Me, Myself & I

Wednesday, November 30

2012-01-21T16:01:00.001-07:00

Wednesday we slept in. Because we slept in and took our time getting ready the breakfast buffet was closed so we had to eat at the Snack Bar. Before heading over to the snack bar to meet Darcy, Ee, Pam and Morna we made a quick stop off at the wedding coordinators office to drop off our guest “books” and the palm tree boxes we wanted set up at everyone’s place setting. Then we just confirmed with her the times for the next day. At the snack bar they had leftover breakfast buffet food and nibbles. I went to pump some cheese sauce on my chips and the cheese sauce was watery (yuck!) so I had to transfer my food onto another plate to rescue it from getting wet and soggy.

After food we walked around the resort a little bit taking pictures of everything. I can’t say enough good things about the resort! We would go back in a heartbeat. I guess the only one ‘bad’ thing was parts of our beach weren’t super sandy.

The kids pool/play area:

After walking around taking pictures we hung out at the pool for a bit and then headed off to the beach where decided to try our hand at snorkeling again.

We had a quick dip before we met up with a group of us who wanted to head down to Playa Del Carmen to check out the sites (and of course do a little shopping!). The hotel was once again able to get us a ginourmous bus taxi. Our driver dropped us off at the beginning and he didn’t even take the money we owed! He asked what time we would like to be picked up to go back to the hotel and we could pay him in full then.

Alexander and I had been to Playa twice last time we were in Mexico so it wasn’t a big thing that we go but I did want to pick up some vanilla and look around to see if there was anything I wanted. We walked around with Morna and Travel Agent Lisa. Morna shopped up a storm! While Alexander and I were in a shop looking at lamps made from seeds of some kind Morna and Lisa fell for the “I was your waiter at dinner the other night” and we got taken a little off the main road into a jewellery store. Morna bought a couple things at a reasonable price (I think) and I bought a ring that looked like a leaf. I probably paid too much for it but it is unique. We all met up where we got dropped off and out taxi driver was waiting for us to take us back to the resort.

A wedding at the gazebo before we left for Playa

After we got back from shopping we got dressed and headed to dinner with my parents, my Uncle Robert and my cousin Ian. We ate the Caribbean restaurant. The night before Alexander's Aunt and Uncle said they didn’t like the restaurant very much. We didn’t find it bad at all. This is the restaurant where Alexander saw someone with a tri-coloured drink and asked what it was. For the rest of the trip his Riviera Maya drink was his drink of choice!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T21:03:00.001-07:00

This time of year always makes me melancholy; no more Christmas music, talk of taking down the decorations, back to the daily grind at work and reflecting on the past year. Christmas always goes by way too quickly, especially this year since we were away at the beginning of December and I had a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit while I was suffering from post vacation/wedding blues. Alexander’s family always celebrates Christmas on Christmas Eve but this year his brother had to work so we celebrated on Boxing Day which was a little weird. Christmas was also strange without any snow.

Sometime this week Alexander and I are going to sit down and we are going to make a list of things we want to do in 2012 and set some goals. We have an idea for a trip we want to take but it won’t be until the fall so that gives us plenty of time to research!

2011 was a pretty dang good year!

I married my best friend
I had 3 jobs (yikes! I hop around like a grasshopper on crack)
we made 2 trips to the mountains
managed a quick jaunt to Disney Land

January:

Working temp to perm job at Stantec
Caught the flu for the first time in 10+ years
Visited the ice sculptures on Whyte Ave
Attended Bridal Fantasy where I met Gail (the highlight of the day!)

February:

Visited Jill in Nisku
Started a new job at Steeplejack
Celebrated the 4th anniversary of my 25th birthday

March:

Attended an Oscar party
Started taking courses at the ACSA towards my HSA
Mailed out our wedding invitations!
Took a weekend trip to Banff and did an ice walk

April:

Decorated eggs for Easter

May:

Went dress shopping
Went with Alexander on a work conference where we stayed at the Fairmont Lake Louise!

June:

Saw a lot of Harry Potter movies in the theatre
Took some cake decorating classes

July:

Saw the last Harry Potter movie
Attended K-Days and bought a rhino ottoman

August:

Saw a Jubilations play
Attended Darcy’s Deep Fry-Palooza
Walked around at the Fringe

September:

Engagement shoot
Disney Land!
Started work at Suncor
Attended free day at Fort Edmonton Park

October:

Threw Alexander a surprise 30th Star Wars themed birthday party
Went to the Corn Maze

November:

Attending my wedding shower hosted by my mom
Left for Mexico!

December:

Wedding!
Christmas Parties
Christmas Lights

2011 The Year of the Movie

2012-01-02T17:48:00.001-07:00

January 1 – Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D (6:40pm WEM)
January 9 – Faster (1:25pm Galaxy)
January 12 – Megamind (6:45pm Movies 12)
January 30 – Green Hornet in 3D (1:15pm Galaxy)
February 6 – Life as We Know It (1:55pm Movies 12) *Veronica Only*
February 11 – Gnomeo & Juliet in 3D (7:00pm WEM)
February 27 – Sanctum (1:15pm North Ed) *Veronica Only*
March 4 – Dilemma (7:20pm Movies 12)
March 13 – Tangled in 3D (7:00pm Movies 12)
March 25 – No Strings Attached (9:30pm Movies 12)
March 26 – Sucker Punch in IMAX (7:45pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
April 15 – Just Go With It (7:20pm Movies 12)
April 20 – Hop (6:55pm Galaxy)
April 22 – Hanna (7:20pm WEM)
May 8 – The Kings Speech (7:15pm Movies 12)
May 14 – Fast Five (6:55pm City Centre)
May 20 – Your Highness (7:15pm Movies 12) *Alexander Only*
May 20 – Arthur (7:30pm Movies 12) *Veronica Only*
May 23 – Thor (7:50pm WEM)
May 30 – Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (7:00pm North Ed)
June 3 – Lincoln Lawyer (6:55pm Movies 12)
June 6 – Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (7:00pm North Ed)
June 13 – Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (7:00pm North Ed)
June 17 – X-Men First Class (7:40pm WEM)
June 20 – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (7:00pm North Ed)
June 25 – Cars 2 in 3D (7:30pm WEM)
June 27 – Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix (7:00pm North Ed)
July 3 – Source Code (7:15pm Movies 12)
July 4 – Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (7:00pm North Ed)
July 9 – Transformers 3 (3:50pm Galaxy)
July 16 – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in 3D (6:30pm North Ed)
July 21 – Limitless (7:15pm Movies 12)
July 24 – Captain America (7:50pm WEM)
August 1 – Hangover 2 (4:10pm Movies 12)
August 7 – Pirates Stranger Tides in 3D (6:55pm Movies 12)
August 8 – Rise of the Planet of the Apes (7:00pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
August 27 – Bridesmaids (9:20pm Movies 12)
August 30 – The Help (6:30pm City Centre)
August 31 – Conan the Barbarian in 3D (7:30pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
September 5 – Bad Teacher (7:25pm Movies 12)
September 20 – Drive (7:50pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
September 23 – Super 8 (7:05pm Movies 12)
October 4 – Abduction (6:45pm Galaxy)
October 14 – Real Steel (7:30pm WEM)
November 4 – Puss in Boots in 3D (6:30pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
November 8 – Crazy Stupid Love (6:40pm Movies 12)
December 6 – The Muppets (12:45pm WEM) *Alexander Only*
December 13 – New Years Eve (7:20pm Galaxy)
December 28 – Tower Heist (7:20pm Movies 12)
December 30 – Mission Impossible 4 in IMAX (5:00pm WEM)

An even 50 movies! Holy Crap! That is almost a movie a week! Typing up the list I had to ask Alexander to remind me what some movies were about, so obviously they weren't that memorable (ex. No Strings Attached).

Worst Movies of 2011:
- Bad Teacher
- Green Hornet
- Lincoln Lawyer (the book was better!)
- Arthur (not a big Russell Brand fan)
- Hop (more for kids)
- New Years Eve (train wreck!)
- Life as we Know it

Favourite Movies of 2011:
- Crazy Stupid Love (Ryan Gosling shirtless!)
- MI4 (Dubai has moved up on my travel list!)
- Just Go with It (Kiki Dee!)

Honourable Mentions:
- Abduction (even though it has Twilight heart throb Taylor Lautner in it and a lot of stuff he did is impossible it was entertaining)
- Reel Steel (um, fighting robots = awesome)
- Super 8 (the end was weird but the rest was good)
- Captain America
- Fast Five (The Rock and Vin together how could it not be awesome?)
- Hanna (Artsy)
- Tower Heist (funny)
- Sanctum (disaster porn)

Weekend Recap

2011-12-19T18:57:00.000-07:00

Friday: We dropped off some CD’s I rented from the library and then we went to our favorite restaurant, Costco, for dinner. I know it is super horrible for us and in the New Year we won’t be frequenting it but right now it is cheap and quick. After Costco we stopped in at Michaels to pick up a ‘Welcome’ sign we had framed. We had it made while we were in Disneyland in September. It spells Welcome using Disney Characters. It is pretty neat and colorful. And while it might not suit other people, it is totally us. While we were at Michaels one of the ladies that works there, Tammy, who has helped us before (super nice) was going around telling people they were her friends and she was giving them an extra 40% off their purchase (even sales items!). I guess Michaels has this promotion for Michaels family and friends 3 times a year. We ended up picking up 3 frames for our spray paint art and a 8x12 frame for the picture the resort photographer took that came with our wedding package. We started watching Love Actually (another must watch holiday movie!) but turned it off half way through because I was starting to fall asleep (I really shouldn’t want movies in bed! I get all warm and comfy and drowsy!).

Saturday: This is the first year in a very long long time that I am not prepared for Christmas. Usually all my gifts are finished being bought beginning of December and have been wrapped and under the tree for weeks now. Alexander and I went out on Saturday to pick up some gifts we were missing. After battling traffic and crowds of crazy people, next year I am going to be back on track! I don’t want to be dealing with crazy people AND I don’t want to be stressed about what to buy people. We stopped off at Walmart first too look at curling irons (for Alexanders cousin) and to see if they had any iPad covers. I bought a curling iron for her and me and when I tried it at home later I found out it sucks so they will have to go back (Fun times. Not). No luck on the iPad cover but we stopped off at Future Shop and I picked a nice one up. We stopped off at Bulk Barn because I saw super hot chips and my brother likes to burn his mouth for some crazy reason so I picked him up 2 bags and we picked up some nibbles (do not go back into that store when you are hungry!!!!!). After we went back to Michaels because the frame we bought Friday night for our wedding picture had a big scratch on the glass we didn’t notice. We did a straight exchange but when we got it home and out of the wrapping the new frame was even worse than the last one!

After we got home Alexander chilled while I started wrapping gifts and finished watching Love Actually. Then we headed out to my parents for dinner to celebrate my moms birthday.

Sunday: We didn’t finish all our shopping Saturday so we headed to WEM! I didn’t find it that bad. I have been there on Halloween and that was much much worse. We got there at noon so maybe it wasn’t super busy yet. We were able to find a nice close-ish parking spot. We walked around a bit and I picked up a different curling iron for Alexander’s cousin. We did the mandatory stop in at The Disney Store and it broke my little heart when we went into PJ Pets, and all the little kitties that don’t have a home. I’m glad they are collaborating with the SPCA so the older cats have a chance.

After WEM we stopped in at Independent Jewellers to check out their Q Ray band bracelet things as my dad wanted one for Christmas. A tad bit out of our gift limit and even if it was in our limit I wouldn’t know what style he would like. We got home and Alexander took a nap and I chatted with my friend Penny. At 7:30pm we headed out to meet D and Ee at The Melting Pot for dinner. It was yummy but way too much food! It was also a long meal! We didn’t get out of the restaurant until 11pm! The Melting Pot is good for something different and unique but I wouldn’t go all the time, maybe just once a year at max. Monday morning came to fast and I can’t believe it is less than a week away until Christmas! It doesn’t feel like it. I blame it on no snow.

Tuesday, November 29

2011-12-15T19:22:00.002-07:00

Zip Line Day!

Last time Alexander and I were in Mexico we went on two different excursions. The first excursion we went on with our new friend Joseph and did a half day at Tulum and then an afternoon with 3 zip lines, rappelling and swimming in a cenote. We had a blast zip lining! Our second excursion was to Xceret with everybody. For our trip we wanted to combine a group excursion and zip lining together. We left it up to our guests if they wanted to participate or not. We didn’t get many people (only 6 of us all together) but we had an amazing time. We set our alarms to get us up so we could be ready and fed to meet everyone in the lobby at 8:30am. We decided to find our own way to Xplore to save some money and be able to leave when we wanted to. We had the hotel call us a taxi van and a short 30 minutes (or less) we were at Xplore.

Right away it was awesome. We had to check in and pay in a cave! They gave us orange helmets and told us not to take them off all day (to protect our heads) and each helmet had a different number on it and there were random cameras set up around site and at the end of the trip we could use our helmet number to find pictures of us to buy. What was also neat was their locker key system/keeper. Instead of pinning it on you and hoping it doesn’t fall off and get lost, you tucked they key in a little pocket in a Velcro band you tied around your arm.

We decided to do the amphibious vehicles first. Alexander drove and I took pictures. Alexander thought it was awesome and if they would have let us, he would have gone again. It was neat driving through the caves and the water although the caves got pretty gasoline smelly.

After we went back to the lockers to get ready to zip line! We had to wait in line while they explained how we were to go about the zip line course and how to sit in our harness etc. Then we all went over to put on our harnesses. Us 3 girls got called out of line to the other side to try a different harness on, we joked we were taken to the “fat line”. One we got all hooked up and made our way up, up, up to the main tower. At the top there were 2 different routes to take. We took the right route which I think was the tamer loop. It was a little scary waiting in line and knowing you were soon going to be hung on a cable and flying above the trees. I wasn’t nearly as nervous/scared as when Alexander and I did it two years previous but the first line was still pretty nerve wracking! The only sucky thing about zip lining is climbing back up again to go again! It is especially sucky after a water landing and your feet are wet and slippery. Before we knew it the first loop was done!

Climbing up, up, up!

The view from the top

Taking the water slide down to the bottom

The 6 of us after the first leg of zip lining, ready to do round two!

We went back in line to have our harnesses checked to do round two. I ended up taking forever because they couldn’t get my thigh strap undone to tighten it up. While Alexander was waiting for me, the rest of the gang went on ahead. When we got to the tower it was much busier than the previous time and we had to wait a while. The second route, I think, was much higher and faster and had one exceptionally long line. My harness felt comfortable the first round but since they tightened it, it was rubbing on my thigh and hurting me so it made the second loop a little uncomfortable.

Time flies when you are having fun and before we knew it it was time for lunch. Lunch was okay. There were Mexican hotdogs, Mexican hamburgers, and Mexican pizza *grin* After lunch we decided to try our hand at hand paddle rafting. Originally I wasn’t going to go but I changed my mind so I ended up wearing my shorts in the water. Lisa, Russ, Dan and Morna were paddling pros and zoomed ahead of us. I swear I used the paddles more to push away from the cave walls than to actually paddle!

After paddling Morna and I went back to the locker area to grab towels. We didn’t know it was like a 10+ minute walk back to the lockers so were were gone awhile. Alexander and I decided to sit the last activity, swimming in a cenote, because I was chilly so we hung out at the hammocks waiting for the others and we ended up falling asleep (bliss!).

After the gang got back from swimming we got ready to go. We checked out the gift store where I convinced (it wasn’t that hard!) for Dan Destroyer to buy a mini stuffed caveman doll (to hang in his mini truck) and a t-shirt. Morna bought the most, 2 mug and a tote bag. Surprisingly enough I didn’t buy anything! We looked at buying the pictures that were taken around the park of us but they sucked! AND there were random strangers as us too! We got outside and the taxi that we took in the morning was there waiting to take us back to our resort.

After we got back we had a little down time before we had to get ready and meet my parents, Alexanders parents, and Alexanders Uncle Chris and his fiancé Doreen. We met up at the Brazilian restaurant for dinner. I would have to say that this was my least favourite restaurant. I’m not a super big meat person and all I wanted was a second piece of turkey and we had to ask like 2 different waiters multiple times. The dessert wasn’t awesome. They did have the yummy cream cheesey buns the French restaurant had though!

Alexanders Uncle doing a Tequila shot and me playing around with the fun features my new camera has (Alexander is going to kill me for posting this picture!)

After dinner we rushed off to see Mexican Michael Jackson! We only caught the last two songs he performed. He was pretty good. After the show they allowed people up on the stage to take their picture with him. I was surprised Alexander wasn’t the first person up! He was uber excited about this show, especially catching Mexican Michael last time we were in Mexico! Lisa and I went up first for a picture then Alexander and Darcy got up the nerve.

After Mexican Michael we all went up to the lobby bar and hung out for a while until Dan Destroyer and Ryan convinced us all to trek out to the resort next door (I think) to the night club. We got lucky because leaving and coming back to the resort the shuttle bus was right there, no waiting around (although Morna did have to run to catch it leaving the night club). The Jaguar night club totally made me glad not to be 18 again. It was a tad creepy and it took me a few minutes to realize there were like 5 half naked girls dancing on top of tables. I enjoyed people watching. Dan Destroyer, Darcy and Ryan all got up and “danced” to Cotton Eyed Joe and even started like a conga line type thing! Dan Destroyer ended the line suddenly and the looks on the girls faces who were following them was priceless! Like oops I hope no one saw us do that type thing. I ended up dancing for a few songs (gasp!) and then we headed back to the resort. Morna tried to get pictures of the conga line but they are all blurry. It was a fun night!

You can kinda make out Darcy (white shirt) and Dan Destroyer (hands up) in this picture:

Monday, November 28

2011-12-12T19:30:00.001-07:00

After sleeping in Alexander and I got up and ready. While getting ready we got a phone call from the wedding coordinator and set up a meeting for 10:30am. We left the room a little before 10am and walked along the pool/beach path to the buffet. Taking the pool/beach path was a much quicker walk than the long outer trek we took the night before with the bell boy. When we got to the buffet most of the people were already there and finishing up eating as they had a meeting with the Air Transat coordinator at 10am to talk about different tour options available. I tried out my new camera on Alexander during breakfast and after eating we slowly made our way to the hotel lobby where we were to meet the wedding coordinator. Over the course of the last year I was in email contact with Claudia but during our time at the resort Gabriel helped us out. On our way downstairs to the wedding coordinators office we met up with Ee who wanted to join us to get more details on what would happen when. Gabriel showed us the reception site and from where I would start walking on the path. Back at her office we just confirmed the details we had discussed through email. It was a quick 30 minute meeting. After the meeting we headed back to our room to get into our swim suits. Along the way we met my parents, Aunt Elaine, Uncle Robert and Cousin Ian at the pool bar so I told them to hold still while I quickly went back to our room to get them a wedding favour (or trinket as I nicknamed them in our budget). We had insulated coffee mugs specially made with our names, wedding date, and our resort on them. That way they will keep your drink colder longer, keep sand out of your drink and you get more drink when you go to the bar. Our goal was to get everyone their cup by the end of the day (which we did!).

Testing out my new camera *grin*

We got eventually got dressed after handing out more mugs and made our way down to the beach.

After hanging out on the beach for a while Morna and I went to hang out with my old Firebag crew at the pool. I sat on a beach chair chatting with Shauna and giving her more information on the whole destination wedding process. Ben and Ryan (aka Bieber) were drinking a lot and acting goofy. My Aunt Jeannie and Cousin Erin and Alexanders Uncle Chris and his fiancée Doreen stopped by to say hi as well. Alexander and Ryan all stopped by on their way to lunch and we were going to follow shortly after but time got away with us. It was around 3pm and Morna had been drinking a lot, same with Ben and Bieber so we decided it was finally time to get some lunch. Somehow we ended up loosing Shauna, Bieber, Jill and Ben so Morna and I ate lunch with my Aunt Jeannie and Cousin Erin.

After lunch Morna wasn’t feeling well so I put her to bed. I went back to the beach to try to find Alexander. I ended back up at the pool where my parents, Uncle Robert, Aunt Elaine, Aunt Jeannie, and Cousin Ian had congregated around watching goofy and goofier (Ben and Beiber) splash about in the pool.

The older folk soon left and Dan, Lisa, Russel, Ryan and Lisa joined us by the poolside for a bit.

Ben tried to throw me into the pool with my new camera but didn’t (thank goodness!). He managed to throw Alexander into the pool though, not before Alexander took of his shirt first and declared “I can get in on my own thanks” *grin*

Goofy and goofier were getting crazier and Ben even jumped off the lifeguard tower and Bieber was floating on the lifeguard buoy. The lifeguards started keeping a close watch on them after that! It started to get chilly out so Alexander and I went back to the room were we ended up taking a nap for a bit before dinner.

We had made dinner reservations the night before for all the Edmonton young folk to have dinner together at the French restaurant. It was a tad chilly but we sat out on the patio so we could all eat at one long table. There was a lot of seafood so I didn’t eat any of the appetizers but the presentation was amazing and everyone kept saying how yummy everything was. I was starting to get a migraine so I just drank chocolate milk. I only took a few bites of my delicious steak before I decided to go because I was just getting worse, not better. You know I’m not feeling well when I don’t stick around for dessert! (I had ordered Crème Brule that Morna finished for me). I got back to the room and was feel out of it

Such concentration eating the escargot!

The French Onion Soup and the Salmon

My yummy yummy steak (even though I wasn’t feeling well) and Lisa L’s Surf & Turf

Weekend Recap

2011-12-11T22:08:00.002-07:00

Friday: It was a long long day at work. Even though I had last Monday off after getting in late from Mexico Sunday night I was dead tired all week. I’ve been suffering hard core from post vacation/wedding blues and just couldn’t wait for the weekend to relax and make some sense of our crazy messy house (we just emptied out the suit cases and did laundry and left everything else out and scattered around).

I got home and heated up some leftover spaghetti for dinner while Alexander vacuumed up the living room. Andy and Susan were coming over for drinks and games later on so we made a quick trip to Costco after dinner and cleaning to pick up some nibbles.

Andy tried to make us a drink he concocted a while back but it just didn’t work out. We sat around chatting about the wedding and showed them pictures. I was so tiered I almost fell asleep on the couch while they were talking about condo stuff! Shortly after they left I slept like the dead straight through till Saturday morning.

Saturday: Slept in (bliss!) and cleaned up the spare bedroom (you can actually sort of walk around it without jumping over or moving any of the crap we stuffed in there!). We watched an episode of Person of Interest and I got ready for Alexanders work Christmas party. I curled my hair! It took a while because I used my hair straightener to do it but I actually can’t believe that my hair is long enough to curl!

The Christmas party was all right. It was nice to meet Alexanders co-workers and put a face to the names I’ve heard for years. I was telling him I thought certain people looked different than what I had imagined. His boss made all the food and there was a lot of it! Ham, chicken, fried rice, noodles, quinoa salad, vegetable lasagne. There were desserts galore! After we got home we started watching The Holiday (a Christmas season must watch!) but we only got half way through before we fell asleep.

Sunday: Lazy wonderful day! Slept in again! We ate some breakfast and finished watching The Holiday and then took a nap *grin* We got ready and made a stop at Bed Bath & Beyond for a rolling pin (Christmas Star War cookies here we come!) and after I went over to Mornas house to get copies of her Mexico photos. We only saw a few photos on Ee’s camera she took on the wedding day and we have only the 26 photos we got printed from the resort photographer so it was nice to see more pictures from the wedding day! I can’t wait to see more from everyone else! We ended the evening watching Fast Five and relaxing.

Just 2 more weeks until Christmas! I can’t believe it is right around the corner!

Sunday, November 27

2011-12-08T21:10:00.001-07:00

Fly Day!

Because Alexander and I splurged and upgraded to first class (Air Transat calls it Club Class) we had a separate check in line at the airport and we decided that we didn’t need to be at the airport the recommended 3 hours earlier so we got to sleep in a little bit. Although I didn’t really get much sleep, I woke up at 4am wide awake and didn’t start falling back to sleep until the alarm went off at 6am. We got up, got ready and rushed around packing last minutes things and weighing out suitcases to see if they were over the limit. Because we upgraded we got more luggage weight allowance but we didn’t know if each suitcase could only be a max weight so we tried to keep each bag (we had 3) at around 40lbs. You should have seen us try to get our 3 bags of luggage and our carry on out the door and in the elevator. We also brought out the garbage to throw away. Good thing it was so early in the morning and everyone was still sleeping so only Morna and her dad, who drove us to the airport, saw our clown act *grin*

We got to the airport and Jill and Ben, my parents and Alexander's parents were already checked in and waiting for us. Check in was a breeze and then we headed over to security. Since Ben was the tallest in the group he had the great privilege to carry my dress so I wouldn’t have to fold it. He got a lot of comments from people in line and the staff. Once we made it through security we found where everyone else had bunkered down and I left them in charge of babysitting my dress while Jill, Ben, Morna, Alexander and myself went to grad a quick breakfast.

Before we knew it it was time to board the plane! When we found our seats we had a blanket in a pouch that was ours to keep and a choice of champagne, orange juice or a combination of them both to drink. They walked around the cabin offering free headsets, blow up neck pillows, eye mask, and ear plugs. Alexander took one of each *grin* Soon we were up up and away! Take off was a bit bumpy and we flew low most of the flight. Once in the air they came around for drinks and we got free booze! I didn’t realize it and I really didn’t use it either. They played Harry Potter for the in-flight movie. I didn’t watch it. Jill brought along some People magazines so I caught up on my celebrity gossip and I read a book I brought along, Echo Park by Michael Connelly. We got to choose which lunch option we wanted a month prior and I chose the Braised Beef and Alexander had General Tao Chicken. I’m so used to a little dinky drink and crappy snacks on flights that a real meal (some would debate the realness of it) served with sides with real utensils was a thrill for me!

They brought out a salad and our dessert. The salad came with a mini cute bottle of salad dressing. The dessert, Key Lime Pie, was really good! Ben ate his before his real meal came out and Morna sat next to an old man who didn’t want his dessert so she ate it.

My Braised Beef. It was really good!!!!!s

Alexander’s Chicken

A little mini after dinner drink.

A short 5.5 hours later we were in Mexico! A month before the wedding we mailed out/dropped off to everyone a little brochure I made in Publisher and a luggage tag. The brochure had information about what to wear, plans for an excursion to a zip line park, information about the wedding, and idea on what to pack. I remembered to bring a copy with us so it came in handy when we had to fill out our travel cards and what city and hotel we were staying at so we could leave the airport. Everyones luggage arrived safe and sound and no one had to get searched leaving the airport. We found our bus relatively easily and since we had more than 12 people flying from Edmonton we got our own private bus to take us to the resort. It was about 1.5 hour ride (I’m not sure, I dozed off a bit) to the resort. By the time we got in it was dark but walking into the lobby the resort looked beautiful!

Side note: Alexander and I picked the resort without ever actually gone there. We got a big book of resorts information for Travel Agent Lisa and I went through the book and ripped out resorts in the location we wanted, that looked nice and allowed kids (just in case someone wanted to bring one along). Then we narrowed it down to 3 or 4 resorts and did a lot of looking online at different reviews and pictures of wedding sites. We knew for sure we wanted a beach wedding but we didn’t want pool chairs and gawkers near by. We also asked Lisa about her thoughts on the resort and if she heard anything good or bad. Of course price played a factor too. I originally wanted to go the Riu Palace resort we went to back in 2009 for Ryan and Lisa’s wedding but it was a tad pricey and with a not so reputable company. Anyways, I hadn’t looked at pictures of the resort or thought about it much since we had decided on it so I was very happy that it looked amazing and it was amazing.

Because Alexander and I were the bride and groom we got upgraded to Club Premium which just meant we got to check in in a different room and got a different coloured bracelet that got us free internet and a discount at the Spa and shopping at the resorts. Also if we needed to make reservations at the restaurants we would go see them instead of the person in the lobby. It was quick and painless and we met up with Morna, Pam and the bell boy to go to our rooms. They took us along a path that kinda goes around the resort and it seemed like we walked forever. We finally got to our room and everybody in our group was in the same wing of rooms so that was nice. It was a bit muggy/hot in the room but the room was gorgeous! Two showers, two closets, a huge bed, and a huge sitting area. Our balcony faced onto the pool. It was amazing! We dropped off our luggage, took a few photos of the room before we destroyed it and freshened up a bit before heading back up to the lobby to meet everyone for dinner.

Two showers! One a rain shower!

We don’t even have two sinks at home!

We all met up in the lobby and found our way to the buffet. It was huge! Lots and lots of choices! It was kinda overwhelming! After filling our bellies we went back up to the lobby to book restaurants as Jill told us she had spoken to someone and they were filling up quickly. Alexander and I went into our special room and booked dinner for all the nights at the resort, we ate dinner with a different group of people each night!

Monday: Dinner with Edmonton Folk (minus the partiers Jill, Ben, Ryan aka Bieber, and Shauna)
Tuesday: Dinner with Alexander's parents, my parents, and Alexander Uncle Chris and Aunt Doreen
Wednesday: Dinner with my parents and my Uncle Robert and Cousin Ian
Thursday: Wedding! Everyone!
Friday: Dinner with my parents, Aunt Elaine, Cousin Joanna and her fiancée Paul, Aunt Jeannie and Cousin Erin (my Uncle Robert and Cousin Ian ended up sneaking in on the reservations too the last minute)
Saturday: Was supposed to be a romantic meal for two but we ate with Darcy, Ee and Pam, so a romantic dinner for five *grin*

Look at the cute cauliflower sheep!

After we all headed to the lobby bar and just relaxed and chatted and had a great time! We hung around until the Toronto people arrived so Alexander and I could welcome them. I hadn’t seen my Ontario family for 10+years (well except for my Uncle Robert who came out to visit a few summers ago)! It was really wonderful that they all came out to celebrate with Alexander and I. After this it won’t be 10+ years in between visits for sure! After we greeted them and saw them off to their rooms Alexander and I called it a night. With all the stress from the previous week and little sleep and being travel dirty it was time to hit the hay and enjoy our enormous sized bed!

Side note: Happy Birthday to Me! Getting into bed I removed a pillow and underneath the pillow there was a package wrapped in happy birthday paper. I asked if it was for me (who else would it be for silly?) and Alexander said it was an early birthday gift and I could open it then or wait until my real birthday. He knows me well because I don’t like not knowing and I would not have been able to wait until February to open it. It turns out I got a brand new PINK Canon camera! My old Canon (bought back in 2006 before my New York trip) still worked but with technology advancing so fast it was the age of an 89 year old man and it was chunky monkey! *grin* I wanted a new camera especially since we had been trying out different cameras for Alexander's dads birthday gift. It was a really nice surprise! Way better pixels and nice and light. He even bought a case for it! I’ve never had a camera case before! The only down side, and it wasn’t that bad, is that Alexander kept wanting to see the camera and play with the settings.

My first drink at the resort. It was a coconut drink. I can’t remember the exact name of it but I re-named it Coconut Sun Dream. Doesn’t it sound lovely? It tasted pretty lovely too! *grin* Oh! The lobby bar had a popcorn machine and popcorn was pretty dang good! And later in the evening they brought out snacks like some fruit tarts and mini sandwiches. Yummy!

Morna has more pictures of all of us at the lobby bar on the first night (some pretty hilarious pictures of me too!). We basically took over this one section of the bar and we were really loud introducing everyone and getting to know everyone (well, I knew everyone but not everyone knew everyone else!). I was just really glad that it was finally Mexico time after all the months of planning

The Week Before

2011-12-08T19:31:00.002-07:00

No matter how much I tried to get stuff done for the wedding early, I was still super busy and stressed the week before we left; running errands and packing. Our house ended up in shambles (it still is!) and we had a number of late nights. Two girls at work are planning destination weddings and they kept asking me if I was excited and I can honestly say I got a little excited Friday and Saturday but mainly I wanted the work week to be over (oh why oh why did I work the full week?) and I wanted packing to be over and done with and not forget anything and I just really wanted to be on that plane headed to Mexico so I could relax.

*The only reason I can remember everything we did during the week is because I was freaking out at work and made a big long list of things we needed to do and when*

Monday, November 21

Dentist appointment at 3:30pm

After dentist hit Londonderry mall:

Bring in shorts to be taken in

Buy hair clips

Drop off Epicure in St. Albert for a party I had the week before

Hit WEM to buy Pesos

Tuesday, November 22

Stay late at work to make up leaving early Monday

Eyebrow and underarm waxing at 5pm

Dinner at parents

Wash swim suites at parents place

Drop off clothes to donate

Use Treasured Memories Groupon before it expires

Wednesday, November 23

Head to St. Albert after work to use a Groupon (wasn’t anything I liked so it was a waste of time!)

Wash clothes

Thursday, November 24

Go with Alexander to his haircut at 5:30pm to make sure it looks good *grin*

Drop of Pesos we bought to Morna

Buy kitty food and litter

Superstore

Friday, November 25

Hair colour at 5pm

Work on play list for wedding

Pack

Save On Foods for dinner

Saturday, November 26

Work on play list some more

Burn CD’s

Pick up dress (before 4pm!)

Lunch at a burger place

Nails at 5pm

Finish up packing

Now that everything is over I realize I didn’t need to be so worried or stressed. Everything turned out fantastic!

Weekend Recap

2011-10-03T20:49:00.001-06:00

Friday: We were supposed to go to the Corn Maze with Lisa and Ryan but poor Lisa got stuck at work late so it was a relaxing evening at home.

Saturday: Glorious sleeping in! Every weekend I tell myself I am going to get up early and be productive but every weekend sleep wins. Early afternoon we moseyed out and ran a few errands (I picked up my KI Memories paper and embellishments Lisa ordered through 2 Peas. Yippee! It is so sad no local stores carry it. Thanks again Lisa!). After relaxing at home for a bit we headed off with Dan and Morna to the Corn Maze. At first it was a wee bit chilly but after walking around for a bit it wasn’t bad. There were a bunch of teenagers running around being nuisances and hiding in the corn and throwing stuff at people but they got kicked out. I would have liked to have stayed longer but it started really raining and got super cold so we left and warmed up at Tims (where we messed up the floor with our muddy shoes from walking in the Corn Maze. Oops).

Sunday: Again, sleep won. Early afternoon we headed out to the Disney Store to pick up the Halloween Vinylmation set (not that I didn’t buy enough in Disneyland….). In the evening we headed out and had dinner with my parents. We came home and watched CSI Miami. I only wanted CSI Miami because of Horatio Caine (and his awful one liners) but I wasn’t super impressed with the episode that I think I’ll cross CSI Miami off my list completely.

Aren’t they SO cute?

Engagement-versary

2011-10-01T17:56:00.001-06:00

So on Wednesday (September 28) Alexander and I celebrated our one year engagement-versary *grin* Once we are married (2 months people!) we will only celebrate one date but before that happens it is nice to recognize special dates in our relationship. I ended up going out during lunch and buying a box of chocolate dipped strawberries with mixed toppings from Edible Arrangements and picking up 3 love/anniversary helium balloons from the “dollar” store near work. Alexander had to attend the annual general meeting for the condo so we ate the chocolate strawberries after he got home and while watching Terra Nova.

Plans for the wedding are coming along. I’m just trying to stay cool and just go with the flow and I keep reminding myself that only I will know if something goes wonky while in Mexico and to just enjoy the time I will have with family and friends. This time in 2 months we will be enjoying our reception on the beach! Below is a dress that I won’t be wearing in Mexico. I like the top of the dress but the bottom was just blah and it was way too shiny for me! Speaking for dresses, mine should be in hopefully this week! I am excited to try it on again and see how it looks with the jewellery and shoes I purchased.

Disneyland - September 10

2011-09-28T21:00:00.001-06:00

Saturday morning started bright and early, we had to catch a 9:00am direct Westjet flight to LAX. After we landed we collected our luggage (I finally got to use my fancy dancy new luggage I got from my parents last Christmas that has four wheels and is super easy to push) and made our way to the Disneyland shuttle bus. We booked this trip last minute (booked Tuesday left Saturday) and we didn’t have time to pre-pay for the shuttle bus and save $2 a person. Oh well no big deal. A bus didn’t take long to pull up and we all got on and seated and just as the bus was leaving the stop another little bus cut into the lane we were getting into and smacked our buses mirror. The two bus drivers got out and exchanged information and we had to transfer onto a new bus while everything was sorted out. We made it to our hotel with no other issues where we quickly freshened up and headed straight to the park. When we landed it was overcast but still warm out and as the day progressed it turned to blue sunny skies.

Our first stop was Alexanders favourite ride, Star Tours, that had recently been upgraded. We got Fastpass tickets to ride it later in the day but we also decided to stand in the stand-by entrance which was approx. 40 minutes long. We finally made it onto the ride and the ride didn’t want to work! After about 10 minutes of trying we all had to transfer into a new car. I’m not a big fan of the motion simulator rides because they make me sick but I went on it once just to experience the newness of it. *grin*

After we went on one of my favourite rides – Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. I love it!!!!! Then we shared a burger for lunch at Tomorrowland Terrace.

After we headed over to ride It’s a Small World. The line up was only around 15 minutes and moved quickly. The line we chose we got some good pictures of the outside of the ride. The ride is inside where it is nice and cool and it is nice to get off your feet for a few minutes.

We then crossed over to the other side of the park and went on Big Thunder Mountain. While exiting the ride we saw someone famous! Okay, only I recognized them and if you don’t watch the Disney Channel you would never know who they were either. We saw Aly & AJ Michalka! Hey, it is my first “star” sighting other than wax figurines in a museum. I’ll take what I can get *grin*

After my famous encounter we headed over to another favourite ride of mine, Indiana Jones! We got Fastpasses for later but it turns out we didn’t need to, the whole time we were there the ride line was always 10 minutes long. Sweet! 10 minutes is about how long it takes to walk the the queue to the beginning of the ride (which is reported to be 1/2 mile long!). No matter how many times I ride Indy it is always awesome. A tip for future Disneylanders – when you get to the front of the line and a Disney Cast Member is asking how many people in your party and putting you into lines ask for the front row, you might have to wait for the next car but it is totally worth it! You can ask to ride in a specific seat for any ride you want! I discovered something new and I confirmed it when I got home – Following the queue you come to a room that has a big screen with a “projector” looping a movie (set back in “1935”) giving information on the Temple of Doom we are about to entre and about ride safety etc. Anyways we were behind a guy in the queue and overheard him say if you can get a good viewing angle you can see behind the projector on the ceiling an old parking sign that was left there when building the ride. Good old Wikipedia confirmed this: “Part of the attraction extends into what was once the Eeyore section of Disneyland's parking lot. As a tribute, an Eeyore sign is supported by wooden scaffolding at the very back of the projector room”. I didn’t see it but I know for next time to watch out for it!

For dinner we stopped off at Cafe Orleans for some dinner. Oh. My. Goodness! It was so yummy we actually went back again the night before we left. We started off by sharing some Pommes Frites and some Gumbo (so, so, so, so good!). Then we split a Monte Cristo sandwich – sliced turkey, ham and Swiss cheese fried in a light batter and served with berry puree with powdered sugar. It was a little weird to eat like a doughnut with meat and cheese in the middle and dip it in jam. It was really rich and we couldn’t finish it all. I would totally recommend this restaurant to anyone going to Disneyland!

Alexander eating some Gumbo:

Monte Cristo sandwich:

We watched some fireworks (I really need to know how to take a good night firework shot!) and then Alexander used a Fastpass to ride on Star Tours again while I sat and chilled. Then Alexander used another Fastpass he got earlier on in the day for Space Mountain. By the time he got off the ride it was almost park closing time (midnight) and I was tiered (it had been a super long day!) so we headed back to the hotel room.

Weekend Recap

2011-09-26T16:50:00.001-06:00

Weekends go by oh so quickly. I know I always say it but it is true!

Friday: By the time I got off work I was pooped (the big breakfast for lunch I had at Cora's may have been the culprit..). I almost couldn't keep my eyes open during my short 12 minute commute home. Did I take a nap though? Nope I surfed the interweb catching up on the days events (internet is super duper restricted at work). A little before 7pm Alexander and I headed to the cheap theatre and caught Super 8. It was an okay movie. The first half of the movie was good, very suspenseful (I startled a few times and poor Alexanders hand got squeezed a lot). After we got home Alexander met up with some friends for drinks and I decided to stay home because I wanted to go to bed early but I ended up staying up watching Grey's Anatomy.

Saturday: I super slept in and when I finally woke up I had a huge headache. I spent the early afternoon taking it easy while Alexander was out helping friends move. Later in the afternoon we took a nice walk in Rundle Park enjoying the weather. After the walk we got a few groceries and spent a nice evening at home and watched Ted Danson on CSI Las Vegas (I like him way better than Laurence Fishburne!).

Sunday: Was up bright and early to take advantage of the free day at Fort Edmonton Park. We picked up Darcy and Ee and made it to Fort Ed by the time they opened at 10am. It was a beautiful day! I hadn't been to Fort Ed in eons so it was nice to walk around and enjoy the weather. We were able to catch a movie in the new theatre (I didn't think it was that great but everyone else enjoyed it). I only took 8 pictures, I’ll have to get the rest from Ee as she was the picture taking machine *grin* After Fort Ed we hit Red Robins for lunch and then we dropped off Darcy and Ee. On the way home I was super tiered but by the time I got home and moving again I was fine so I re-designed my blog and spent the evening relaxing.

This & That

2011-09-25T19:13:00.001-06:00

A while back I was contacted by an old co-worker from Petro asking me if I would be interested in covering her mat leave when she gets pregnant. Me not being one to shut down any opportunity said I was interested. Silly me thinking it would be a while before anything happened was shocked when I found out she was due in November. The last mat leave cover she had was okay but this time they were looking for someone who fit better with the team etc. I went in at the end of June for an “interview”. I say “interview” because it was more like a meet and greet telling me about the job and asking if I was interested still. I received more information on pay etc. and I took a week to think it over. I mean to leave a permanent job for a mat leave job? I weighed the pros and cons and talked it over (and over) with Alexander and I decided to go for it. They didn’t want me to start until beginning of October so it was like my dirty secret I was keeping at SJ all summer. I mean I felt bad and everything but I had made up my mind and there were a few things going on at SJ that weren’t just right. The last mat leave cover didn’t have a lot of training time before being left on her own and that is why she was just okay. They didn’t want a repeat of that so they actually wanted me to start earlier than beginning of October to have a lot of training time. I started at Petro (technically Suncor now) on September 15th. Putting in my notice at SJ was nerve wracking to say the least! Every time I went into my bosses office to give him my resignation letter he had a phone call so it took me a long stressful hour until I could break the news to him. I was worried he would react badly but surprisingly he understood. They wanted to hire someone to take my place asap even though I tried telling them they didn’t need someone in the position or at least someone full time. So my last week I helped in the interview process and then helped train the new hire. It was a little weird to be involved in picking my replacement but good experience. I finished at SJ on September 9th and I had 5 days to kill until my September 15th start date so I was able to convince Alexander to keep up our annual tradition to Disney alive. We did a quick 4 night/5 day trip to Disneyland. It was a little strange being back at Petro. I started back at Petro 2 years less a day then when I was laid off. It was the same yet different. I recognized a lot of familiar faces and caught up with a lot of old co-workers. So far it is going great. I am still training and learning a lot and keeping busy. The commute is awesome. I am really keeping positive that in a year there will be another position available for me and if not I keep hearing another boom is going to be happening so if worse comes to worse I head back up North. Work is keeping me busy and wedding is almost here so my life has been crazy busy but I want to try harder to blog/document more of my/our day to day so I don’t forget!

Happy Half Birthday To Me

2011-08-28T15:46:00.001-06:00

Thursday was my half birthday. Unless you plug it into a Half Birthday Calculator then Friday was my actual half birthday. Thursday I had to work (boo!) but they threw a BBQ for my half birthday. Ha ha ha. Not. It was a just because BBQ but I can pretend it was for me *grin* After work I met up with Ee and we walked down to a gelato place and discussed engagement photos. On my way home I stopped by the Disney Store to pick up a present for myself, some new Vinylmations! It is so sad and depressing because here in Canada we have only like 3 collections but they are releasing and have released a billion collections in the Parks that we just don’t get. I have a love hate relationship with Vinylmations. I love the fact that most of them are a secret and you don’t know which one you have gotten until you have opened the box but on the other hand I have bad luck and I have a few doubles of ones I already had sitting at home waiting to be taken back to a park traded for new ones. At least I can trade them! I bought one from the Robot collection and one from the Cutesters collection.

I got the doughnut Vinylmation and the front robot in teal.

When I got home after the stop at the Disney Store Alexander had just gotten home from his trip to Calgary and he brought me home an ice cream log from DQ! Yummy! What a nice way to end my half birthday!

Friday I had to work again (double boo!). Fridays at work are pretty quiet, I pulled into the parking lot and there were actually lots of spots available (usually I have to park on the road). After work I headed down to Whyte Ave as I had an appointment to get my hair trimmed just a wee bit (still trying to grow it out long!) and coloured (getting ready for engagement photos!).

All in all it was a pretty good half birthday! *grin*

Weekend Recap

2011-08-22T18:25:00.001-06:00

Friday: Alexander was in meetings in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge Thursday and Friday so we just chilled at home Friday evening when he got home. He picked up some corn from Taber while he was driving through so we had that for dinner. I actually scrapbooked! Only one page but it still felt good!

Inspiration Courtesy of Kelly Purkey

Saturday: We were up earlier than normal to go to talk to my Great Uncle about getting a matching wedding band made for my ring. Unfortunately it was over the price I was willing to pay. We went home and made a nice chicken caesar for lunch and just chilled. Then we had to unhook our beautiful cable boxes and return them to Shaw because our promotion was done. It’s okay really because we waste too much time watching crap and all the shows are online anyways. Then we headed to West Ed to see *NAME OF PLAY* at Jubilations with Morna and Alexander’s friend Dan. It was pretty good. They sang Beatles songs. We always have a good time when we go to a Jubilations play.

Sunday: Lazy, lazy morning! We headed out briefly early in the afternoon to pick up a few things from the dollar store to jazz up Alexander’s cousins birthday gift. We did a date night/movie night out package. I really should have taken a picture of it because it was so cute! We bought a red and white stripped popcorn container from the dollar store and filled it with yellow tissue paper (for popcorn) and added a few chocolate bars and then put in a gift certificate to see a movie and a gift card to a restaurant. We also added in a mickey head Christmas ornament we bought last year when we were in Disneyworld with her name on it. I made a cute little tag and added a bow and voila something a little more special (and cute!) than just a gift card thrown into a card. We spent the evening at Alexander’s Uncles house sitting outside enjoying the beautiful weather. His Uncle cooked steaks and we had ice cream cake for dessert. Yum!

Dream Job

2011-08-18T20:49:00.001-06:00

Lisa was talking about dream jobs yesterday on her blog. My dream job would have awesome pay, great benefits, flex time, fantastic vacation time, stock options, and bonuses. Just to name a few things. It is too bad that I have to say I am probably asking for too much in most cases. Oh, and if possible it would entail travel to lots of exotic places as well *grin* I would even forgo some of those things if I was in a job that kept me busy most of the time. Being bored makes for a long day!

I also think what makes a job great is the people you work for and if the work doesn’t feel like work. I’ve been lucky a few times that I’ve worked with great people. At TM we hung out together after work, we would go into TM when we weren’t working to hang out with whoever was working etc. It was also a fun environment, I mean who doesn’t like being creative and being surrounded by colourful paper and embellishments? At Petro I didn’t realize the group of people I worked with was something special until I was gone. We have even gotten together a few times after the project finished and people moved onto different things/places. Heck, a couple weeks ago I was driving back from a DQ run and across the street from where I work there was an old Petro co-worker dropping stuff off at the re-use furniture place. I went over and got a big hug and a brief catch up. And up in the middle of nowhere when you eat breakfast, lunch and dinner together and sleep in the same “house” together, you get to be quite close to your co-workers. Heck, 2 old co-workers are actually coming to my wedding!

But if time and money weren’t a concern I would really like to go back to school and become an anthropologist. A cultural anthropologist. Cultural anthropology would go hand in hand with my love of travel and wanting to see the world! The anthropology courses I took at school I loved!

There are just SO many different jobs out in the world!

Weekend Review

2011-08-15T19:00:00.001-06:00

Friday: I met up for lunch with Pam at BP’s (it was nice to get out of the office for a bit!). The afternoon went by excruciatingly slow and I ended up sneaking out 15 minutes early. Alexander had an early start to the day (he had a meeting in Airdrie at 9am!) so when I got home he was napping so I joined him for an hour. He left for his man-date with Darcy to go see Rise of the Apes (how do they procreate so quickly to take over the world?!?!?!?). I had big plans for spending the evening scrapbooking away, I even printed lots of pictures earlier on in the week, but alas I just didn’t feel like it. I ended up spending the evening surfing the web and watching TV and going to bed early.

Saturday: We were going to check out the downtown farmers market but decided against it because we already had lots of fruits and veggies we needed to eat. I had a parcel delivered to my parents’ house I needed to pick up so we headed over there for a bit and hung out in the glorious air conditioning. After we stopped by our friend/travel agent to see how things were going. Then it was off to Coney Island night at Darcys!!!!! Deep fried pickles, mozza sticks, chicken wings and homemade French fries with all the fixings. And to top off the evening deep friend candy bars and ice cream!!!!! It was SO good but SO bad!

Sunday: We headed briefly over to The Fringe to check things out. It was crazy crowded and hot and when I could feel the sweat rolling down my back it was time to leave. We just chilled at home the rest of the evening.

We do need to start having more plans ahead of time of what we want to do on weekends because we usually end up lazing around the house in the morning watching TV and whatnot and it is early afternoon by the time we venture to do anything. While I like sleeping in and relaxing sometimes we waste a good chunk of the day deciding what to do.

Barbie & Ken Get Married

2011-08-12T20:04:00.001-06:00

Link

US Air Forces Central Command Band Cover

2011-08-12T20:01:00.001-06:00

You can watch more covered songs here: Click

Harry Potter 7.2

2011-07-16T22:17:00.001-06:00

***SPOILER ALERT If you haven’t seen the movie***

So, I re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows this week in anticipation of part 2 of the movie. I was excited to see the movie (had been hearing awesome reviews) but also a little sad (it being the last movie so there will be no more anticipating new movies, waiting in line to see the movie, etc.). While I was a little older when I started reading the Harry Potter series (I can remember borrowing my brothers book and reading book 1 on a rainy day while I was visiting my parents campsite in Woods Lake when I was on vacation when I was 18) so I didn’t really “grow up” with the books but I kinda did (going to school, getting a “real” job, moving out etc.) so I am sad it is over (yes, I know I can still re-read the books and re-watch the movies but it just isn't the same). I get attached and some changes are hard for me and saying goodbye is hard when I

Here is my confession: I liked the movie, but I didn't love it. I didn't like what they did with Neville killing the snake. I wanted it to happen how it did in the book. I didn't like how Harry didn't repair his wand with the Elder wand in the end. I wanted Voldemort to see Bellatrix die by Molly’s hand. I wanted Harrys final battle with Voldemort in the Great Hall with everyone watching so that everyone hears what Harry had to say to Voldemort, about how he knew more than Voldemort and explaining about the Elder Wand and Snapes involvement in everything. In the movie Harry and Voldemort battle alone outside - how the heck does everyone discover Harry killed Voldemort if he turned to dust? I want the rest of the school to know that while Snape looked and acted evil that deep down he was a good guy.

I know, I'm picky, but there were things I was looking forward to that just didn't happen and for that I was disappointed. I thought Alan Rickman (Snape) did a great job..I cried at the pensive scene (knowing Snape wasn’t truly evil and how he loved Lily). Anyways…

In other HP related new, when the heck did Tom Felton (Draco) and Matthew Lewis (Neville) get so good looking? It feels kinda wrong to think that about 23 year olds like that but seeing/remembering them in movie 1 and watching them grow up through all the movies who would have thunk it? *grin*

Harry Potter!

2011-07-11T21:52:00.001-06:00

Tonight Alexander and I were supposed to see Harry Potter 7 Part 1 and we did go to the theatre and watch the first 30 minutes or so but because they are playing a DVD and blowing it up and because 7.1 is very dark (literally and figuratively) it was really really hard to see the picture. I’m assuming people complained because someone came into the theatre and said the quality wasn’t going to get better and they would refund us our ticket. Alexander and I were at the front of the theatre which is already a bad spot and with the blurriness of the movie we decided to leave and get a refund and watch the movie at home. Oh my goodness, it is SO much better (and I can blog and watch the movie at the same time)!

I haven’t re-read book 7. Yet. I’m still undecided if I will. I re-read it last November for 7.1. I think I might to remind myself all about the Horcrux’ etc. It is just so sad though…I can remember when book 7 came out and I went to Chapters at midnight and I stayed up all night reading and was so sad after I was finished. I couldn’t fall back to sleep because my head was digesting everything so I went to go see an early movie of Chuck & Larry and while it is supposed to be a funny movie I cried because I was just so emotional. I know, I’m a loser. A cute loser though *grin* I know it is only a book but after so many years and so many books I am attached to fictional characters.

Pam, Morna, Ee, Alexander and myself have reserved D-Box seats for Harry Potter 7 Part 2 next Saturday night! I found a few things online that are awesome and if I were a wee bit more prepared I would totally own them and wear them to the movie *grin*

These buttons are from Custom Curios on Etsy (I need to learn how to make my own buttons so I can put whatever I want on them. I wonder if Michaels has something?….)

This awesome Dumbledore shirt is from Evietees also on Etsy.

Or how about a Firebolt necklace? If I had an iPhone I would totally get a Hogwarts Decal for it! How about a Harry Potter vinyl wall quote or golden snitch earrings? A wicked cool resin bracelet would also show off my love for HP!

I bought a Hogwarts pin when we were at Universal last year that I will for sure wear. Both Alexander and I have wands we bought last year at Harry Potter World in Universal Studios! Funny story – I wasn’t too sure if I wanted to buy a wand while we were there. They weren’t expensive (only $30) but what would we do with them and where would they go? We did the Olivanders ‘ride’ and after we were squished into a teeny tiny room to look at all the wands and to buy one (I mean teeny teeny tiny for the amount of people that would be going through). You could buy wands of the characters or you could tell someone your birthdate and they would choose which wand ‘belonged’ to you (I really need to post pictures soon!). Anyways, I decided against it and we were at the front of the park and had a little time left before we had to leave to catch the bus and Alexander was like ‘are you sure?’ and I caved because if we didn’t get one we couldn’t go back and I would regret it. Alexander was a doll and walked all the way back to Harry Potter Land and bought wands for us while I stayed out of the sun (I was getting my stupid rash).

I am such a geek.

Good Bye June, Hello July!

2011-07-04T22:37:00.001-06:00

Holy Moses has it been over a month since I last blogged? Geez Louise, I stop and start, stop and start. June was eventful but not. How’s that for confusing? *grin* I guess I’ll do a quick catch up and then hopefully I’ll start blogging more to document what is going on in our lives (because we have been neglectful in filling out our calendar if I had blogged it would have been easy peasy filling in all the blank squares).

In June I took a basic cake decorating class from Michaels. Taking a class has been on my list for a while and they had a half off sale for their June class. There was a lot of extra costs involved (buying the supplies to make the icing) and a lot of time spent baking cakes and cupcakes and making icing. Icing is not my friend! The last class we were supposed to make roses but my icing was SO soft and runny that they just ended up being blobs. I overheard the instructor telling other people in the class to use high ratio shortening for the icing but she never actually came out and told us if we used half butter half shortening like she said we could at the beginning of the class (and like I was doing) the icing would melt if it got too hot. Oh well. Cakes still taste the same even if they don’t look the greatest. Now when I make a cake I can do something different other than slather it in icing and pour copious amount of sprinkles on it *grin* At the end of the class they had a $5 off the next level and they were also offering them at half price again so I signed up for the flower making class. I had my first class last week. I like it a lot better. The basics class it seemed I was always behind and the instructor would move on and I would miss instructions etc. It was frustrating because I don’t think I got as much out of the class as I could have. At least in the first class of flowers I was on the ball.

June was also the month of Harry Potter. We are watching #6 tonight! Man does time fly. I can’t believe we are on #6 already! I had high hopes of re-reading all the books before the movies. Ha ha ha. Nope, didn’t happen. We already pre-bought our tickets for Harry Potter #7 part 2. We are trying out the new D Box seats (the seats that move!). We will see how they are because the motion simulation rides in Disney make me nauseous. But they are pre-assigned so we don’t have to show up hours before and line up. I never did a post on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios in Florida. I’ll have to share some pictures and videos soon!

In June Morna and I went looking for her dress. In my mind it was going to be a brown dress with some sort of pink accent be it a sash or jewelry because I never though in a million years would I get Morna into a pink dress (and when I say pink I don’t mean baby pink, I mean hot pink/fuchsia). Well the store had a sample dress that was really flattering and it was a pink-ish/coral colour that Morna really liked so we ended up buying the exact style and colour as the sample. Less than 2 weeks later I get a call saying it is in! I guess they had her size etc. in the warehouse so we picked it up over the weekend. It will sit in her closet until closer to the wedding then she will get it altered.

Mornas Dress:

Alexander and I are movie buffs so needless to say June, like any other month, was full of movie watching. I don’t know why but the movie studios release all the big blockbusters in the summer when it is nice outside. There are still a number of movies that we want to see but haven’t yet (Hangover 2, Bridesmaids) that will probably have to wait until they hit the cheap theatre. Did you know that the cheap theatre offers coupons online? I guess maybe they want people to venture into the shoddy part of town and visit the theatre (I can make fun of the neighbourhood because I live in it *grin* One bonus to that is I don’t need to use the grungy bathroom after the movie and wash my hands in ice water because it is only less than a 5 minute drive home).

June 3 – Lincoln Lawyer
June 6 – Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets
Jun 13 - Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
June 17 – X-Men First Class
June 20 – Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
June 25 – Cars 2 in 3D
June 27 – Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix

July already involved 2 BBQs and 2 movies and it is only the Fourth! There is still more cake classes, K-Days, Wicked and I’m sure many more fun things!

6 Months People!

2011-06-01T17:13:00.002-06:00

6 months until I’m on warm sunny beach getting married! Married! In 6 months! On one hand I’m like ‘we’ve got plenty of time’. On the other hand I’m freaking out! The list in my head keeps getting bigger and bigger. And it isn’t super-duper important stuff at this moment in time (like what are we going to do with the cats?) but I figure it is something that should be put on the list so we can start researching so we have ideas and so we aren’t running around last minute wondering what is going to happen to the cats while we are away. Also on my list I’ve got I have to make and send out Christmas cards before we leave because we won’t be back until December 3^rd or 4^th and we will be in the post vacation/wedding la-la land when we get back and once we snap out of it it will be Christmas.

We chose destination because it would be easier and smaller. Smaller, yes. Easier? If you can roll with the punches, sure. But I’m kind of a need to know gal and it is hard for me not know how things are going to go, look etc. But all things considering I think I’m doing good. A few more emails back and forth with the wedding coordinator down there and hopefully we’ll have things figured out-ish. No bridezilla moments. Although I joke with A if someone pisses me off (for whatever reason) I’ll got “Bridezilla on their ass” (I gotta be able to use the excuse at least once right? Because after I’m married its gone). *grin*

I will leave you with a dress I will NOT be wearing to the wedding. It didn’t even need to be zipped up and I knew it was not ‘the dress’.

1 of 7

2011-05-31T13:25:00.000-06:00

A and I are movie goers. We used to go almost every Tuesday because it was cheap night at the theatre. We haven’t been to a movie on a Tuesday in ages partly because it isn’t cheap anymore; they changed it so instead of paying $5 for a ticket and buying popcorn/pop if you wanted to it was like $12 for a ticket and it included popcorn and pop. Still not a bad price but both A and I don’t each need our own popcorn and it was a waste. I miss our Tuesday night movies. I would head over to the Sherwood Park mall right after work because I didn’t get off until 5:30pm (no point driving home just to turn around and leave again) and I would meet A there and we would have a quick dinner in the food court.

I digress. A and I will be seeing a lot of movies in the next few weeks except on Monday nights instead of Tuesdays. Cineplex was having a special for $25 you could buy tickets to watch all the Harry Potter movies in the theatre. One movie per week. Not a bad price per movie if you don’t buy any food from the concession. Last night was the first movie. I was hoping to read the first book while in Lake Louise but I forgot it at home. I was thinking of going back and reading book one before moving onto book two but since I saw the movie already and I might not finish book two if I read book one I’ll just start with book two.

Yesterday morning I picked up my fancy retainer. I’m still trying to get used to it. It just feels weird. I’m lisping a bit and I feel self-conscious. My teeth are already starting to hurt. I just keep remembering that is was me who decided to get the retainer and what the end result will be. One good thing about it is if I want to eat I need to take the retainer out so maybe it’ll cut back on snacking?

Lake Louise

2011-05-30T22:40:00.001-06:00

A was invited to a conference that was held in Lake Louise last week. When I found out it was being held at The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and that spouses were allowed to tag along I was so in! I mean really in a hundred million years when would my budget analyst fiancée actually pay his/our own money to stay at the pricey pricey hotel? One word: Never. *grin* I was able to get the time off work (thank goodness!) and we left Wednesday morning so A could have some time to explore around the resort before his conference meet & greet in the evening started.

The whole time we were there is was rainy, chilly and overcast *tear* I was quite surprised to still see a lot of snow on the ground and the lake was still mostly frozen. I was hoping for warmer weather considering it is the end of May. When we arrived we checked out our room first:

Our hotel room

The views from our hotel room

After checking out our room we took a little walk around the lake before A had to head off to schmooze at the welcome evening for the conference. While he was out I hung out in the room and watched TV, played on my iTouch and just relaxed. When A got back we went for a late dinner at the Glacier Saloon where we shared a plate of chicken and ribs.

The next morning we woke up nice and early and had the breakfast buffet at Poppy Brasserie before A had to head out to attend his first day of his conference. While he went to his conference I drove into ‘town’ and checked out the Visitor Centre and the few shops around. I then drove to Moraine Lake and took a quick look around. During the drive to Moraine Lake I came upon remnants of an old avalanche. Trees were all knocked over and the metal railing that is usually at the side of the road was down at the bottom of the hill. The avalanche just obliterated the posts the metal railing was attached to.

Me at Moraine Lake:

Remnants of the avalanche:

I got back to the hotel around noon and splurged and made myself an appointment at the spa for a pedicure later in the afternoon. I then went back to the hotel room to take a nap and to read.

After my pedicure I came back to the room and it was time to get ready for the conference banquet and award dinner. It was a ‘Denim and Diamonds’ theme so you had chilli and corn fritters along with salmon and roast beef. It was quite a yummy feast. The best part of course was dessert. They had a cake soaked in a caramel and whiskey sauce that was to die for!

One great thing about the banquet is A and I had to get all dressed up. It was nice getting dressed up, having a nice dinner and meeting/speaking with new people.

A & I taking pictures with our hotel view *grin*

Friday morning we were going to wake up early and head into Lake Louise and hit up one of the local bakeries for breakfast (because eating at the hotel was expensive!) but I had a crappy night sleep and was all stuffy so I turned off the alarm and went back to bed *grin* Poor A had to get up and attend the last part of his conference in the morning. When he was done at noon we had to check out of our room and we took another little walk around the lake and headed up to Moraine Lake so he could see it.

Avalanche warning

At Moraine Lake

Chippy the Chipmunk *Grin*

On the drive home it was rainy and gross until we got to Red Deer. While driving in Canmore it was actually ‘snraining’! It was a nice mini vacation and now I can say I have stayed at the Chateau Lake Louise!

Third Anniversary

2011-05-29T19:30:00.002-06:00

This post was supposed to go up on Tuesday but right after work A and I headed all the way out to the South side to visit my Great Uncle who is a jeweller. I didn’t know I had a Great Uncle living in the city who was a jeweller until a couple of weeks ago. We met up with him so he could put the diamond A bought into the setting I picked out. He has been a jeweller for 50 years and put the diamond in the setting while we were there so we got to see how it is done. While we were there we also purchased A’s wedding band (my Uncle has his own little shop in his house). After that was finished we came home only to head back out again to have dinner with some friends. By the time we got back to the house for good it was late and we needed to pack for our trip to Lake Louise (a post about that later).

Anyways, on to the Anniversary. Last Monday A and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary. Is was a nice low key day. We ran a few errands in the afternoon and in the evening we joined D and Ee for dinner and a movie (we saw Thor). On our first anniversary A took me on a day trip to Drumheller. Last year by luck it just so happened to be one of my weekends off and A and I went out to dinner at The Melting Pot. In one respect it doesn’t seem like it has been three years and when I think about where we have been/all we have done it seems longer than three years! Next year we will be married!!! Even after three years we still have plenty to talk about and many more things to cross of our bucket list together!

Emergency Preparednes

2011-05-20T09:32:00.006-06:00

I've been thinking about putting together an emergency preparedness plan/list for at home the last little while. The Fort McMurray condo foundation fiasco and recently the fires in Slave Lake have spurred this. I've had many a dream where I have to run away from a tornado and what I need to grab from where I am staying before I leave. Also, I still vividly remember a dream I had when I was about 10 years old and there was a fire coming towards our house and I was running around my room trying to gather up toys and books that I wanted to bring with me/save.

If A and I had 15 minutes or less to grab somethings around the house and get the hell out we would be running around wasting time because important documentation isn't kept together. Never mind trying to determine any other important things you should grab (pictures, souvenirs from trips, clothing, food etc.). We also would loose some time trying to grab cats and put them in their crate.

A sent me a link today from the CDC on how to prepare for a Zombie Apocalypse. It was a cute and funny way to get information to people about being prepared. We all have emergency plans for work (maps with instructions posted everywhere) and work also holds drills to practice. We don't do that for home. I can tell you right now if anything were to happen to my work it would not be as devastating as if something were to happen to my home, to my things and God forbid my cats. I know growing up we never discussed an emergency plan for at home or practiced what we would do. I know every once in a while you would have a guest speaker talk about it in school or a pamphlet handed out.

So in the next little while I will do some research just to find out more information and see what other people have done. I don't want to go all hog wild crazy but if an emergency does happen I want all important documentation to be together and A and I will know what the plan is (where to meet, other stuff to bring). I'll post what I find for anyone else.

Is It Friday Yet?

2011-05-19T21:21:00.001-06:00

I remember way back when, when Thursdays used to be my Friday. It was loverly. Now I still have one more work day to make it through before I can start my weekend. This week has already been a long week and it isn’t over yet. This is my first full week at work in a long long time. The last couple months I have been out of the office at least once a week completing my Health & Safety Admin courses. I only have one class left and that isn’t until June 14. I still have some ‘homework’ to complete and submit though. At the beginning of March looking at my calendar for April and May and all the courses I would be taking it seemed like it was going to be forever. I liked going for courses (even though I thought some of them were boring) because it did get me out of the office, I got to meet new people, and usually classes got out early (around 4pm-ish) so I was able to be back at home usually around the time I would have just been leaving work.

I was evil tonight and I didn’t go to boot camp class. On Tuesday I swear all we did was lunges. Lunges up hill, lunges down hill, lunges going backwards up hill and lunges going backwards down hill. I can barely walk now! It was probably a mistake to miss it, it might have stretched out my thighs a bit but I didn’t want to waddle around like a penguin *grin*

D Day aka Deposit Day

2011-05-18T20:15:00.002-06:00

Today is the day all deposits are due for the wedding. I’ve spoken with our travel agent at least once a day over the last 3 days just keeping up with who has called in and if anyone has any questions etc.

At the beginning we polled people to see if they would be interested in coming (it does cost money and require time off from work) and there was also a bit of drama regarding us having our wedding away and some people did not like the idea at all. We weren’t even sure if we would be able to get the required minimum of 10 people (including A & I) to go down. To say it was stressful is an understatement. It feels good to be over that hump and hit a milestone of some sort.

As of right now from the RSVP’s we have received back and word of mouth we have 24 people attending our wedding!!!!! It is amazing! It is going to be such a wonderful time! While I’m kinda stressing about some things (because I’m here and the wedding is over there and I don’t know some things) I wish the wedding was sooner than it is so I can relax and hang with awesome friends and family. But I’m kinda glad it is still months and months away so that gives me plenty of time to figure things out! *grin*

Some surprising people that are attending is my Uncle Robert and my cousin Ian from Ontario. Also my Aunt Elaine and cousin Joanna and her boyfriend who are also from Ontario. I haven’t seen my Aunt and cousins in years and years and years so it will be nice to finally see them again and catch up (my Uncle Robert came to visit us a couple years ago). I also know my mom is really looking forward to having some of her side of the family join us and get to visit with them (it has been far too long).

In other related wedding news I might finally have my ‘real’ ring soon! I finally found a setting I like and it has been put on hold. A is looking buying a diamond for it so once all the logistics have been figured out etc. I will be styling *grin* Also, a week ago today I purchased my dress! I’ll have more to post on that later and maybe even a few pictures of the ugly rejected dresses I tried on (some things just look better on the rack!).

Torture Tuesday

2011-05-17T21:06:00.001-06:00

Last month one of A’s friends let us know about one of those deals of the day on Kijiji (yeah, Kijiji has their own deal of the day thingy now! Is seems like everyone and their Uncle has one now). It was for boot camp classes. A’s friends sister works for the company offering the deal. 15 classes for $20 you couldn’t go wrong with that. So last week A and I attended our first boot camp class. It was nice to get out of the house and enjoy the weather and do something different. Today was the 3^rd class and at each class they are getting a little more organized: They split us into 5 groups with 5 being the most challenging and on the first class they has group 1 people doing what group 5 people were doing (like full on push-ups, wheelbarrows up hill and stuff that if you are out of shape like me are a tad tough). Also they would start us doing something and 10 seconds later the buzzer would sound for us to move to our next station. Today they all had stop watches and weren’t randomly throwing out exercises for us to complete like the first class. I am also sure that since the number of people attending are dwindling each class it is easier for them.

As we get closer to summer I don’t know how I am going to survive - I’m not a big fan of the heat to begin with and then to add running around and getting hot and sweaty… Oh and don’t forget to mosquitoes…they were killer tonight! In a way it is nice to hurt and feel muscles I didn’t know existed and know I’m not being a lazy couch potatoe but on the other hand when you walk all funny the next day and it hurts to sneeze/cough/laugh you think what the hell am I doing?

Geek Chic

2011-05-16T20:47:00.000-06:00

In two weeks time I’m going to be rocking some old school retainers. I’m gonna look smokin! *grin* Way back in high school when I got my braces off and had my retainer I wasn’t super diligent on keeping it in and one tooth on the side shifted a little bit and it has bugged me ever since. Also, in the last few months my teeth have been hurting and I noticed all my front teeth on the top have shifted. I went in to my old orthodontist last month to see what I could do and what it would cost. Thank goodness all I need is retainers. It should only take about 6 months-ish to correct and then I will get permanent “retainers” behind my teeth to prevent this from happening ever again. So today I got to go in and get molds made of my teeth and in two weeks time my watermelon designed upper retainer will be ready and my lower plain Jane pink (because it is more visible) retainer will be ready for me to rock!

Hello Banff!

2011-03-20T22:43:00.001-06:00

A couple months ago there was a special on Living Social for a two night stay at the Ptarmigan Inn in Banff and a Discover Banff Tour. Alexander figured it out (the budget analyst he is) and figured it was a good deal and it would be nice to getaway for a weekend so we decided to purchase it. This weekend we finally went.

I took Friday off work and we left late morning. It was a gorgeous day and a nice drive! I had a fun time playing random music on my iTouch and taking self portraits *grin* I always love the first view of the mountains. No matter how many times I see them I am always in awe. I think it would be great to live neat the mountains and see them everyday!

Random self portrait:

First view of the mountains!

We rolled into Banff around 4pm and checked into the hotel. It was a nice hotel in a fabulous location, just a block away from “down town” and all the shops. It also had underground parking which was nice. We got checked in a headed out to enjoy the gorgeous weather and wander around. We decided to have dinner at Wild Bills Saloon. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to relax because we had to be up early Saturday morning for our tour.

Saturday morning rolled around way to quickly and we had to be up and ready for our pick up at 8:15am. Our bus picked us up and took us out to Grotto Canyon just outside Canmore. It was a little overcast but still nice out. We got off the bus and put out handy dandy fancy cleats on (can you imagine walking on snow and ice without them? I would have been black and blue all over by the end of the hike!). We had to walk about 10 minutes to the canyon. It was really neat to be walking on the ice. We were told the creek underneath us wasn’t very deep and there was a lot of us and not to worry.

A little “cave” we were able to stand up in

We made it to the “end” of the canyon where we stopped to have some hot chocolate and some maple cookies *yum yum* There were some people climbing the frozen waterfalls and people from our group had fun sliding down the slope on the ice.

The ice climber climbing:

The sloppy slide *grin*

Pretending to lick ice *grin*

On the way back into Banff we saw some Mountain Sheep:

We got back to our hotel around noon where we took a little nap before going out and walking around checking out downtown Banff. I ended up buying a ring, some Rocky Mountain Soap (I had a coupon *grin*) and some fudge (I know I can buy fudge in the city but it tastes SO much better while on vacation and I don’t feel so bad when I eat it!. We went to Eddie Burger Bar for dinner where I had the most delicious milkshake ever! I had the Monkeys Lunch: vanilla ice cream and equal parts banana liquor, Kahlua and big bad Baileys *yum yum yum!* My tummy didn’t much like me after that so we spent the rest of the evening chilling back in the hotel room.

My burger:

We woke up Sunday morning to snow. It changed how the whole town looked! It was still very pretty.

We ate a quick McDonalds breakfast and headed on the road home *tear* The weekend went by WAY too quickly! Despite the snow/slush/gunk on the roads it was a quick drive home (between Red Deer and Leduc it was the worst). My poor car is in need of a good wash! This is what it looked liked when we got home:

With the wind and driving and slush splashing everywhere it built up on the doors and made a weird coral like pattern/growth which was kinda neat.

One Year

2011-03-16T19:01:00.000-06:00

I can’t believe a year has passed since I first went up North to work. I’m sure you are all tired of hearing me “talk” about it, but it was a big part of my life for 7 months and one of the craziest things I have done! I still can’t believe I was actually there. The details are hazy but if I think about it long enough I can conjure up the feelings I felt my last weekend before I left. I remember I put in my notice on Monday at St. J and I was so nervous and scared. Even though I hated it with a passion I still felt bad leaving. A few hours after I put in my notice I received an email from the guy who set me up with the job telling me not to quit my job. I freaked out because it was a little too late. After I got his email I checked my voice mail on my cell phone and there were a couple message from the HR lady. I called her back and she said some things had happened and that I wouldn’t be going up North but I would be working in the Sherwood Park office. At least I still had a job. A few hours after that I get another call from the HR lady saying the original plan was back on and I was going up North. I finished with St. J on Thursday and Thursday night A and I went to see Invictus with Matt Damon. Friday afternoon I had to go into the Sherwood Park office and get my OSSA (Oil Sands Safety Association) training which was a quick 30 minute video and then I had to drive all the way to the West end so I could go pee in a cup for my drug and alcohol test. The weekend is a blur now but I’m pretty sure I lamented on the fact that I wouldn’t be home the next weekend and how I would miss being home and what the hell was I doing. On Monday morning I had to wake up early to head back into Sherwood Park to take my CSTS (Construction Safety Training System) course. It took me a little over 3 hours to finish and once I was done I had to wait around because the girl who could issue my ticket was gone for lunch. I just wanted to scream, I just wanted to be home relaxing and calming my nerves down. I went to Tims and got a hot chocolate and some doughnuts while I was waiting. I finally got home and I packed and got some things done around the house. I tried watching a movie (can’t remember which one but I think it was supposed to be a funny happy one to cheer me up but it didn’t work). I think we ended up getting Pizza Hut for dinner and just a couple hours before we had to leave for the airport I had a breakdown. Crying and scared and worried. You name the emotion I was probably experiencing it. I probably didn’t stop crying before catching a flight until about 2 months after I started. Even when I stopped crying I was still depressed on Mondays because Monday meant my time off was over and I wouldn’t be home again until 10 sleeps.

My flight was 8pm-ish so we left the house around 6:30pm. A drove me to the airport, I can’t remember if he came into the terminal or not with me. I remember sitting waiting for the flight to leave texting A and Morna trying not to cry in front of everyone and trying to see if I recognized anyone. I remember the flight being called and walking along the tarmac to the plane and my “ticket” didn’t have a seat number so I wondered if we just chose our own seat or what so I asked the girl I was walking behind. Somehow, I miraculously picked a seat next to a girl that worked for the company I was going to work for. She told me about catching the bus to work and about camp. She waited for me outside the “airport terminal” and showed me where to pick up my luggage and which bus to get on. If it weren’t for her helping me I am sure I could have figured it out but I would have had a nervous breakdown. It was dark out and I couldn’t see much but the bus ride was about 20 minutes from the airport to camp. I got off the bus and it was so muddy! My shoes just sank into the mud and it was hard carrying my suitcase through the mud to the camp without getting it dirty (my poor suitcases after 7 months and 32 flights in/out of camp and 4 flights for vacation they had to be tossed into the garbage; the wheels were crooked and wouldn’t spin, handles had been torn off, zippers didn’t work and they were really dirty. I’m thankful the cheap luggage my dad won years ago and I stole lasted so long!).

I got into camp and got my room key. Room 845. Home sweet home. I had to drag my suitcase down the long long hall to get to my room. Once I got inside I was pleasantly surprised. I had a nice double bed, a desk with plenty of drawer space and a wardrobe. I had my own bathroom (thank goodness) and it wasn’t bad looking. I unpacked my suitcase and computer and called A up to tell him I made it safe and sound and told him what it was like so far. Then I called my parents and told them the same thing. By then my head was pounding so I trekked all the way back down the long long hallway to the cafeteria and picked up some juice to drink then I went to be bed because it was getting late and I had to be up early the next morning and I didn’t want to miss my bus.

The next morning at breakfast I ran into a familiar face, Luke Chen. Thank goodness! I worked with him at Petro. He pointed out to me where to put my dirty dishes and where to pack my lunch. While waiting outside for the bus I ran into another person I knew. I didn’t recognize him but he recognized me and he is actually one of the guys I ended up working with in the safety department. I used to work with his dad at Petro. He told which bus to take and introduced me to a guy who said he would take me up to the safety department.

I made it to the right place and I was taken to security to get my badge and we were too late for orientation so we were taken back to the office and I did paperwork and was introduced around and then we went back for the second orientation. The day went by quickly learning how things worked etc. I went back to camp and quickly ate dinner alone and went back to my room. For the first week or so I ate alone until Jill started and we ate dinner together. I went back to my room the first night and called Alexander up and told him about my day. Then Morna called and I told her about everything. I left my debit card at home because I was expecting my last cheque from St. J to be mailed and A was going to deposit it so I had no cash so I had to borrow $12 from another new girl to buy myself an internet cord.

My first shift was an experience. I was SO glad to be home! I remember my flight left at around 3pm from camp so I got into the city around 4pm and A picked me up and we headed over to my parents so I could do laundry and have a nice home cooked meal. That Friday I went shopping and bought myself a nice laptop backpack to cart my laptop back and forth. I don’t really remember much of the rest of the weekend.

Sunshine Makes Me Happy

2011-03-14T20:23:00.002-06:00

Invitations have been printed, cut, stamped, stuffed and have been mailed out! *phew* I thought that after getting the invitations done I would be able to relax. Wrong. Now I need to do some major research on the different places we can get married at on the resort and the different restaurants we can have the reception at and how it all works (the hotel website is very vague and doesn’t have very much in depth information). An old friend from Petro has a friend going to the same resort we are going to be staying at during Spring Break so she asked her if she would be in interested in scoping the place out for me and taking pictures. She said she was more than happy to scope out restaurants and locations and take pictures for me and give me some recommendations! Once I get the pictures and info A and I can decide and then I need to email the Wedding Coordinator (WC) and book them. We can wait till we actually get the resort and book everything but I don’t want to chance that it will already be booked and we can’t get it. Plus I want to know what everything looks like so I can plan what decorations, if any that I want to bring down. Here I thought going away for a wedding would be easy *grin*

In other news I love my new job! It has been keeping me busy for the most part (there are a few downtimes every so often). I’ve completed 2 courses out of my 13 for my HSA, I have helped revamp the Drug & Alcohol policy and I’m currently working on a new information document regarding working alone and liability. I’m learning new things everyday regarding laws and regulations. It is nice to exercise my brain *grin* There has been talk once I’m done all my courses and have more understanding of the laws and everything I can go to the different branches and introduce new policies and do some training. It is nice having a company invest in me and want to see me do well. I’m excited to see where I can go with all of this.

Courses

2011-03-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

I had my first course towards my HSA certificate last week and I have my second one tomorrow and Thursday. Last week was a one day course on Safety Culture – A Road Map to Zero. It was all right. A bit different from what I was expecting. Since I don’t know much about rules, regulations, laws etc I am in for a steep learning curve over the next 3 months! There was a know-it-all in the class and while she did bring up some good discussion topics, at the end of the day I was getting annoyed with her. They showed a really old movie (like early 80’s with the big classes and ginourmous computers) that was funny to watch but I wish they had more real and current examples of how safety culture can be developed. The next day at work I took the 100 page information booklet and reduced it to 3 pages of quick study notes *grin*

Tomorrow and Thursday I am attending Effective Claims Management. I double checked and I don’t have an exam at the end (some classes you need to pass with an 80% exam at the end of the course) so it should be a lot of listening and learning. I hope it is interesting and easy to follow. I don’t have any more classes until the last week in March where I am in class for 4 days straight! Three of those days are for an Auditor Training Program where after the course I need to go back to work and do a self-audit within 6 months of the course and I need to submit it to the ACSA for review and that has to be done before I can receive my certificate. The auditor class also has an exam at the end. Yikes!

Weekend Recap

2011-03-02T19:12:00.001-07:00

Friday – Happy Birthday to me! There should be a law where you don’t have to work on your birthday! I got home after work to find a “It’s all about me” birthday balloon, my presents wrapped on the kitchen counter and the Happy Birthday banner I made for As birthday way back in November hanging up. I didn’t get to open my presents right away because A made reservations for dinner at The Manor. We have had gift certificates for over a year so it was nice to finally use them! The Manor wasn’t busy at all and we had a nice quick meal. We started off with the Parmesan Pommes Frites and A had schnitzel for dinner and I had the stuffed chicken. After dinner we stopped by Dairy Queen to pick up a Blizzard for dessert *yummy!* After we got home I was able to open up my gifts. I got a new DVD player (my old old old one kaput a few weeks ago so now we can watch DVDs in the bedroom again) and I got a ticket to go see Video Games Live on April 18. Before A and I officially started dating I went to a VGL show with him.

Saturday – A and I woke up early and made our way to West Ed to go to the Water Park. We bought tickets through Groupon a couple months back and they were going to expire at the end of February so we needed to use them up. Boy was the weather crappy out on Saturday! We spent a few hours at the water park playing in the wave pool and going on the tube rides. We got there fairly early so we got to go on the tube ride a couple of times without having to wait in a big long line for a tube.

Later that night we headed to my parents place for my birthday dinner. Homemade lasagne and ICE CREAM CAKE *yummy!!!* The only thing I regret is not taking the rest of the cake home. I’m afraid the next time I go to my parents’ house it’ll be gone. I got two Kathy Reichs books I didn’t have yet and a Costco gift card.

On Sunday I met up with Morna and we went to watch Sanctum, the cave diving movie. I like disaster porn movies so I liked this one. I will have to re-watch it though because the first time I watch a somewhat scary movie I have my eyes covered a lot *grin* It was based on a real life story and I goggled the story and of course the story isn’t even close to being like the movie. I don’t even know why they said it was based on anything.

Sunday night A and I went over to Darcy and Ee Wei’s house to watch the Oscars. Darcys friend always has an Oscar party and we were invited *woo hoo* I never have watched an award show from start to finish so it was interesting to watch. Sheets were passed out with all the categories and movies up for an award and we had to guess who would win. I had only seen two movies that were up for an award, Toy Story 3 and How to Train a Dragon (2/3 animated ones) but I did manage to get 7 right. There was lots of food *woo hoo* and it was fun commenting on the show and outfits.

All Talk & All Action

2011-02-24T20:39:00.001-07:00

Guess what I did today at work? I signed up for all my courses for the Health & Safety Administrator (HSA) through the Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA)! I start on March 1! I have about one course a week and most are one day courses but there are a few two day courses and one three day course. I’ll be finished by the end of May if everything goes according to plan. One of the big reasons why I took the job was because they mentioned training in the interview. It is nice to know it wasn’t all talk and that it is happening right away!

On another work related note they just put new carpet in and it stinks to high heaven! *Yuck* I come home and my coat and clothes reek like carpet adhesive! But the smell does seem to be dissipating or maybe I am just getting used to the smell.

On a non work related not A and I got PVR!!!!! Normally we are cable free (to expensive and everything is online now) but when Shaw calls with a promotion we take it. Actually 3 weeks ago we just cancelled cable and returned the digital boxes because our 6 month cheap trial ended. Usually it is at least a few months before we get a call offering a new promotion but they called us up on Monday and offered us HDTV. I didn’t realize that we would be getting a PVR with it. I almost squealed with glee and jumped up and down when the install guy mentioned it and unpacked it from the box *grin* I don’t know how we are going to give it up in a few months. That is probably their whole ploy, give it us to try and we will never want to let it go. Smart people but they don’t know how cheap A and I are *grin* Or is the word frugal? By being cheap we wouldn’t even take the promotional price but being frugal we are willing to pay but only if it is discounted?

New Job

2011-02-22T19:34:00.001-07:00

My last day with Stantec was last week on Wednesday. I could have worked the full week but

1) the thought of a full boring week almost killed me

2) there was a team building get together organized for Thursday afternoon at the Metro Billiards Club with food, drinks and pool that I didn’t feel comfortable going to because I would no longer be part of the team in a couple of days (and I would have to go because I was the admin and would have to hand out drink tickets blah blah blah) and

3) I wanted a extra long weekend to get things done around the house before I started my new job

I managed to get some errands done, clean some of the house and of course get my scrapbook mojo flowing *grin* It is just crazy how fast weekends fly by! It isn’t like A and I did anything super exciting and special. Friday night A went to see The Mechanic with Darcy and I stayed home scrapbooking. On Saturday we slept in (a lot) and late in the afternoon ran an errand to the library to pick up some CDs on hold and then headed over to Darcy and Ee Wei’s house for Chinese New Year dinner and some games. And on Sunday we ran an errand to pick up a couple things for my dads birthday gift and then headed over to my parents house for my dad birthday dinner. On Monday we were going to go to the WEM Waterpark but we decided to do that next weekend so instead we just lounged around the house watching DVDs and reading.

My first day at my new job was good. I wasn’t really nervous (which is a first for me!). I was a few minutes late because there was a stall or something on the Wayne Gretzky but by the time I got to the spot it must have been cleared up. I was shown around and introduced to everyone in the office. I only remember like two names *grin* I would help if there were name tags on the door. I dove right in doing some drug and alcohol invoicing. So far it seems fairly similar to the work I was doing up North. I have some catching up to do on some things that have been put off and are urgent (the girl that was in my position for the last 4 months was only on loan from another job and she left a few weeks ago to go back to her old job) and then I was told there is a lot of other stuff for me to do/learn. I’m going to try driving the Wayne Gretzky again tomorrow morning and if it is still slow going without an accident I might try Yellowheading it to 17th Street and then down to Argyll.

I’ve been crafty!

2011-02-21T21:28:00.001-07:00

For a while I had been contemplating getting rid of all my scrapbook stuff. I hadn’t touched it in ages and just looking at all the crap I had and the space it took up (and the money it cost!) was making me sick. I am also so far behind in scrapbooking; I never did any of my 2010 scrapbooking resolutions I posted about and I still haven’t finished my 2009 album never mind start on 2010! Thank goodness I didn’t just throw everything out because this weekend I got a bit of my mojo back! *grin* I only completed two pages but that is better than nothing! My scanner is acting funny so I can only show you one page I did. I’m hoping my mojo just keeps building. I have a lot of catching up to do!

I’m trying to be really diligent on doing journaling on every page. I’m going old school by printing my journaling on white cardstock but whatever gets the job done!

Weekend Recap

2011-02-16T20:17:00.001-07:00

I started off the weekend by having to work late Friday. Boo! It was only an hour but 1) who really wants to work late on a Friday and 2) A and I had plans so things had to be re-arranged a bit; We were going to see Gnomeo and Juliet at West Ed and if I got off at my regular 4:30pm it would be a little after 5pm by the time I got home. I would have a nice half hour to relax or do dishes/laundry before we would have to battle traffic to get to West Ed. Since I got out at 5:30pm A had to pick me up and battle downtown traffic to get to West Ed. I made him bring toothpaste with him so I could brush my teeth at the mall because they were feeling fuzzy after a long day. While at the theatre we got to see all the little teeny boppers lined up to see the new Justin Bieber movie. Oi vay.

Gnomeo and Juliet was SO cute! I mean I {heart} gnomes already so it was already awesome in my books even without seeing it. The little gnomes had British accents which I think just added to the charm (everything sounds better with a British accent!). It had a lot of adult humour like the Shrek movies which was funny.

On Saturday we took it easy until we had to leave to do a few errands before going to the bowling alley to surprise A’s brothers girlfriend for her 30^th birthday. I haven’t bowled in ages! The first game I played a 98 and was 2^nd place. The second game I was in the 50’s and came in 3^rd. My arm hurt after because I get so aggressive and want to win that I’m chucking the ball as hard as I can.

Sunday was grocery shopping day. Yeah! Our poor fridge was bare. Later in the afternoon we went for a walk in Rundle Park with one of A’s friends. Not even 2 minutes into the walk, heck still in the parking lot I biffed it on the ice. My ego hurt more than my butt *grin*

Later Sunday night I went to Aveda to get my hair cut (they have awesome new hours and are open late most days of the week and on Sundays!). I am trying to grow my hair out but it is a process. The back of my hair grows faster than the rest of my head so I get like a funky mullet thing going on. I walked away with a cute little bob. I’m still getting used to it, it usually takes a week when it grows 0.0001mm and I’m used to it until I like it (except for the horrible crappy short hair cut I got over the summer….). I’ll have to get A to take a picture for me to post so I can show it off *grin*

Put A Bird On It

2011-02-09T21:54:00.000-07:00

Blog Vlog

2011-02-09T19:34:00.001-07:00

When I put my notice in up North the guys I worked with were great, giving me contact information to people they knew, finding jobs online for me to apply for. I received a call out of the blue last week from one of the contacts I was given and sent my information to. It was way out of the blue because I sent my information in way back at the end of October! Who am I to turn down a potential opportunity? I mean if I loved the position I am at now I would say thanks but no thanks, but since I am not fulfilled at the moment (understatement of the year) I decided what the hell.

I had the interview Monday late afternoon. After all the interviews I’ve been on in the last year, I wasn’t nervous one bit. I’m an old pro now (which is nice). This interview was weird though…I was interviewed by the manager of the company and the manager of the department I would be working in. They both admitted they don’t interview much (or at all) and didn’t know what to ask. The company manager just went on and on about the company and where things are, where they want to go and his thoughts on everything. If I hadn’t interjected with comments or examples of experiences I had they wouldn’t know a darn thing about me except what was on my resume. And your resume is just a very broad overview of experiences and doesn’t really give people the whole picture of who you are/what you can do (that’s where behaviour based interview questions like “Describe a time when…” or “Give an example of….” are used).

Anyways, the job is for Safety Admin. A little more high level than what I was doing up North. Up North I was just in charge of that one project and all the information would get filtered to Head Office where reports would be compiled using all the information from all different projects etc. I would be head office this time around. So I would have all my fingers in the pot *grin* They also spoke of education to become involved with Claims Management and Auditing. So it wouldn’t be just your stuck in the mud admin role. It sounded interesting anyways. And safety, whether it be in construction or downtown corporate, is big these days. After St J I am leery though. I was told one thing and it ended up being something completely different. I really really don’t want that to happen again and I would really like some stability in my life!

To make a very long story even longer, they offered me the job! I was asking my soon to be manager about vacation and benefits and he didn’t really know much. It must have seemed like I was interviewing him *grin* I start on the 22^nd. No matter how much I hate the job I’m in now and the new job is an awesome opportunity and it would be stupid for me to turn it down, I still feel bad quitting. I keep reminding myself that I’ve only been at this job for a little over a month, I’m temporary to permanent (so they say, I never signed anything) and the only thing/person I need to be concerned about is me.

I hate making decisions. Big ones anyways and ones that I’m not fully sure of 100%. I always wonder what if. Once I have made up my mind I feel at ease (but I still wonder what if). I’m an over thinker. Sometimes I hate it but that is who I am. Enough of that though. I got a new job!!!! *grin* One with benefits and vacations and back in the construction industry. Life is going to be good!

Wedding ADHD

2011-02-06T20:46:00.002-07:00

We ventured out into the snow on Saturday to meet up with A’s parents and his Aunt and Uncle at Cora’s in Sherwood Park. Apparently it is all the rage. It was hopping even with the weather being cruddy! I liked that mostly every breakfast they serve comes with some fruit. I didn’t find the food was exceptional to warrant a wait and a line up out the door though.

After breakfast we headed over to Evergreen Stationers to check out envelopes. Man oh man, all the sample invitations on the wall…so many different styles and colors! I love all the fancy formal invites and if I had started researching invitations right after I got engaged and started assembling them then maybe I would be able to do that but since we are kind of in a time crunch and need to get information out right away… Don’t get me wrong, I do like the ones I designed, they are fun and bright and informal and that is what our wedding is going to be but that doesn’t stop me from lusting over everything else. I have wedding ADHD *grin* Everything I see I like. I haven’t been able to decide on a ring because every time we go into a store I see something new and different I like.

Saturday night I headed out to the Sawmill and met up with some old co-workers from back in the Petro days. I will admit the main reason I did end up going was to network but it was nice to catch up with the old gang. Even though I did complain while I worked there, 90% of the people I worked with were great. Now that we are no longer working together we all realize what a great team we had. We all just seemed to click.

A little this…

2011-02-04T20:10:00.001-07:00

I met with my Northern friend Jill Tuesday night at the Executive Inn out in Nisku. I hadn’t seen her since mid December and only then was it briefly as she was on her way home to Grand Prairie after a brief stop in Edmonton. And the time before that was back in October for a quick dinner before catching her flight back up North. She was my partner in crime during my brief stint (or long stint depending on which way you look at it) up North. She started 3 days after me and we just clicked right away (we had people ask us how long we worked together and we were like we just met). Because I take the LRT to work now and when A and I do go out he usually drives it was weird driving all the way out to Nisku all by myself. It was nice to catch up and reminisce about ‘The Bag”. Jill showed me her awesome planning binder for her trip to Europe in April (no wonder we hit it off, the organized geeky part of me fell in love *grin*). Man oh man am I envious of her trip! She is taking a whole month off and seeing SO many awesome places! Her first stop is in Greece where they will take a 10 day cruise around the Greek islands as well as stop off in Turkey, Jerusalem and Egypt!!!!! After they will fly to Paris for 3 days and see the sights there. THEN they are going on a 10 day tour of Scotland and Ireland! They fly out of Heathrow the day William and Kate get married. I wish a shrink gun was invented because then I could go shrink myself and go with her in her purse! *Grin*

In other exciting new A and I finally picked a resort and put a deposit down! I thought I had one chosen (the one we went to November 2009) but the tour operator for the resort (Sunquest) has received some negative reviews and did not have as many benefits as booking through Transat. I’ll admit I am a little hesitant because other than reading reviews and seeing pictures online I don’t know much about the resort or where we will get married but I am glad that the decision is over and done! I’m sure it will be awesome.

I spent this week designing wedding invitations. I’m not doing anything paper crafty but computer crafty. Well as crafty as using Word and text boxes can be *grin* I’m really happy with the results. We are just waiting to get confirmation on some things to make sure the information is accurate and then we will send them off to the printer. I feel kinda bad that I’m not doing more crafty things for my wedding but I’m just not that into anymore. I’m in limbo; to pick it up again (and have a lot of catching up to do) or to quit (and what to do with all my supplies).

There goes my record…

2011-01-31T22:34:00.001-07:00

I ended up catching the flu early Wednesday morning. It took me a little while to actually realize what I was feeling. I thought maybe I was too hot or something. When I finally accepted that I was sick I slowly made my way to the bathroom to camp out. It is amazing how not clean your bathroom looks looking at it from a different perspective and all the dust bunnies that multiply behind the toilet *grin*

I ended up emailing in sick. When I finally went back to work on Friday the supervisors I emailed responded back to me with questions (if I had the flu or a cold and when would I be in). I’m sorry but I was dying, I’m not logging into my work email to check it. It took all I had to write the I’m sick and not coming in email in the first place!

I slept most of the day away. When Alexander left for work in the morning he said he would try to come home early and bring me some gingerale and popsicles. That is what kept me going all day. Around 3:30pm he called saying he would have to work late and he didn’t know what time he would be home. I lost it. All I wanted was some gingerale and some popsicles to help me feel better. I could barely move to even get a glass of water to drink. I was so desperate I called my mom up crying and she brought me some gingerale and popsicles (and some Dairy Queen ice cream and some bread to make toast). She also threw in a wedding magazine *grin* Yeah, I know I’m a big baby.

Alexander hadn’t experienced whiny baby flu sick Veronica before. We are still engaged so I didn’t scare him off completely *grin* I hadn’t had the flu in 6+ years so I’m hoping I can beat that record and not get it again for like 10 years (or never again!). I’m still not feeling 100%. My appetite hasn’t fully returned but at least I don’t feel like I’m dying anymore! I’ve already started the disinfecting of the house (am I the only one who does this?).

Gail

2011-01-23T20:02:00.001-07:00

Went to Bridal Fantasy with my mom and Morna today. Wow! We got there around 9:45am, 15 minutes after it opened, and there was a line up to get in! All the soon to be brides and their entourage clambering to enter in draws and pick up free samples. I will admit I was like that at first. But since I am going away for a wedding all the free stuff/discounts I could win I wouldn’t be able to use. We did get to test: a tequila chocolate ball, fondue from The Melting Pot, a bitty bit of cake, a chocolate covered strawberry and my mom and Morna tasted a few wines.

Booth after booth kept handing us pamphlets and by the end of the day my bag weighed a ton! There was a lot of cool ideas but again since I am going away I can’t/won’t be able to use them. Cool looking cakes, fabulous flowers, a photo booth! I was able to get some opinions on two resorts we are considering (we thought we had a resort chosen and they even had my date available (Dec 1, 2011) but we are looking at a different resort being offered by different vacation carrier because it is cheaper and has more perks).

At 11:00am I was able to catch Gail Vaz-Oxlade do a key note speech on money and marriage. I {heart} Gail. A and I watch her show Till Debt Do Us Part and Princess on Slice all the time! I haven’t been excited to meet a “celebrity” in a long time! *grin* A lot of what she said A and I are doing already so it was nice to hear we were on the right track. She is like you see on TV, loud and witty. Oh and she is 52 and has been married 3 times.

After Gail's speech it was fashion show time! Oh boy are some of the dresses out there! I don’t know how I am going to chose one, there are so many of them!! There were a couple highlights to the show: the male underwear and swimwear models *grin* and a little dance put on by little kids wearing flower girl and ring bearer outfits. They were really cute!

After the fashion show it was time to meet Gail! I had to buy a book to have her sign and to meet her. If I would have known that I would have bought the book online to get a few dollars off and brought it with me for her to sign. The line looked a little long but it wasn’t too long of a wait. Morna and my mom thought I was crazy that I was so excited to meet her. I wish I had more time to talk to her. She just asked me if people called me Veronica or Ronnie. I said Veronica unless they are lazy and call me V *grin*

After checking out all the booths we left and picked up some Swiss Chalet for a late lunch and came back to the condo and ate and reviewed what we had seen/liked and ideas I already had. I’ve recycled the pamphlets I know I won’t look at again/need and just kept a few that I might use/get ideas from. All in all it was a good day, hanging out with my mom and Morna.

Job

2011-01-05T21:10:00.001-07:00

So, I started a new job. I got it through a staffing agency and it is temp (to possibly permanent in 3 or 4 months). It is with an engineering firm downtown. I actually started before Christmas…The agency was sending me on a whole bunch of interviews (I had one Monday, December 20, one Wednesday, December 22 and a few more the previous weeks). Well, after my interview Wednesday morning I went home and in the afternoon A and I had a nap (he was sick the night before so he was staying home from work). Later in the afternoon I woke up to my phone ringing and I ignored it but it kept ringing and beeping so I finally went and looked and it was the staffing agency. They had called multiple times, left a voice message AND a text message. They said there was this position and the company wanted to interview me at 8:30am the next day (Thursday, December 23) and for me to bring a lunch (as in I pretty much had the job). After my interview earlier in the morning I told myself that that would be all the interviews until the new year and I was looking forward to taking a break and enjoying Christmas (because who hires right before Christmas or the week in between?). I’ll be truthful and I didn’t want to return the messages but I knew being unemployed for 2 months I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. So I went in on the 23^rd and trained with the girl who was leaving the position (she is/was/has moved to Dubai! She has lived there before and her husband couldn’t find work here so they decided to go back). It was weird because it was all very rush rush and I kinda felt bamboozled by the staffing agency and like I said I really had resigned myself to having Christmas off. The good thing was I went in and trained for a day and then they were closed for Christmas break and I didn’t start again until yesterday.

Now I’m trying to keep positive and it is a job which equals money, but from what I’ve seen and what I have been doing these last three days it seems very entry level and well boring; I book meetings, arrange for catering, and do meeting minutes. And there really isn’t much room for growth. The location is downtown so I take the LRT which is nice (not having to battle rush hour traffic!). So I walk to Belvedere Station in the morning and I have about a 4 block walk once I get off my station downtown to get to work. At least I’m getting a little bit of exercise in *grin*

2011: The Year off Positivity

2011-01-02T23:31:00.001-07:00

A and I spent a quiet New Years Eve together. We stopped by my parents place to wish them a Happy New Year and pick up some used books for me to read. We then ventured over to Festival Place to watch the fireworks at 8pm. After we stopped by A’s parents house to wish them a Happy New Year. We ended the night at home watching The Sorcerers Apprentice. It was lovely. Next year a nice big get together with great friends and tons of wonderful food is on the agenda!

Waiting in the cold waiting for the fireworks

My word/resolution for 2011 is Positivity. 2010 was….unique. It was a struggle and I found myself to be negative and sarcastic (more so than usual). I didn’t like how I was acting or feeling. I’m going to try to stay positive and hopefully everything works out. Positivity begets positivity right? Positivity with my career, positivity with my body image just to name a few. Good bye 2010. While you were unique I’m excited to see what wonderful things 2011 will bring (like a wedding if we can ever decide on anything *LOL*)!

The highlights of 2010 were:

- I got ENGAGED!!!! (Still no date or plans or anything yet. Yikes!) on a wonderful trip to Disney World
- I did something crazy that took a lot of courage and took me out of my comfort zone (and away from home) but I met some great people
- Got to go on a fabulous vacation to Alaska
- Hung out with friends and had fun doing new new things
- Took a leap of faith and did something that was unexpected but made me happy

2010-12-01T14:00:00.001-07:00

Source

Good Weekend

2010-11-09T23:06:00.001-07:00

Can I just tell you that I LOVE being home! Love it! While it is boring at home, I am so so so glad to be home. I was telling A the other day that I’m equating being at Firebag like what I’ve heard about giving birth: once it is over you forget how bad it really was. Would I want to go back? Oh hell to the NO. Been there done that and can say I was there.

Friday: I spent the day at home doing some scrapbooking. My goal is to finish 2009 before 2010 is over! *grin* Feels good to be crafty. I know I keep saying that but it does feel good after a long absence. After A got home from work we chilled at home watching some tv and looking through destination wedding information (makes me head spin!).

On the swinging ferris wheel. It is SO fun yet so scary at the same time! I think A captured some pretty awesome faces I made during the ride!

Journaling reads: Why but it when you can try it on, play with it and take a picture of yourself? It is much cheaper to take a picture :)

(Anyways, what are we going to do with a Yoda and R2D2 backpack?)

These are mini 4x6 layouts (even though they look ginourmous!): The scores after playing Toy Story Midway Mania game (best game ever!). A is player 2 and I am player 1. I could never beat him *tear*

With this layout I can’t think of a title. Any ideas? These pictures were taken while the bridal party was off getting photos taken and a few of us went up to the hotel bar and had a few drinks to wait for them to come back.

Saturday: A and I checked out the Lego exhibit at the Space and Science Centre and caught a Mount Everest IMax. After we went out to dinner at Mongolie Grill (had a $30 Groupon I bought for $15).

Sunday: Stopped by Lisa’s craft fair and bought me a couple hair pieces. After we ventured to Southgate Mall and looked around at jewellery stores to see what ring I would eventually like (there is too many choices and I don’t know if I will be able to make a decision!).

Monday: Had an interview for two different jobs. There were six people interviewing me! Six! I think I rocked it. Now I’m hoping they call me back cause I’m getting stir crazy at home and need to start bringing in some money! After, I hung out with my mom for the day as she is off for fall break from the school.

Have you heard?

2010-11-05T10:28:00.001-06:00

I read a few weeks ago on People.com that the author of the Sweet Valley books is coming out with a sequel! It follows the characters 10 years after they have graduated High School. I used to read these books all the time when I was growing up (well after I learned to love reading)….

Up until the middle of grade 5 I did not like to read at all. I was quite stubborn about it. In grade 4 my teacher had a chart on the wall to track how many books each person in the class read throughout the year. I maybe got into the low double digits (like 10 – 15) while classmates were reading hundreds of books. In grade 5 for Christmas my Aunt sent me a Babysitters Club book. It was Babysitters Club Super Special #4, Babysitters Island Adventure (circa 1990!) where the babysitters take some kids out on the lake and a big freak storm happens and they get marooned on an island and have to survive until someone can find them. I don’t know why I started reading the book but I did and I ended up loving it and from then on any Sweet Valley books or Babysitter Club books I would gobble up. This was back in the day when Costco sold a 4 pack of Babysitter Club books for cheap so whenever my parents would go to Costco I would get a pack of books. I’m sure they were just happy that I was finally reading!

Anyways, while it may seem silly I’m excited to read the book when it comes out. I have fond memories of reading these books when I was younger. I wonder if I still have any of them in storage in my parents house?

This and That

2010-11-04T19:59:00.001-06:00

On Monday I had an interview with the company I worked for up North for a job in the Sherwood Park Office. I think the interview went well. I wasn’t nervous at all. I think it was because I had a blasé attitude. While I sort need a job, I’m still not sure if I want to work for this company again. I was able to answer all their questions with examples. At the end of the interview they dropped a bomb shell and told me that upper management had put a hold on the position for now and they don’t know if/when it will be open again. I got a call this afternoon saying I was one of the top three candidates for the position but they still don’t know when they can hire for the position. The HR lady did go on to tell me that two other positions within the company recently became available and if I was okay she was going to show them my resume. I said yes. It would be stupid not to, not like all the other jobs I’ve applied for over the last three weeks are calling me back… I’ll hear back from the HR lady tomorrow to go in for another meeting (interview?) for Monday.

I called Linda (my partner in crime up North) and told her what is happening. She and a couple other people up North are rooting for me and telling HR in Sherwood Park that I was an awesome worker and they know my work ethic and they should hire me. She is confused that they aren’t just hiring me right away but I understand they have to follow policies.

While I was also on the phone with Linda she told me something sad. A guy I worked with up North passed away in his sleep in his camp room last night. He didn’t show up for work this morning so they went to find out what was happening and they found him. He was only 36. He was a big guy and I know he had a machine for sleep apnoea. It is sad because we used to chat and he went to Alaska with his family a month after we went. He was on the same shift I was so he was supposed to fly home tonight.

Today I spent the day with A’s mom helping her stamp on candles to sell at her churches bazaar. It was nice to get out of the house! (I’ve been sticking close to home because I don’t want to go out and see something I like and spend money). It was also nice to do something crafty. The mo-jo is slowly starting to return. A couple weeks ago we had Ee Wei and Darcy over for dinner so we set up a little plastic fold up table in the living room to eat on and we haven’t taken it down yet so I’m using it as my scrapping space. It makes the condo look smaller and when I have a whole bunch of stuff all over it it looks messy but I like the extra space (and I get to watch tv while I scrapbook) *grin*

I scrapbooked!

2010-11-02T21:21:00.001-06:00

Say what? It has been eons since I actually scrapbooked a page! I’ve done cards here and there for birthdays and such but that is about it. The creative juices are some what flowing and I think once I get back in the game and get going again I *hope* that I’ll start pumping out the pages. I’ve got tons of pictures printed from the last year (or more) but they are just sitting and waiting and I am so far behind (which is a tad daunting). I’m starting to try and do journaling on all my pages but I still find it hard. I’m happy with my layout. It is fun and bright. Now on to the million other pictures I have to do *grin*

DW – Day 2

2010-11-02T15:31:00.001-06:00

September 24, 2010

Its been over a month so I should get my butt in gear and finish off my trip to Disney World!

Pictures from our resort: Disney’s Pop Centry

Day 2 was shopping! We purposely decided to do the outlet shopping early in the trip so we knew what was on sale so we didn’t accidently buy it full price somewhere else. We had breakfast at the resort – because we were on the Disney Dining Plan each day A and I had one snack (pop, chips etc), one quick service meal (drink, meal (burger and fires kind) and dessert) and one sit down meal (drink, entree and dessert). It was a lot of food! After the first day we split a quick service meal for breakfast and maybe had a snack during the day (because even splitting a meal it was a lot of food!) and then had a nice dinner out at night. By the end of the trip we had plenty of snacks and 2 quick service meals that if we didn’t use we would loose so we ended up getting bags of candy we were able to bring home.

After breakfast we caught a bus to Downtown Disney and from there took a taxi to the first outlet mall. We shopped at the Disney Store (some great deals on stuff they are selling for regular price in the park!), Eddie Bauer (hello down mittens for $20!), and a few other stores. We then hailed a taxi to take us to the other outlet mall because that mall had a Victoria Secret (hello 2 bras for $20)! After we shopped our little hearts out we took another taxi all the way back to the resort to drop off our purchases before heading to Epcot. We ended up having to switch rooms because we wanted a room closer to the main building where the food and buses were and we also wanted a room with a king size bed.

Some silly pictures, taking advantage of a nearly empty Downtown Disney

After we got back to the hotel and put all our purchases in our room we headed back out to Epcot. It was our favourite place last time so we wanted to hit it a couple times this trip.

Epcot has some awesome rides in Future World like Ellen’s Energy Adventure, Mission: Space, Space Ship Earth, and Test Track. Our first stop was Space Ship Earth because it is right at beginning. I like the ride because 1) it was inside and air conditioned! and 2) at the end it is interactive and you can choose different options and create a future for yourself.

Test Track is pretty awesome too but I can only go on it once or twice at a time because it is pretty fast and makes me a tad queasy.

I {heart} the alien from Toy Story 3!

Space Mickey!

Before the trip A made an itinerary of what parks we were going to hit on what date and made reservations for dinner restaurants (you can make reservations like 6 months in advance and if you don’t make reservations you more than likely won’t get into the restaurants or if you do it is at a weird time or a fairly long wait).

The restaurant we ate at that night was Teppan Edo. We sat at a huge table with another couple and a young family with 3 boys. The chef cooked our food right in front of us and it was really tasty! It was like a 2 hour experience from start to finish.

The chef making an onion volcano

The Epcot ball as we were leaving.

Bwa ha ha

2010-10-22T18:27:00.001-06:00

I want it! Link.

Nostalgic

2010-10-21T10:59:00.001-06:00

So, today is my last day at Firebag. I’ve always had a hard time with change. I know the only thing certain is change and change is constant, but I’m talking about the big decisions. I wish I could be like a person who just makes up their mind and that’s that, but I have to over think and over analyze things and I’m never quite sure if I made the right choice. This is how I feel about quitting Firebag. On one hand I know that I was unhappy being away from home all the time but on the other hand this last shift has been pretty great. But I think it has been great because I know this is my last shift and there is an end in sight. Another reason I am unsure is because I don’t have another job lined up in the city. I know this is probably the only time in my life I will be able to leave one job without having another but the thought of being out of work for a long period of time freaks me out. I don’t want to dig too deep into my cushion I’ve had the opportunity to save up while working in Firebag. Everyone I talks to says I’ll get another job soon and that I’m awesome. So I’m trying to stay positive and believe that the Universe will bring me something bigger and better *cross fingers*

I think the biggest thing that I will miss is the people I work with (most of them anyways). These people have been my "family" for 7 months. We’ve eaten breakfast, lunch and dinner together, we’ve shared stories, we’ve laughed and joked together, and we have trudged through the tough times together. It will be hard to leave these wonderful people because in reality this might be the last time I see them. I’m sure a little while after I leave we will keep in contact but over time it will gradually disappear. It makes it even harder when a few of them don’t live in Edmonton. It will be hard to disassociate myself from Firebag and not wonder what is going on.

Last night Linda, Clayton, Ryan and myself drove into Fort McMurray for some real food and a little going away party for me. It took 3 hours to get to town with all the traffic! We didn’t make it to The Keg until around 8:30pm (the time when I would normally have lights out and be asleep or winding down and getting ready to go to bed). It was a 20 minute wait for the restaurant but we managed to get a table in the bar. We hadn’t eaten since lunch at noon and since dinner is normally at 5:30pm we were starving! We dug into the appetizers and entrees we ordered with gusto! Even though it was a 3 hour drive to town we had fun laughing and joking. After dinner we stopped off at a donair place so Clayton could pick up a bucket of donair meat (yuck) and to 7-11 for some pop. We got back to the main gate at around 11:30pm where the security officers questioned us about be drunk and/or high. They searched the vehicle (which Linda and I weren’t too happy about because we were nice and warm taking a nap in the back seat). The security guard let us go on our way to camp (even though he thought we were drunk?!?!?) but to cover our butts (or theirs cause I won’t be here) we called the Night Shift Safety to come over to camp and speak with us so they know we were okay and to give a heads up a report may be coming in. Ryan and Clayton did have a beer each but that was like 2 hours before we hit the main security gate. We think the security guard smelt the donair meat we had in the car (along with Claytons nasty burps!).

What I won’t miss:
- Only being home 8 days a month
- Crappy, unhealthy camp food
- Waking up way too early for 10 days straight and being dead tiered

What I will miss:
- The people I work with (#1 for sure)
- Have someone cook and clean for me *grin*

All in all I think it was a good decision but like I said previously I am a person who over analyzes so I will never 100% be sure that I made the right decision. Just hope everything works out.

So…..

2010-10-14T18:34:00.002-06:00

The parents have been told so I can finally let the cat out of the bag. I figured it deserved its own post before getting lost in the gaggle of posts about Disney World. On Wednesday, September 28 Alexander proposed to me! Ekk! I’m engaged! Is still feels weird to say to be honest. I had been bugging A for a while now that we have been together for over 2 years and living together for coming up 2 years and that I wasn’t going to wait 10 years like his brothers girlfriend and he should pretty much know by now what he felt.

A had said before he would propose to me while riding on Splash Mountain but I just laughed at that. He of course didn’t end up doing it on Splash Mountain but beside the castle. We were finishing up our night at the Magic Kingdom Halloween Party where he pulled me off to the side to sit on a bench next to the castle. At first I didn’t think anything of it because we have done stuff like that in the past (and my feet were killing me so they were happy not to keep walking anymore). But then he started talking about how long we had been together etc and he seemed a little nervous. Then he popped the question. I don’t remember saying it but A says I said “Are you kidding me” or something like that when he asked me. I of course said yes. He asked if I wanted him to go on one knee but I said no. He had a “fake” ring (AKA costume jewellery ring until I/we find a real ring I want) but it didn’t fit. When we got back to the city he got a different sized ring to fit me. We waited for last weekend to tell the family so that I actually had a ring on/to show. You should have seen As moms face when he told her yesterday while we were out having ice cream. He was chatting about our trip and was like “we went on this ride, we saw this, AND I proposed to Veronica”. Her face was blank for a moment and then she asked if he was joking. *grin*

View of the castle from where A propsed

Picture of A & I right after he asked

So far all we know is we want a destination wedding. What destination? Don’t know yet. Hawaii and Mexico were tossed out. When? We will decide that once we have a destination. What I do know is I want a bouquet like the ones Princess Lasertron makes. No idea what colour and I’m going to try to be crafty and make it myself (once I figure out how to).

DW – Day 1

2010-10-11T20:18:00.002-06:00

September 23, 2010

Ushie didn’t want us to leave :)

This was the first time I had a “red eye” flight. It was strange leaving for the airport at like 10:30pm at night. We had some issues booking our trip through West Jet so we had our seats pre-assigned with me in the aisle and A in the window seat and the agent said the flight wouldn’t be full so we would have a seat in between us. That didn’t happen but we were able to switch with the guy who was supposed to have the middle seat so that A and I sat together. I hate on flights being “stuck”, I like the aisle seat. Thank goodness I “slept” most of the flight to Toronto and I have a bladder the size of Canada or else I would have had to wake up the person sitting on the aisle seat or crawl over them to get to the bathroom!

The smoggy view of the CN Tower taking off in Toronto

We got to Toronto and had a 4 hour layover before our connecting flight to Orlando. By the time we finally landed in Orlando Thursday afternoon we had been up since around 9am Wednesday morning except for a few hours of sleep we were able to catch on our flights. To say we were tiered was an understatement. We picked up our luggage and caught our bus to our hotel.

We freshened up, had a late lunch in the hotel cafeteria and made our way to Downtown Disney to do some shopping (no matter how tiered I was shopping perked me up! *grin*). It was HOT! We looked at the weather before leaving and it said it was going to be ~30’C with 40% – 60% chance rain for the week. With the humidity it was hot hot hot from early morning to late at night. And it only rained twice while we were there and it didn’t cool it down one bit!

We ended up ordering some plain Mickey head ornaments with family names on them. They had this new create your own t-shirt shop where you could pick the colour you want, what character(s), and any sayings you want. There were SO many to choose from! I ended up making a t-shirt with the Alien from Toy Story on it (I {heart} the alien!). Once I ordered it and paid for it it only took an hour to print it. A ended up buying a Jedi Mickey hand drawn print that is very nicely framed with a pin. I also ended up buying a few Vinylmation. Last year in Disneyland I started collecting them. They are super cute! They are all in the same shape, Mickey, but different characters/designs are used (like Toy Story). You can now trade them with Cast Members at the park if you buy one you don’t like. I hate to admit I bought quite a few this trip and traded a couple. They are awesome and I’m addicted…I need to check to see if the Disney store here in town sells them.

We wondered around Downtown Disney and then went to Wolfgang Puck Cafe for a late dinner. We chose to go to Disney World this time of year because it is their “slow” season and they offer free dining (2 quick service meals and a snack per day per person). We upgraded for about $100 more a person and got one quick service meal, one nice sit down meal, and one snack per day. Usually we bring snacks along (like Nutrigrain Bars) and have one big meal a day. It was actually nice to try different restaurants and well actually eat.

Waiting in line at the bus stop to go to Downtown Disney

A big Vinylmation! At the pin trading store with my peeps Mickey and Minnie. A Lego Woody! I {heart} the Alien from Toy Story! I could have purchased a ginourmous Vinylmation (usually they are 3” tall this one was 9”) but it was like $50 and while I love the alien AND Vinylmation I didn’t want to spend that much and wouldn’t have any place to put it (the little ones fit perfectly in a shot glass display case!).

Say What?

2010-10-08T16:41:00.001-06:00

I know everyone if anxiously awaiting my re-cap of Disney World and I promise it is coming *grin* but I’ve been kinda busy in the evenings at camp that I haven’t had a chance to start anything yet. On Tuesday on a rash, impulsive decision I put in my resignation. Say What? Yup, as of October 21 I am out of a job. I don’t have anything else lined up so I’ll be honest and say that is a little scary and a tad stressful but once I finally got off the fence and made up my mind I felt at peace and a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I have not been happy up there for a long long time and I just finally had enough. Having a job/money just wasn’t out weighing being away from home any more and being unhappy. Life just is just too short.

On Monday I resigned myself to the fact that I was back to the grind up North. I got into my office Tuesday morning and the first thing I saw was my itinerary. I was flying back on Thanksgiving Monday, a holiday that A would have off and we would be able to spend together at 1:40pm. I have been fighting for the last 2 months with crappy flights and not getting my 4 days off and that was just the straw that broke the camels back.

Flying up to work Monday night I got a run down from Linda of all the stuff that had happened in the 2 weeks I was away: Old boss man Ken had left and Bob the new boss man had started, they fired a couple people, and the big Western Director of Safety was up to implement new strategies etc to turn the project around. The stuff they are trying to do seems great but after trudging through sh*t for 7 months and me being a more negative/sarcastic person to begin with (I’m not afraid to admit it), it would have been really hard for them to convince me that everything was finally going to be okay etc. Add that to the fact they wanted a commitment from me to the end of the project. So I would give them a commitment to the end (which by the way has never been announced officially) and what would they do? A) either send me on to a different project in the middle of no where (which I wouldn’t want) or B) lay me off. Neither of those choices evokes commitment from me.

Although I really wanted yesterday to be my final final last day and never have to go up there again, I have a conscience and I gave a full shift notice. In my resignation I did stipulate that I wanted a full 4 days off and wanted my flight changed to Monday night or Tuesday (I’m flying back Tuesday afternoon). One last shift will pad my savings a bit in case I have to dip into them a bit before I find a job (although my new job is going to be looking for a job and I’ve got all my co-workers putting feelers out for me).

I was speaking with a tram driver yesterday and he mentioned he hadn’t seen me around for a while and I told him I was on vacation and he said he could tell because I looked relaxed and happy. Sure, I think having a vacation helped but also that I finally made a decision that makes me happy.

2 weeks

2010-10-04T15:57:00.001-06:00

It has been 2 weeks since I was at work. I have to fly back up to the middle of no where tonight and I don’t want to *stomps foot* I got to spend 2 weeks with A, the most amount of time we have seen each other at one time in over 6 months! We landed back home late Thursday evening from Florida and the 4 days off I still had seemed to stretch out but they have passed quickly with grocery shopping, visiting parents, seeing a movie, and visiting friends. Not to mention unpacking from our trip and doing piles of laundry! Why do vacations have to go SO by so fast? It seems like forever ago we were away. It is so sad…

I only go up North for 3 days and I am back home Thursday night. A nice short shift to get me back into the swing of things (and I don’t miss Thanksgiving!). The 2 weeks off really really makes me not want to work up North anymore so today I applied for 4 jobs. I have some more bookmarked that I will do later this week. While I was curious to know what went on at work for the 2 weeks I was away I resisted calling/texting/emailing anyone (there was a whole bunch of drama going on the last weekend I worked). I wanted to enjoy my last few days off. I did get a text this morning asking what flight I was on and I was given a tid bit of information that a few people were fired. Guess I’ll find out more tomorrow.

Time to start planning our next vacation :)

Funny Names

2010-09-19T18:49:00.001-06:00

Ironic

2010-09-16T18:43:00.001-06:00

It was one year ago today that I got laid off from PC. It is also 6 months ago today that I ventured North to the middle of no where for my job.

Yikes!

2010-09-08T19:05:00.001-06:00

I’m glad I watched these after going on a cruise…

How it Should Have Ended….

2010-08-30T12:30:00.001-06:00

Came across this little gem of a website over the weekend: How it Should Have Ended. In cartoon they re-work popular movie endings. It is funny. You should check out their website for more!

…

2010-08-24T18:38:00.001-06:00

Today, Linda got the job offer for the Safety Admin job in Sherwood Park. On one hand I’m glad for her and on the other I’m upset because I didn’t get it. Two distinct feelings. I managed to keep myself together at work. One nice thing is that Linda didn’t keep me in the dark on anything. I respect that she let me know what was happening. The pay sucks though. Especially for a construction company! I was making more at St. Johns, a non-profit organization! Linda can’t/doesn’t want to take a pay cut that much (neither would I) so she is wrote a nicely worded (I know because I helped) email back to HR asking for more money. The big head honcho got back to her and said to speak with HR and maybe they could meet half way (because what she asked for was out of the pay grad scale for the job). HR called her back and said nope, no meeting half way the salary they offered was already the top of the grid. So Linda turned down the job.

The job she got wasn’t the job we had the interview for. There are two sister companies and we applied for Company C but in Company LH the safety admin put in her notice to work up North (because the pay is much better than what she was making) and I guess filling Company LH was greater than filling Company C. The way Linda found out is she sent an email to the admin leaving, Steph, saying good luck and Steph wrote back congrats and Linda was like huh? And Steph was like you got the job. Linda told her she didn’t receive any calls/email about it. And soon after that her offer of employment came through the email. Boss Man didn’t even know and they want her to start Monday!

Technically Company C position is still available but I doubt they will let us both leave and go work in the city. And with what I know they offered Linda I don’t know if I would want to go work with them. I know Linda got offered the job because she had more safety admin experience than me but it still hurts. Normally you don’t know who the other people applying/interviewing for the job are so when you don’t get the job you just have a nameless/faceless person who got the job. I know Linda and I like her so that makes it tough. What also makes it tough is that I want to be back in the city so so so bad. I’m starting to feel like I felt at St. Johns and I really don’t like that. I hate being unhappy. And being unhappy makes me more unhappy and it is just a vicious cycle.

Also, to add more insult to injury to unhappiness the U of A re-posted the job I had the interview for last week. Obviously I didn’t get the job. They haven’t called me to tell me no even though they said they would. Awesome. Not.

So, I’m stuck up here still…

5 Months

2010-08-17T19:26:00.001-06:00

I realized last night when I got to camp that it was my 5 month anniversary being up here. It seems like yesterday yet it seems like a million years ago. I didn’t think I would be up here this long. I thought I would be back in the city a long time ago. But I made it 2 months more than St. Crap’s. Sure I complain about it (I will try to keep it at a minimum but I can’t promise anything) but at least I have a job. A job that has allowed me to save a bit of money up and has helped me pay for Alaska and in 37 sleeps Disney World (with a stop at Harry Potter World – WOO HOO!).

I counted and since March 16th I have been on 25 flights! 23 of those flights were coming/leaving Firebag. 2 were for fun, leaving and coming home from Vancouver for Alaska. You would think that I would be over my aversion to flying. I never used to be bad when I was younger but the older I get the more I know what bad stuff can and has happened to planes. I don’t freak out really or anything but if there is turbulence sometimes unwillingly I almost grab my seat mates hand to hold onto and do flapping motions with my hands *grin* Jill says I have control issues and that is why I don’t like flying. LOL I can see that. I want to know how the plane works and all the physics behind flying. Lately though, for at least the last 5 flights I have been on a Suncor jet. That is a nice plane! Small and compact but super fast. We also get a full can of pop/juice and a full sized chocolate bar or bag of chips (compared to the dinky stuff other planes serve). When the jet takes off the incline is so much more than a bigger plane so we get up and above the clouds faster so not as much turbulence.

Weekend Recap

2010-08-16T14:41:00.000-06:00

Oh, how the weekends go by way too fast! I had a 10 am flight out of the middle of no where and I was back in the city and back home before noon. Even though I was only gone for 8 days instead of my normal 10 it still seems like I was up there forever. It was raining hard and it was miserable when I landed but I was home. I got home and prettied up a bit because I had an interview at 3:30 pm for the U of A. Before I went to the interview I had to stop by A’s work to pick up my references I got him to print for me. I hate interviews…I get so nervous and what I practice I’m going to say never comes out and all they hear is a lot of “Um, yeah, uh, um” coming from me. I don’t think it went well. They asked some questions I really had no answers or examples for. I had to take a computer test and I thought it was going to be like a typing test but I had to draft an email response and recreate an Excel spreadsheet. I got the spreadsheet done and was just starting on the email when time was up. Really, it is so hard to judge what a person is like in 30 minutes answer weird questions. I wish I had the guts to say I am a fast learner, enjoy a challenge and I know I can do that job and to hire me. The position has been empty for a bit and they are looking for the right person for the job so I might hear back in a week or two. If I am short listed and they contact my references I hope they will be blown away by the awesomeness they will say about me. They will let me know either way if I get the job or not. I’m going to try to be optimistic but I think I’m stuck up North for a little while longer *tear*

Thursday night A and I just chilled. I had a book I needed to return to the library and we picked up some corn and strawberries at the supermarket. We ate dinner and watched Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief (it wasn’t half bad).

Friday morning I had to be up, ready and out of the house for a 10 am interview in Sherwood Park. It is the job with the sister company I am working for now doing the same thing I am doing just in the city. It was weird because one of the people in the interview I know, he comes to visit up North a bit and he knows what I do and has said he has heard good things about me so it was weird explaining him my current job although he already knows. I don’t know how the interview went. I think it went better than the interview for the U of A job but just by a little bit. I was nervous again and I felt like I was sweating all over. Gross. After the interview was complete the HR lady introduced me to a head honcho dude (I can’t remember his name or his title, my brain was a little bit friend by then!). He asked for my resume and looked it over and asked a few questions. They still have some people to interview so it might be a while before I hear anything back.

I got home and did a little cleaning and then A and I headed off to Grant Mac to pick up some transcripts the U of A job requested (Why? I don’t know). Then we headed to Julio’s on Whyte because I needed a ginourmous drink after the stress I had. It was so so yummy! We got back to the car just before it started to rain. We went home and chilled the afternoon away and then went to see The Other Guys. It was pretty funny but a lot of WTF moments in it.

Saturday morning we met up with Darcy and Ee Wei for a cruise on the Edmonton Queen. It was a bit cloudy and it sprinkled rain for a about a second and it got nice again. It was decent food and good company and conversation. It was nice to do something that we normally wouldn’t do.

(Darcy, if you are going to make funny faces in photos those are the ones I`m going to post! I`m sure Ee Wei would like a `normal`picture once and a while *grin*)

The gourmet food…

A sign giving me permission to wear a fanny pack! Woo hoo! *grin*

After A and I went home and I spend the afternoon being crafty. Last weekend I was up I tackled cleaning the spare bedroom so I was actually able to see the desk and floor to get some stuff done. Next weekend is A’s cousins birthday and I’m not going to be here so I set about making a card. I ended up making 7 of the same card all using scrap paper! Making the initial design took a bit of time but once I had it done it was quick to copy and assemble. It felt good to use some of my supplies again. Hopefully soon *cross fingers* I’ll be back in the city again and I’ll be able to get my mojo craftiness back in gear! Saturday night we made dinner, watched The Nephew and just chilled at home. It felt nice to actually eat a home cooked meal! I am so sick of camp food!!!!! Of having to eat what is made even if I feel like something totally different. And usually what is made is deep fried or suspicious looking.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

On Sunday we went to my favourite place – Costco! We went to the West Edmonton location and Holy Moses it was busy! We came home and then went for a nice long walk at Rundle Park. We spent the rest of the afternoon just chilling. Sunday-itis kicked in like always as I realized my time off was coming to an end. I hate that feeling I get. Hate it.

Today I had a lovely dentist appointment and then had lunch with my mom. I stopped by a grocery store for some snack foods in camp and now I am doing laundry before I leave and getting ready to pack up. I was supposed to be on a 2 pm flight back to camp but last week I went into the Leads office and while he was on the phone wrote on his whiteboard: “Miles, I don’t like my flight coming back on Monday (2 pm = sucky!). Can you see if you can change it”. Thankfully he was able to get me an 8:10 pm flight tonight. I really didn’t want to hang out in my room all afternoon and have to suffer through one more night of camp food. When I found out he changed it I wrote on his whiteboard: “Miles, thank you! Veronica = smiley face”. I hope the flights aren’t screwy next time around. I don’t think I can talk myself into getting on a 2 pm flight at all! Ever! Taking the job up North I wasn’t as depressed at I was at St. Craps, even being gone for 10 days. But I thought I would have another job in the city by now so I am starting to get depressed and want out and feeling like I am missing out on stuff in the “real world”. I just want life to be back to normal! Ug. I`m being whiny again. I am trying not to be but the day I fly out it is usually pretty bad.

Pity Party

2010-08-07T18:26:00.001-06:00

Lately I've been feeling out of sorts. Life seems to be all about work. That is inevitable when you work where I do and the schedule I do. Four days off every 2 weeks is what "regular" people in the city working Monday to Friday jobs get off but they also have the luxury of being home every night. Those evenings they can go to movies, see friends, do laundry, hang out at home or whatever. It seems like time stops in the real world when I'm up in the middle of no where but at the same time I know I am missing out on a lot of things. I haven't scrapbooked in months and I haven't really purchased anything recently either (which is a good thing...back in the day when I worked at TM I ever wondered if I would be able to not purchase all the new stuff that gets released). I hear friends getting together or there are things that I'm invited to but I can't attend because I don't have that weekend off (like a wedding this weekend). I hear a lot of "think of the money" and "it's only 10 days". Easy things to say when it isn't you working and living up in the middle of no where. Yes, the money is nice. No one would be up here if it wasn't. And sure the money did help me in deciding to leave my job in the city but I also hated it and I was desperate to get out. If I could find a job in the city tomorrow I would be there. Screw the money. For Alaska I had 9 days off, one day shorter than a full shift I would work. That just doesn't seem right, when my vacations are shorter than a regular work shift. One blessing I have is that the group of people I work with are pretty great. Lately there have been some new hires and the dynamic has changed so it isn't as great as it used to be. And of course there is always workplace politics (which seem to have gotten worse the last month or so). Also, the flights have been screwy lately. I hate being at mercy to whatever flights are available to get me home and to work. I leave Thursday on the 10am flight but I have to come back to work on Monday on the 2pm flight. That means one extra day of eating camp food (yuck) and an afternoon spent sitting in my room. Fun times. Not.

I applied for a position in the Sherwood Park office last week and they called and I am going to have an interview on Friday (still need to confirm a time). It is almost the exact same thing I do up here. I really want the job but I am worried that they won't let me go back to the city. Yes, it would be easier for me to leave now since my counterpart Linda has arrived and the department wouldn't be left hanging if I left but it is easier to hire someone for a job in the city than to hire someone to come up here to take over my position (because no one really wants to come up here). I also received a call back for another job I applied for and have an interview with them Thursday afternoon. Hopefully something will happen with one of the jobs. I am also going to keep applying elsewhere. Can't find a new job if I don't apply for a new job.

Last weekend I took a couple extra days off. I had been thinking about it for a while since Linda is able to cover. I needed a vacation from my Alaskan vacation *grin* and I would have had a 2pm flight back on Monday. Holiday Monday. The day that A would have off. I flew back to work Wednesday night. It was weird because I felt like I had a life. On Sunday night I still had 3 more sleeps until I had to leave. I got to see everyone I wanted/needed to. I got to watch A play kickball Tuesday night and even though it was raining and we were being eaten alive by mosquitoes I had fun. I was able to clean the spare bedroom which had been used for a dumping ground for the last few months (hopefully it will inspire some mojo into me and I can use all my scrapbook product which just has been sitting gathering dust). It would be lovely to work a 8 on and 6 off schedule but I don't think that will ever happen...

Alaska – Day 7 – July 17

2010-07-27T19:11:00.002-06:00

Cruising the open seas – Heading Home :(

It was a nice relaxing day cruising the seas. We spent some time on the deck reading (and I ended up falling asleep for a few minutes). During our cruise the ship had little things happening through out the day like the galley tour, shopping specials, and wild life information sessions. They also had a scrapbooking thing go on. They had 4 they put on but I missed the first one on the first day at sea because I was sick and taking a nap. But I did manage to get 3. I will probably use bits and pieces of the kits when I get around to scrapbooking our trip.

After dinner on the deck

A cool logging ship carrier thingA family photo

Everyone checking out the view

A cruise ship following us

Pretty sunset

The ship was celebrating 20 years so there was cake! :)

We went to bed early because we were getting kicked off the ship the next morning at 7:55am! We had to have our bags packed and outside out room for 11pm. They would store them for us and we would pick them up after we got off the ship and went through Customs.

Fire at Firebag

2010-07-24T15:39:00.002-06:00

View from my office:

Update 9:33pm: When I left work at 5pm the wind was blowing in the opposite direction from camp and it had started to rain. I just got a notice under my door saying that the fire is now 3km away and has grown in size and check with my supervisor in the morning before returning to site. It also made mention that we can only take one small bag that can fit on our laps if we do need to evacuate and it lists all the meeting points. So, before I unplug my computer and pack it away just in case I need to get the hell out of here I thought I would give a quick update. I have had dreams before about fires and tornadoes and I've always thought I should have some sort of emergency bag just in case but I never thought I would have to use it if I did have one. This all feels so weird. 5 more sleeps until I am home and I am taking a few extra days off so I'll have 6 nights at home! That is what is making me get through this shift.

Update 6:29am July 25: Well, I am at work. When I look out the window I don't see anything anymore. You can sure smell smoke though. My bag is still packed and in my camp room just in case. Looks like it'll just be another day at the office.

Alaska – Day 6 – July 16

2010-07-23T19:15:00.002-06:00

Ketchikan, Alaska

Day 6 started off a little later than our other days. With all the excitement in Juneau we slept in till 9:30 am! Bliss! Even better was that morning there was a nice huge brunch buffet. Yummers! There was waffles, build your own omelette, spaghetti, and a variety of desserts.

I really wanted to take a big bite out of the cheese eagle! *grin*

We were able to watch the ship arrive in Ketchikan and dock.

FLOAT PLANE!!!!! :D

We purchased tickets to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show so once we got off the ship we had a brief time to look around and then had to find the theatre. They had it so two lumberjack camps were competing against each other. The Spruce Hill Camp (the Americans) and the Dawson Creek Camp (the Canadians). It was really fun to watch everything that the did.

The American Team.

Throwing axes

YO HO!

After we were right by Creek Street. Back in the old days Creek Street used to be the red light district with Dolly’s house being a favourite spot for the men…Today it is of course a tourist attraction with many different little cute stores. We ended up buying some jelly in one store that was made from salmonberry.

We got back to the ship just after seating closed for our second formal dinner. While we were getting food at the buffet I asked one of the waiters if there was any way we could get the dessert they were serving at the restaurant because we read it was Baked Alaskan. We were told we could actually order food off the restaurant menu for room service. Our room attendant who took the order didn’t know if he could get us a Baked Alaskan but he came through! We had Mama’s pork chop which was SO yummy!

Alaska – Day 5 – July 15

2010-07-22T19:42:00.001-06:00

Juneau, Alaska

Ahh, Juneau how I love thee. Of all the 3 (4 if you count Hubbard Glacier) Juneau was the place I liked the most. I got the first view of Juneau when we were walking outside on the deck to get to buffet breakfast. I thought it was just super cute. I will admit it is totally commercialized and geared towards tourists (duh). All the building are new-ish and built to look old and funky. But I still liked it.

A and I walked around the main street for about half an hour before we met up with his parents and bro & company to catch a bus to head to the Mendenhal Glacier. We could have gone with a tour for like $60 or pay $14 round trip to take a bus and we can wonder at will.

For the first few moments at the glacier it was cool (literally and figuratively ha ha ha) but I’ll admit we just saw a big chunk of ice the previous day and it got old and boring for me fast.

I loved the colour of the blue ice! All the colours of the rainbow were absorbed by the ice except the blue and that is why it is that colour.

A bit of glacier and a bit of waterfall…

HI!

On the bus ride on the way back our driver stopped by a creek where the fish were starting to swim up river to spawn (& die) and we could see some fish jumping out of the water and of course tons of eagles cause they are smart and know where to get an easy lunch from! *grin*

After we got back into A and stopped in for lunch at Twisted Fish and I ate a yummy fish sandwich (which is saying lots because I’m not a big fish person). Then we headed up the Mount Roberts Tram for a brief look around and then we headed back down because we had a 4pm float plane tour booked.

The view of down below

This is Lady Baltimore. A stupid person shot her in the eye and she broke her leg. Because one eye is gone and her leg isn’t the same she stays in a sanctuary on top of the mountain.

The float plane was different. It was loud! The landing on water was so smooth! And it didn’t make me feel yucky after the flight like the helicopter tour in the Grande Canyon did! It was different to see the glaciers from above. The cracks and crevasses were exceptional!

Our plane!

It was crazy how it would go from green and lush with water to instant ice.

After the float plane I supported Juneau’s economy! They had a Del Sol store which sold colour changing items (shirts, nail polish) that would change colour in the sun. Strange to have a sun store in Alaska when they are overcast and rainy a lot of the time…Also at the same time we were in Juneau the people who mine and make Ammolite jewellery (from Calgary) were in a store and having a trunk show (= discounts). I went into the store just to see what was there (A’s bro’s girlfriend bought a honking ring and I want to check things out). When I went into the store I didn’t have any intention of buying anything but after when we left (with my new necklace) A said he knew I was going to buy something. I met the 2 big head honchos and apparently I got a 73% discount. I haven’t really had time to check back in the city to see what “original” price items are. It doesn’t really matter (ok, it kinda does) but I like the necklace I got (took me long enough to decide) and it is a nice memory.

All in all it was a great day albeit a long day.

Alaska – Day 4 – July 14

2010-07-21T18:57:00.001-06:00

Hubbard Glacier

Day 4 was another cruising day but this day we cruised to the Hubbard Glacier. There are government rules and regulations on how close a cruise ship can sail to the glacier and we later found out that our cruise ship was able to go the closest the law allows. I guess the weather was right (and the weather being right I mean cold and snow/raining). They had people out in full force while we were all out on deck trying to get a good look at the glacier selling mugs with hot chocolate and brandy for $10. I had to say no to the same person(s) a billion times. It got quiet annoying. $10 or go inside and make my own hot chocolate for free? Humm….

Me chilling on deck with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book

The glacier from afar

Some cute little harbour seals hanging out on piece of ice

My cute new $30 Alaskan pink jacket :)

Yeah! for glaciers!

After we set sail away from the glacier and toward Juneau they had the carving specialist come out and give a demonstration. He is super awesome because I saw him the day before carving a watermelon. He does all the carving on the ship. He just went at the block of ice chopping away. He finished the sculpture in 8 minutes!

Ta da! Finished product.

Windows Live Writer

2010-07-20T19:24:00.001-06:00

I am amazed so I had to share this with all my bloggy peeps who upload a gazillion photos to blogger and have a hard time with the HTML code and errors. You can download Windows Live Writer here.

Once you download the program, you will enter your Google user name and password and let it know which blog you want to publish to. Once you do that it will recognize how your blog is formatted and give you the perfect amount of writing space to fit your blog. Uploading photos is a snap and you no longer need to worry about the order of uploading, like in Blogger. You can resize your photos quickly without messing in the HTML coding and also crop them and add effects. And Lisa K – you can also rotate your photos (I know you sometimes have problems with that). You can tilt your photo, like I did below, make it look like a Polaroid and easily add a watermark selecting from a gazillion different font choices.

As you’re typing your post, you can just drag and drop the photos to different locations. Oh, you can add tables, insert a photo album, insert a map of a location…the list goes on. I think you get the message…it’s just SOOOO much easier than Blogger. Try it! You will never go back to the old way again! You can thank me later *grin*