come visit my life today ...

Wake up - hit the snooze button cause for some reason you are EXHAUSTED.


Turn off alarm because now you are running late. 


Find yourself sitting on the edge of the counter to put in your contacts because standing there is SO hard for some reason.


Go to work and be cranky with every single co-worker (then later apologize and they just shake it off cause they are male and you're the overly sensitive emotional female one) 


Leave work early cause its ACTUALLY your day off but you had to go in and take care of a few clients orders because they were time sensitive. (once again explaining to your coworkers how much you hate your normal routine being interrupted and then avoid the OCD comments)


Lay on your couch reading "BossyPants" by Tina Fey (and laugh hysterically) while the most amazing man in the whole world proceeds to clean your house around your lazy butt. (I did throw the sheets in the washing machine) 


Go to WalMart to pick up ingredients for you to make Shepherds pie (because Mr Wonderful really wants it and since he mopped, moved your feet ONTO the coffee table and then mopped where they were, he totally deserves it) 


Come home and send Mr Wonderful and his buddy to get coffee while you watch Dr Phil. Realise that both Mr Wonderful AND buddy want to watch the crazy mother in law on Dr Phil. (Mr Wonderful loves his someday mother in law btw)


Make Shepherds pie - accept compliments of amazing cooking abilities. Wait for them to finish and give more compliments before you inform them it was all soy/organic ingredients - watch faces fall as they realise they didn't notice the difference.


Take your vitamins. Again, sit on the edge of the counter to take out your contacts and realise that you feel like its 9 million degrees in your bathroom. Wash face with cold water then realise that your feet are freezing and maybe you should double up the vitamins. 


Climb into bed amid the sounds of NHL hockey on the xbox  - write your blog and realise that yeah maybe you feel crappy but all in all it was a pretty great day. 


(currently shivering and wondering if I should go get a flu shot or maybe its too late and I've already been contaminated) 

You MUST read this book - its absolutely hilarious
No really - ask P - I was laughing OUT LOUD so HARD

Well well well....

   I have been so busy the past while its driving me crazy. I feel like I don't have time to do anything for myself lately. I am kind of feeling lost a bit. How do all those working moms and career women do it? I don't think I'm working too much but I think that its the fact that my shift starts in the late morning and that kind of throws off my whole day of being productive. 




I think I need something to kick start me back into the motivation to do things for myself .... normally I would make a date to take myself for cheesecake, the whole lactose intolerance revelation has kind of put a damper on that. And maybe that is what a lot of my issue is - I miss cheese, and milk and baked yumminess. I am definitely an emotional eater so when I'm feeling blah and down, I would go to the fridge, slice a few pieces of cheese and some pickles and grab the crackers and it would just cheer me up. Just letting you know that soy cheese DOES NOT lift my spirits. 


I probably just need to start working out again - that always seems to change my attitude a bit. Now if I could just pull myself out of bed ... soy milk in my coffee is ALSO not helping lift my spirits 

*sigh* 

I can be crafty too!

Time off work while feeling ill = So BoReD!!!

I have been looking for things to do while I'm home. Yay for Pinterest. But I actually had a craft that a friend of mine did in high school and I always wanted to do too.... just never found the time (so, I've been busy since birth I think) 


Pens are a must in my life, I have to write EVERYTHING down. If its not written in my agenda then it doesn't exist. I used to put everything into my BlackBerry but then I have to actually LOOK at that application on my BlackBerry which is usually at the bottom of my massive bag and by the time I fish it out I have missed what I was supposed to do. For some reason the action of physically WRITING something down makes it stick in my brain better.


Anyways, I hate ugly pens. I have always hidden my pens in a drawer or behind stuff,  and then... I can't find them right when I need them.

Step 1 - Buy ugly pens and CUTE flowers (DollarStore has tons of bunches)

 

Step 2 - Cut a single flower off the bunch, tape the "stem" down the side of the Ugly Pen
I used green tape cause I had it left over but masking tape or anything works

Step 3: Cover from the top of the Ugly Pen over the taped part with Floral Tape
(Also found at the dollar store) also sometimes called Stem Wrap
Just wrap it around tight at a bit of an angle down the pen. 

Step 4: Continue until all your Ugly Pens are covered

Ta-Da!! Pretty pens! 

And I'm Back!

Wow I have been so crazy busy and haven't even turned on my laptop in weeks. Sorry !!  (I even got the comment the other day from a friend I ran into that she hasn't seen me on Facebook in "forever" haha) 


So things have been hectic around here. I'll update as I can over the next few days.


I have actually been off work for about a week now and I don't go back in until Monday. I have been having a lot of stomach problems over the past month - just kept feeling like I had a flu bug and could not shake it. Anyways, it finally got so bad that I left work and was in bed for a day - so I made a doctors appointment. Well, after basically draining my body of blood the results are in - I'm very lactose intolerant. 


Ok - confusion, the last time I actually drank a glass of milk, I think cookies were involved and I am pretty sure I was doing homework. (ok maybe not that far back but I haven't been much of a milk drinker as an adult) So I had a talk with my doctor - its not just the milk, its anything that contains lactose. Do YOU know HOW many things contain lactose??? Maybe I'm just dumb but I was shocked at reading the labels in the grocery store of things I normally just pick up and don't think twice about. 


So for the next 3 months I am on a completely lactose free diet, then once my body has had that time to repair itself a bit (apparently I have some damage) I can start taking these pills that allow my body to break down lactose without making me sick. 


Man do I want a Dairy Queen Blizzard ;-) 


But as far as things go - this is REALLY easy to manage. When they start talking about Crohns and Celiac's and all those scary terms, no dairy isn't that bad at all. 


Well except soy cheese is kinda .... weird. *gag face*

If you need me....

P has gone away up north to work for a few days  :-(  on a happy note I got an email from the library today that a book I had put on hold was waiting for me!!

 If you need me I'll be reading! <3 

Sour Cream Chicken

I have become addicted to Pinterest.com . It is AMAZING! If you aren't addicted yet you should check it out but plan on spending some serious time going through all the amazing things on there.

 Anyways, I have found that there are amazing recipes on there - and I have started collecting. P is NOT a picky eater at all so I am free to basically experiment at any time and he'll eat it. (Sometimes he'll inform me afterwards its not a keeper) 

Tonight we tried Sour Cream Chicken and its a KEEPER! 

Absolutely delicious (and I didn't use Pepperidge Farms bread crumbs because they were impossible to find) 

If you click on the link above it will take you directly to the recipe that I found on pinterest.

I suggest you try this - SO good and really simple. I threw it together after work and watched America's Next Top Model at the same time ;-) 

Time to pop in the oven for half an hour (used fillets instead of full breasts)

Absolutely delicious! Its in our box of GOOD FOOD

Enjoy! 

New House!

We did it!! 


LOVING the new house. P got home the night before moving day so we stayed up kinda late getting organised then woke up early to do the walk thru and get our keys - then it was MOVING TIME. We were lucky to borrow P's dad's truck and B came and helped us out A TON! I don't know how we had so much stuff crammed into such a tiny little space. But now we are loving life.


I have a normal sized kitchen and I am so excited to COOK in it! Makes me super happy to have counter top space and enough storage to keep on hand that I don't feel like I am running to the grocery store every single day to get something to make dinner with! 


Also have a new kitchen table and chairs that P put together (with a fair amount of curse words) all by himself with me drinking a Pepsi and supervising and rolling my eyes at him. Kinda feeling grown up lately ... I'm sure that will pass soon. 

I'm officially home!! 

Most of my stuff ... nothing lost or broken! 

The really large living room with HUGE windows - I <3 Light!

The other side of the living room - and more stuff

Eek!! Sooooo excited to use this kitchen!

Insomnia

Thursday's Art Class Study

So one of the perks of insomnia is I end up drawing. 


I started back at Drawing Classes on Thursday and I was SOOO excited. It is so great to be back in a classroom environment where you have someone to ask "why does this look dumb" and get a real answer, not to mention learning from others in the class who have different perspectives or ideas. Its so fantastic. I can't wait for Thursday to come again. 


My homework is to try and sketch some of my friends if I possibly can. The hard thing is with work and trying to pack up the house, the only real time I find my self centered enough to draw is when normal people of the world are sleeping. Thank goodness for Facebook and google images. 

I'll never design for Jimmy Choo :-( 

Here are some things I've been working on and like enough to put up

oooh lucky ... or something 

Back to schoooooool !

I think I'll go back to class too .... 

I start drawing classes again TOMORROW!!

I am super excited and can't wait!! YAY!!

Here are some of my daily sketches I have been working on just getting all pumped up for class. Enjoy ! 

So busy lately!

My life is SO hectic lately! So many things are changing and work has picked up x 1000 due to school being back in session - would you believe I did a quote for a hockey team today? YIKES! 


Ok first change - we are moving! (not that far tho don't worry) Just a couple blocks away. Our place now is fantastic but we have seemed to outgrow the more settled I become (that means the more I make it a home rather than a place all our crap sits in boxes under the stairs)  We have tried a few ways of rearranging and have finally just decided its not going to work. 

APARTMENT HUNTING IS STRESSFUL

Those of you who have more than just 2 people and 1 fish in your family, I don't know how you do it. My hat off to people who trek with children and pets in town to whole new cities or countries. 

But we found a new place and get our keys very soon so we can start hauling our stuff over. (Of course we got word that the place was ours the night before P went to a job - talk about down to the wire) 

Guess it looks like boxes will be my life for the next few weeks - that's ok. I am REALLY excited for this move. Its our first big time step together (P lived in our current place for about a year before we even started dating) 

Walking in the Coulees

This weekend we had NO plans! It was actually kind of a really nice break, to not be expected to be anywhere for anything. I slept in which was fantastic! Then P wanted to go for a walk. 


So we went to Pavan Park and went for a lovely walk in the trees where it was nice and cool. 


Had a wonderful walk together and just enjoyed each others company for the afternoon

Such a pretty day

Walking down the horse trail

Sexy pose or tired from walking ? Either way he's adorable

True Love <3 

"The Mortal Instruments" By Cassandra Clare

Last year a friend of mine loaned me these 3 books and I LOVED them! The story throughout the entire trilogy is just fantastic and I really enjoyed all the characters and the plots and twists in the story. So I was pretty excited when my sister let me know that its not actually a trilogy, but a NEW 4th book came out!! YAY!! So I got it from the library and am reading it this week. So excited! Kind of missed Clary and Simon and Isabelle and all the rest... 

So here it goes... chapter 1 (if you haven't read the first 3 definitely pick them up - soooo great!)

"Sundays at Tiffany's" by James Patterson & Gabrielle Charbonnet

Really enjoyed this read! 

 Found this book listed on another user's 'list' at the library along with other books I had already read and enjoyed. I am SO happy that I did. It was fantastic. 

A little girl has an imaginary friend - and like all imaginary friends he eventually has to leave her. But 20 years go by and she ends up running into him... such a great story. 

Don't you wonder whatever happened to your imaginary friends?

And of course its set in New York City which I always love reading about. Beautiful descriptions of where its set. 

Would definitely recommend this! 

Sketches (August 12 2011)

Another week ... 


Always seem to be playing catch up ;-) 


Enjoy <3 

Day 10 

Day 11 - Sort of, almost, close to Celtic-ish

Day 12 - Used to lay under my mom's grand piano
and listen to her play ... really miss it.

Day 13 - a sketch of the locket I wear

"Torment" by Lauren Kate

Torment

Good name for this book as that is basically what it did to me. I will try to not give too much of the story away.

This is book #2 in the Fallen series (you remember I read Fallen in March? ) 


Book 2 picks up exactly where the first left off which was kind of nice as it reminded me of what exactly what happening in the story.


Less confusing than the first book - since you know who everyone really is - but I had a bit of frustrated feelings towards Luce. She seemed so helpless in the situations she was thrown into. She would step up and take charge and then jump right back down into being a damsel in distress... Maybe I'm just being hard on her. 


The ending really made me happy. To see her finally make a decision - even a potentially disastrous one - was awesome. 


There are parts to the love story that I just can't wrap my head around. I think that I just need to get more information about their past to understand WHY there is such a deep level of love. (Maybe I'm a bit jaded in the love department)


Also, I am in love. But when I look at P, I can maintain my own thoughts and feelings and decisions and not just give into whatever he is saying (even if he is gorgeous). Then again I'm not a 17 year old girl. That could have a lot to do with it ;-) 


All in all a good light read (took me 3 sittings) and I have already put Passion on hold at the library. 

Cardston Heritage Days

I had the greatest weekend!! 

Saturday morning got up pretty early and drove down to Cardston to meet up with the family (Thank you to the Boyson's who continually let us invade their front yard every year!) 

The parade this year was so much fun - Could be I also had a nephew to use as cover for getting all my favourite candy!!! YAAAY! He was so cute. He would have his hands completely full of candy and would look up at me with this adorable face completely overwhelmed with what to do with it all. Thankfully his mommy kept it all in her lap so we could go get more! 

Ran into a lot of people I haven't seen for a while - always a fun thing to see how much everyone has "grown up" teehee

Went to the Ranch Rodeo at the agridome - it was AWESOME!! I definitely should have remembered sunscreen (oops) but it was a riot sitting out in the beautiful sunshine watching some amazing cowboys!! 

Had Pizza's and Cream for dinner (Gunsmoke btw) P had never been there before and I was pleased to say he agreed it was GREAT food! <3 

Then back to the agridome for more rodeo. My dad thinks he's gonna get P to be a cowboy now. Hilarious. P's considering cowboy boots... and maybe a hat. Baby steps sweetheart. 

All in all it was a great day and I must say I had an absolute riot hanging out with my family!! Can't wait till next year!! 

Sketches

I have been SO busy the past little while it feels like! Crazy. All my sketches have been lacking in creativity - just little 5 minute drawings before I pass out in bed. So I apologise for their lack in drama/passion. I promise this week they will be better ones... ok I promise to at least attempt ;-) 

Day 4  August 3 - super sunny day out today

Day 5  August 4  - Finished reading "The Girl who kicked the Hornets Nest"

Day 6 August 5 - before the cell phone eh? 

Day 7 August 6  - this looked cooler in my head... blech

Day 8 August 7 - My sisters Birthday today! 

Day 9 August 8 - Was just a water bottle sitting in front of me

Stieg Larsson - "Millennium Trilogy"

#1 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

#2 The Girl Who Played with Fire

#3 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest

I really enjoyed this series! Lisbeth Salander is such a strange and intriguing character. I felt like there were parts of her that any person can connect to. No matter what extremes she goes to, I found myself totally cheering her on. 

Completely sucked me in from the first chapter. The characters are so complex and there are so many factors to the story, and it is SO well done. You can tell that a lot of hours were spent on research. I actually felt like I was reading a true story at some points. 

The details about where the story takes place is amazing. I didn't even feel the need to google a map of Stockholm, I just felt like I was being guided by someone who knew the area inside and out. Was really great cause usually I feel "lost" in books that are about foreign places.

The books are pretty long, but they are so interesting that I found that I just wanted to read them cover to cover. 

Fully enjoyed these books. I will probably read the entire series again eventually. 

*Pretty harsh language in them and some graphic scenes so just a bit of a warning to more sensitive people. 

Inspiration

"I draw like other people bite their nails." ~ Pablo Picasso

I am a self admitted Twitter addict. I think I follow about 100 different people. It used to be worse, I was checking tweets on my phone pretty much 3 times an hour, but I have cut down and make sure to not be quite so addicted to it.

One of the people I follow is Kat Von D from TLC's LA Ink.  She has been doing a Sketch-of-the-day for over 100 days. I think its a really great idea. You are forced to be creative or find something to sketch every day! So I have started my own sketch of the day on my twitter but I thought it might be fun to update it on here as well. I will probably just post a couple times a week rather than every single day (as I don't have blogger on my phone ... yet ... I'm sure I could download it but then we have a whole new addiction to deal with!)

Feel free to leave comments unless you hate them (just kidding) 

Day 1 - July 31 2011
I was craving strawberries today

Day 2 - August 1 2011
Saw a lot of Wild Roses out on the horses today. Beautiful

Day 3 - August 2 2011
No reason for this ... just felt like it

New Bedspread!

I finally chose a new bedspread! Its been a struggle cause I'm kind of picky (stop snickering)

I'm so excited about it! This picture is kind of not great - its a bit darker in real life - I just had the windows open so it seems a lot brighter. 

Slowly my house is getting "grown up" ! yay!! 

Goodbye Wisdom...Tooth

I have been in zombie mode for about a week ... but I am feeling better so I will tell you my story!

Just about a year ago I was leaving a nightclub (shhhh mom I know I know) with some friends. They were walking ahead of me and out of NOWHERE I was attacked by a random woman I had never seen before in my life. She hit me square in the face and knocked me into the brick wall of the building. OUCH!! I wish I could say that I fought her off but I was literally so shocked I just screamed at the top of my lungs and got the attention of a bunch of people and they came to rescue me. The police were there in record time unfortunately the woman took off in an unregistered car with Manitoba licence plates - would have pressed charges if there was any way to.

Ok - so my wisdom tooth was chipped due to that night and has been slowly getting worse and worse. I thought I was lucky like my dad. My wisdom teeth grew in when I was about 19 just like regular molars and there were no complications so I thought I was gonna get to keep them - NOPE 

Last week I was in so much pain from another part of my tooth breaking off that I finally went to the dentist (those of you who know me well are most likely shocked)

Tuesday  - I had the tooth pulled and it was pretty icky. P took me and drove me home and I really don't remember a lot of it (I was put under due to a lot of anxiety that I have when it comes to needles/blood/pain/teeth)  The next 3 days were probably some of the worst I have had. Was really sick, some from the drugs but mostly I was SO grossed out by the feeling in my mouth and the stitches. Even now that they are starting to dissolve and I am basically feeling great - it REALLY skeeves me out to feel them .... ew ew ew happy thoughts. 

So I am doing SO MUCH better today. I am still fighting a headache on the side of my head where the tooth was removed but I have done some research and that sounds about normal and probably will bother me for another week or so. 

Can't wait to chew normally-ish again. P made sure to get me McDonald's fries once I was able to eat them and he even told me I was pretty while my lips were swollen and I had THE biggest blackest bags under my eyes. That guy must love me lots. I'm super lucky he took such good care of me!! 

Calgary Stampede!!

YEEEEHHHAAAWWW!!!! 

We got to go to the Calgary Stampede on July 8th. I was SO excited. I took P & B (neither of them had ever been!!) 

So they had to attend a BBQ for their job so I drove myself up (which was great as I rocked out to Nickelback the ENTIRE drive up!)  Then we met up in Okotoks and drove into the city. Neither of the boys had ever been on the C-train before. I think they were nervous but didn't want to tell me they didn't trust me to get them there safe. haha! 

BUT!!! We made it safe!! Got to the Stampede grounds and met up with a friend of mine and we went around playing all the games that we thought we could win. At one booth I paid the guy $5 to guess my age. He had to be within 2 years... and he guessed that I was 22!! HAHA So I got a green wormy guy!! YAY ME! 

Our winnings!! We cleaned up!

We went to the Coca Cola stage for the free concerts! First up was State of Shock and they were AWESOME. I kind of forgot about them for a couple years and I'm not really sure why. But they did really good - even tho it was raining. 

State of Shock - it was raining and SO cold but really fun!

The next band up was My Darkest Days and they were REALLY great. The sun even came out for a bit during their set which was kind of nice. Still was freaking cold (I was in a short skirt)  

My Darkest Days - after we got sound back!

Had a lot of fun! (I always do in Calgary, its one of my favourite places in the world) And I think the boys even had some fun too! 

<3 him 

Thunder Storms

One of the things I really love about summer are the thunder and lightening. I'm not sure if its because it cools everything off or because I have so many memories of "hiding" from the storm with my mom under blanket forts when I was a little girl. But they are truly one of the best things about summer! Tonight it was so much lightening that I just HAD to video it. Sorry for the crappy quality - the only video cameras I own are my blackberry or my webcam on my laptop! LOL ! But I think you can see it pretty good. 

Maybe I should call and make sure that my mom has a blanket fort built up. ;-) 

CANADA DAY!!

What a wonderful Canada Day this year!! Started off with a run to Tim Hortons (how else can you start a celebration of our country?) Then me, P & B went to Henderson Lake for the celebration down there. I was actually pleasantly surprised of all the things they had available this year! Facepainting and shaved ice, pitas and cotton candy, live bands and bubble guns (P wanted one but we never did end up going to that booth) 

I just embrace my awkwardness... no point in fighting it
RED shirt for Canada Day! Soon to have red shoulders

he's so yummy.... *sigh*

really into the bagpipes   - mentioned he wanted to start a mosh pit

so happy he's home!!! 

We were there for a while and then I needed a break from the sun (as wonderfully nice as it was out, I still don't do all that well in the hot sunshine, usually need a bit of a shade break) So we all went for dinner at Boston Pizza and then went to the movie Tron in 3D - btw, pulls off the red cape SO much better than Superman! 

The fireworks at Henderson were AWESOME!! I really enjoyed them this year!! GREAT JOB LETHBRIDGE