Honour) and Jer (honourary bridesmaid, hee hee!) helped tremendously with the plans, and my other bridesmaid, Vassy was a miracle worker with the cake and our makeup! I'll go into a little more detail when I get the photos back (OMG, can't WAIT!!!), but for now, suffice it to say, the day was perfect!Mmmmm, Starbucks! Best Maid Of Honour EVER!!
~

Going to Supper to start off my Sex and the City Stagette! Everyone looked HOT!
~

Mum and Me at the spa getting our Mani-Pedis
~Vassy...Bridesmaid, Cakemaker extraordinaire! Yes, she's HAND PAINTING those flowers.
~
Me and my ladies the night before the wedding
~

The honeymoon? Not so much. Haha! We left on Sunday instead of Saturday as originally planned. It was universally decided that leaving on a long distance trip would not be wise when we could barely stare at each other without our vision blurring over (we were just a little tired). We stayed a little campground outside of Jasper called Robson Shadows. It was right on the Fraser River and had the most incredible view of Mt Robson. That was home for two nights and we left on Tuesday morning to head south to Banff area. We made it about 20 minutes south of Jasper. The bumps on the road jostled our tent trailer and blew the leaf spring (which holds the tires to the axle...or something). Anyway, we were stuck in a little campground called Kerkeslin on the Athabasca River. I'll bet you didn't know there aren't any RV businesses in Jasper, did you? Well there aren't. Luckily for us there is a Napa with some very very friendly and helpful people who supplied us with two brand new heavy duty leaf springs (to replace the other one too...afterall who wants to go through that twice?). Brad got to work on Tuesday and we set up camp in the little campground. The next day it was back to Jasper again for some U-bolts (or something), which they didn't have so we went to Hinton to get them. Long story short, the camper was all set and good to go by the evening on Wednesday, but we were so tired of the back and forth driving that we decided to stay on more day and leave on Friday.
Thursday we got up early and took one more trip to Jasper for a battery for the tent trailer (the old one was no good anymore and our heater won't work without the carbon monoxide detector which requires battery...it was a cold cold four nights) and to get Ollie checked out at the vet (he had developed several scarey red spots on his abdomen that the vet assistant said was likely bug bites), and then we went to hike to Horseshoe Lake and Athabasca Falls.
Friday morning we packed up and continued south through the Columbia Icefields to Calgary and finally stopped in Medicine Hat for the night. We stayed in a hotel. It had a shower...a luxury we hadn't enjoyed since Monday for Brad and Tuesday for me. Ha!

Today we shopped a little and made the final trek back to Swift.Our Resort (and that's my bouquet from the wedding on the table)
~

In front of Mt Robson
~

Ollie doesn't want to drive anymore
~At Horseshoe Lake, called one of the bluest lakes in Jasper National Park
~

Daaaaaaaaaam!
(ok, so it was part of a beaver lodge, not a dam, but I couldn't resist!)
~Me and Ollie at Horseshoe Lake
~
Athabasca Falls

~Athabasca River as it ran by our campsite at Mt Kerkeslin
~

day one down!

2009-08-15T19:36:00.000-06:00

Brad and I packed the trailer and escape last night and hit the road early this morning for day one of our trip to smithers. Of course, it was windy as hell from swift to biggar, and somewhere around rosetown it started to rain quite a lot. The rain finally gave out around camrose, and we had sun for most of the way to edson. Now we've set up our tent trailer for the night so that we're well rested for tomorrow when we make the last half of the drive! Can't wait! One more sleep!

And Awaaaay We Go!

2009-08-14T21:45:00.003-06:00

The time has come! After months of planning and months of craziness and busy-ness and months of transition, the time has FINALLY come! I put on my out of office manager on my email, changed my voicemail to say I won't be back until the 31st, and practically sprinted out of the office! My vacation has officially started!
Tomorrow morning Brad and I will put our suitcases into the Escape, buckle Ollie into his seat, and hit the road for Smithers. It's a bit of a duanting drive, but Brad and I have always been good with long road trips together. We love each other's company (I should hope so!) and the time alone is always comfortable. Tomorrow we'll drive to Edson Alberta, which is the exact halfway mark between Swift and Smithers. Then on Sunday we'll get up and do another 10 hours to Smithers!
I'm so looking forward to having some time with my family, my friends, and some time to just relax and take a break.
Oh, and on Friday Brad and I will be getting married. That's kind of big I guess. ;) Haha!