106 kicks

blogging done for now

2009-01-16T13:22:00.000-08:00

hello to everyone who reads my blog

as you probably know I haven't written for a while and I don't really plan on writing anymore blogs. I enjoy facebook a lot more, it is a lot easier to put up pictures and such. So good bye, this blog was fun but I have only one friend that still writes blogs so it is not very condusive to good conversation...thanks for reading!
Jessica

Branson Trip

2008-09-02T10:36:00.000-07:00

So this weekend was Steven and I's much anticipated road trip to Branson Missouri. It was a four hour drive straight south and on the way we stopped off to go to "crystal cave" similar to the other cave we went to in May, but this one was more on the primitive side. It was discovered in the early 1800's and not much has changed since the 1930's except for the lighting. We got a tour from a 91 year old gentlemen who took us with a few other couples and a big mennonite family. There was an old native american graveyard inside and some carved symbols on the walls from them as well. Pretty crazy how old that cave is. After that we went to Branson a town of 6'000 people - but astonishingly it was freakishly packed with tourists so that it was faster to walk than to take a vehicle....I thought that when people told me that Branson's traffic was bad they were just being extreme, but I have never been in traffic that bad that started early in the morning and ended at about midnight. It was crazy. I would compare it to New York (from what I have seen in the movies.) I think that the traffic could make it or break it for people visiting Branson. Thank goodness for our GPS that saved us many times and we found back roads that we never would have found if it wasn't for our navigation tool. ANYWAY, we went to a ventriloquism / magic show (very cool), ate at a diner where all the waiters and waitresses sang to you (some of them were even final contestants on american idol!) and went to a hollywood wax museum. We also went to the historic railway and boat landing on the river. We walked through "historic branson" and it was really enjoyable. Steven had crab for the first time (or at least he doesn't remember eating it before) at "Joe's Crab shack." On sunday we were invited by Brook and Scott from our church to join them at their parent's lake house. So we went boating, tubing, and swimming, and had a really nice time with them. Swimming in lakes down here is wonderful! The water is SOOO WARM! Like a nice bath! The funniest part about that day though was this dog named "gary" which was funny from the start, but he was about 5 pounds, 8 months and full grown. He had an underbite and a lion-looking face, but just this scrawny little thing, and he was always in trouble which was funnier because people were yelling "Gary! Stop that! Gary! Get outta here!" And he was such a trouble maker too. So it was all day long. And if you haven't figured it out yet, Gary is my dad's name, so that's why I found it so funny. Anyway, here are some pictures from our weekend, and the dog in the pictures is Gary. Pretty funny looking dog. (or rat some would say) So the weekend was a lot of fun and definitly worth the trip!

Removing shoes before entering house = VERY WEIRD

2008-08-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Although not as embarrassing as before(e.i. communion story), this is another embarrassing church story. So last week at church there was a women who had severly broken her arm horsebackriding. Our pastor Eric announced that it would be extremely difficult for her this week to be making supper so if people wanted to donate their time and make her supper, he was sure she would appreciate this. So I decided that I would help and make her some supper. Soooo. That week after preparing a crock pot roast for Sarah and her teenage daughter, Steven and I drove to a gorgeous acreage log cabiny type house. Sarah anserwed the door and so we stepped in and removed our shoes. Well Sarah thought this was really strange and not wanting to be rude we explained to her that we were Canadian, this is something that Canadians do that American's obviously don't. She was quite shocked and kept asking us questions about why and how. Anyway, we had a little visit at her house and then went home. At church yesterday Pastor Eric thanked a particular couple for bringing Sarah and her family a supper, and didn't mention Steven and I which was fine when all of a sudden from behind us we hear: "And Steven and Jessica brought us a lovely roast!.....(she pauses)....and they took off their shoes before they came in!" Everyone is kind of silent because this isn't exactly something that is funny, more like strange for these americans. So then she goes "They're Canadian! and they take their shoes off!" And still everybody is quite silent because this still doesn't really explain why us Canadians take our shoes off, it kind of just made us look like weird fanatical shoe removal freaks. So then Pastor Eric asks rather suddenly..."so are their shoes still there?" (Scattered chuckles from around the congregation...) Then Pastor Eric says, "Thanks Steven and Jessica for coming all the way from Canada to deliver supper for Sarah" The church kind of laughed... We said "no problem." And then the church service kind of went on as usual.....but I still feel pretty weird. So, it doesn't sound all that embarrassing....but trust me, my face was red.

2008-08-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Soooooo, nothing much new to post, I'm pretty much just writing out of boredom.

So Steven and I finished our two trips back to Edmonton this summer. It was really nice and sometimes I really don't know what we are doing in kansas city at all.....everyone we care about lives in edmonton. I hate to complain ... but I'm not doing so well right now. Not that happy to be down here really. Other than that tonight I have an awkward situation that I must deal with. So. Here it is: One lady from Steven's coworkers wives invited Steve and I to taco dinner and uno playing with some olympic watching I'm sure. The trouble is I just got a phone call from another one of the wives who was clearly not invited to taco and uno night, and invited Steven and I to a movie. I hate it when I'm the one who has to deal with other people not inviting eachother to whatever.

It has been really nice weather down here. Not too hot at all, and not really even that humid can you believe it! I almost cannot since it has been unbearable since May. It makes me really excited and I have been outside a lot more now.

I went to the pet store yesterday out of boredom to visit some puppies. Steven and I have discussed it and we cannot have any pets while we live in this tiny apartment and also while we don't live in Edmonton. (For various traveling and other reasons.) But I saw some "Morkies" (Yorkshire Terriers and Maltese crosses) a Dashund, a "Bichi-poo" (Bichon Fries and Poodle) ...that thing was the cutest most fluffiest thing you ever saw. Also a shetland sheepdog puppy and two Puggles! Puggles are apparently "designer dogs" meaning you specifically mix (in this case) one beagle and one pug to make a litter of puggles! There are no puggles making puggles I guess, this is a rule for some reason. Puggles are ridiculously cute! wow. I will have to keep them high on my list for particular dog breeds that I like.

So anyway, that is a puggle for your information. Try to control yourself before you call up the nearest breeder and arrange a similarily adorable creature to be yours.

I wish I could have a dog....someday though that would be nice.

Anyway, I got nothin. Hopefully I can get back into blogging....

Cariboo not accepted here....

2008-06-18T08:20:00.001-07:00

So I decided to do some laundry in the basment of the apartment. It is a coin operated laundry machine. I looked through my quarters and found that I was short one american quarter. I was debating going to the store to get change when I had a genious idea! Why not use some of my Canadian quarters that were currently collecting dust? (We found that through all the sorting and moving in, we found some Canadian change that adds up to about $9) So I brought all my laundry downstairs (a load of whites) and put it in the laundry machine with a dash of bleach and put the quarters (and the one Canadian quarter) in their respected slots. Well that did not go over so well. After jamming it up and trying several times to just try to "slam through it"....I realized I wasn't getting anywhere. So.....I took all my laundry out and had to bring it to the laundromat. By the time I washed it the bleach had destroyed our duvet cover, and left some marks on a swim suit, and my favorite capris.

I attempted this quarter exchange last week, yesterday I checked on the washing machine and it had a sign that said :

"Washing machine broken... (coins jammed)"

Well I am certainly not going to complain about the broken washing machine. The brutal part is that the people who run these buildings know that Steven and I moved here from Canada and if I was to complain it would be too easy for them to put 2 and 2 together......

So I have to do my business (laundry business anyway) at the laundromat now....and I don't try to slip any Canadian Cariboo quarters in anymore... I learned my lesson.

Happy Friday!

2008-06-13T15:38:00.001-07:00

This is one of my favorite pictures from our wedding besides some of the ones with Steve of course! Nobody looks bad, everyone looks good!

So today is friday. Fridays are pretty sweet.....even when I had to work them they were good, and now they couldn't be any better! Steven and I try to do something new and exciting on the weekends and I don't know what exactly we will do, but I know it is going to be fun! Last weekend we went to the waterpark.....during this week we went to another waterpark. Maybe this weekend will also have another waterpark visit. It really beats the heat like nothing else. Anyway. I'm just excited. Weekends are the best. Steven and I bought two season passes to a place called "Union Station." It is an old train station that has been restored beautifully and has a space and science type center, an Imax screen, a planetarium screen, (the dome type screens), restaurants which we now have a discount for, gift shops, and other tours. So we think we will watch a 3-D movie about the ocean. I can't wait. Should be crazy! Other than that, there are so many fun things to do around here! I'm not feeling as homesick lately because I know that I am going back soon enough.

p.s. 12 more days till I'm back in Edmonton!

UPDATE. This is the latest Jessica and Steven news.

2008-06-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

It is hot here. Seriously. Everyday I go outside and I just think "what the heck." The people here say that August is a horrible month. Apparently you just don't go outside. It's just so hot.

hmmmmmmmm. Sounds a little like Edmonton in January. With reverse temperatures of course.

Anyway. The past events of this week have been this:

Last tuesday (June 3rd) : A birthday celebration in the morning for two of the women who came down from Canada with us all. Cupcakes and coffee were on the menu.
-Later on that evening a crazy storm hit us with wind, rain, and hail. It hails here pretty much once a week. People get golfball size hail and never have I seen so many dented vehicles from hail. (This storm happened during our small group time.)

I can barely remember the rest of the week at all actually....
oh yes. Thursday. I went to the zoo with Shauna. It was so hot. Not only was I a sweaty mess, but I drank 3 big water bottles full of water. So I also went to the bathroom 4 times in the span of 2 1/2 hours. Next time I go to the zoo, I go in the morning. We didn't see to many of the animals, I guess they didn't want to be outside either.

Friday Steven, Tim, Shauna, and I all went to a Chinese place called Blue Koi. No Chinese people were working there at all.....But then again we aren't in Edmonton. I have noticed that I rarely see oriental people or middle eastern people here at all. Edmonton is more culturally diverse.

Saturday Steven and I went to see the Chiefs practice, kind of a rally for the fans. That was fun. Then we went to an outdoor waterpark in Independance. We put on lots of sunscreen so we weren't burnt. Then we were really tired and went home and watched a movie. It started raining and hailing again. Good grief. It's too bad we have no place to park our car inside!

Sunday was church, and then Steven and I cleaned the apartment, organized and went through everything we brought down and threw a few things out. We also discovered a few things we wished we wouldn't have brought down and have decided to give it away to Good Will or whatever they have down here. This apartment is small. Which in a way is good. Because we can only bring back what can fit in the Cavalier anyway! At the end of the day, (surprise) a storm with crazy lighting, thunder, and rain came, but no hail this time.

I have the countdown to come back to Edmonton on. 15 days now. Can't wait! That means 19 days till Amy and Aaron's wedding! Woe. That is crazy. I bought a dress yesterday at Target! So I am ready to go!

Homesick right now.

2008-05-30T13:18:00.002-07:00

Hey all! I haven't been up to much lately. I booked my flight back to Edmonton at the end of June so that is exciting. It is really hot here today. 30 degrees and humid. But it is not that enjoyable when you have no one to enjoy the heat with (during the day.) Although we haven't been alone for long as Dirk and Bea left on Tuesday morning this week. I was pretty sad about that. We did many touristy things with them and had a lot of fun discovering Missouri. I am a official tour guide of Missouri if anyone ever wants to come down! I know the best places to go! You will never be bored.

Yesterday I went to Shauna's apartment's pool. Shauna is a girlfriend to one of Steven's coworkers. It was nice and warm yesterday too. We just swam for a bit and read books and magazines when we weren't in the pool.

I have been really wanting a job lately (weird). I always find that summer is a very motivating time for me to want to work strangely enough. I guess the heat never gets to the extreme like it does here where it actually debilitates you from wanting to do anything. I just want to be home right now, even though there is no such thing as home right now. I feel comfortable here enough because all of my things are here and I have my own space, and I know that I don't have that in Edmonton. Steven and I both have been quite homesick since his parents have left.

So the weather is calling for some pretty extreme weather. Tornado warnings and type weather are being called for all regions swooping south under missouri to the east and north east of missouri. (That is what I watched on good morning America this morning.) If you want to watch what I watched, go to this page and watch the video.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/Weather/wireStory?id=4961421

This web site gave an interesting fact, and maybe a little bit of a scary fact: "With the year not even half done, 2008 is already the deadliest tornado year in the United States since 1998 and seems on track to break the U.S. record for the number of twisters in a year, according to the National Weather Service. Also, this year's storms seem to be unusually powerful."(http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=4941803)

Soooo, weather is a little scary today with the super hot day today and the intense storms predicted for tonight and the tornado warnings sweeping the mid-west. We were going to go to a baseball game tonight but I think that we are not going to be doing that anymore!

Back to the Blog

2008-05-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay! I really don't have an excuse!

Soooo, nothing really all that interesting or blog worthy has really come up and so there isn't much to write about. On friday it was "girls night out" and us ladies went to the "power and light district" down town. It was pretty fun but rediculously expensive. On saturday Steven and I went to "First Watch" (you will see a lot of these if you come down here) they are breakfast brunch and lunch restaurants and they don't serve supper. then we went to "Ace-West Hardware" and on a wim added a new member to our family! An impatient that is going to be our new windowsil plant! Well, it was full of flowers too many to count and so we lovingly bought it some fertilizer sticks for indoor/ outdoor plants. We asked the worker about what would be a good plant for inside and 3 hours of sun and this is what he suggested. Well. That guy I just don't know about him. Because 24 hours after owning this plant all of the flowers have fallen off and it looks wilted and so sad. I think that I have the opposite of a green thumb. Even when I try, I still end up killing plants.

So the first picture at the top of this blog is what impatients are supposed to look like and what our plant looked like when we first bought it. Then somehow we destroyed it. Possible reasons it is doing so poorly is that we put in the fertilizer sticks right after we got it. But the fertilizer stick package recommended that we pout 4 of the sticks in our flower pot. Well, we decided to put only one in and break it into 4 pieces....because I was very wary of the fertilizer sticks.....I don't know, maybe they are the culprite.

2nd thing that we might have done wrong is that we set it right next the window....I don't know why that would be bad. But it has almost kicked the bucket and we are concerned parents!

We have done no over watering what-so-ever! It was very moist when we got it and stayed that way until the next day. So I watered it a day after that even though it was still wet.

The container has holes in it at the bottom so it can drain....

I don't know. But it looked so nice on saturday and now it doesn't! This impatient needs your help! Post a comment for your expert advice on this (apparently) indoor and outdoor plant. Because otherwise the life of a helpless impatient plant will be forever gone! Not to mention this gardener's confidence will be shattered....

Bruno!

2008-04-22T11:15:00.000-07:00

This is the dog that we were dogsitting! He is very funny but not very nice to people he doesn't know....I promise I will write a longer post later but today I don't really have time!

A fraudulent scheme and a rat to redeem....

2008-04-08T12:39:00.000-07:00

Last night Steven and I scoured the internet searching for pets that wouldn't require as much responsibility as a dog. I have been really wanting a dog since we got here, but it just doesn't seem to make any sense with all the travelling that we need and want to do. A cat would be the perfect fit considering their independance and their need for attention being much less than a dog. Except that my whole entire family is allergic to cats and to have them over to our house would require them to be on allergy medication....making them not feel good or like themselves.

The pets we looked at (and laughed at) were birds and rodents.....we first looked at parrots, and then doves, a canary, and even a pigeon! (coo coo coo!) Then we were looking at guinea pigs, hamsters, and ..........RATS???? What???? Here in the states you can own rats as pets??!!! Oh yes you can! And they are extremely intelligent! Apparently, according to Wikipedia and other information on-line, you can train a rat to come when it is called, do tricks, and be litter trained! Apparently it is common to have pet rats that do not bite you and so you can sit and cuddle with them! (lol) So, Steven looks at me with this totally interested face...and I was a little shocked because I know what he is thinking! He wants a rat!

Apparently they are sanitary because they are domesticated and looked after. They are bred in clean sanitary conditions and are not picked up off the street or anything. The wild rats are different than these pet rats (according to Wikipedia) So they get their shots just like dogs and cats do! You still keep them in a cage and bring them out to run in their ball and hold them just like you would treat a hamster....except that they come when they are called! (how cool is that??!!) I am thinking I would like to have a canary.....I'm not totally sold on the rat idea, not totally against it either. But we would have to sneak that rat into Alberta! We would have an illegal pet! Sounds kind of on the dangerous side......

Your thoughts on this matter would be appreciated!

Confusing Communion in a Strange Denomination!

2008-04-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

A long long time ago (yesterday ) in a land far far away (Kansas City) two seasoned experts on the practises of Communion entered into a strange denomination of which communion is only a shadow of the CRC.....

Ok, so yesterday was sunday and that time of the month....(no not that) It was communion at church! SO....

SCENES FROM LAST SUNDAY:

Narrator: The Pastor's wife introduced herself to Jessica and Steven after church and learned about their situation. She was interested about the fact that they had been married a mere 3 weeks at that point and was curious to know more about us. She then asked....

Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): So did you go to any other church's since you have been here?
Steven: I went before Jess came to a Luthuren Church.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, how did you like it?
Steven: Well it was ok, it was a little weird, the Pastor sang the litergy and the whole congregation all drank out of the same communion cup.
Pastor's Wife (Giovanni): Oh, Ok, (laughing) so you didn't like that.....
Steven: I didn't do communion because it was a little too weird for me at the time...
Narrator: Steven, Jessica and the Pastor's wife continued to talk and it was a friendly conversation indeed.

THIS WEEK AT THE SUNDAY SERVICE:

Narrator: Steven and Jessica enter the church and converse with members of the congregation. Topics such as bible Study, babies, Kansas City University winning their previous game- (college basketball) were all discussed. After the congregation sits down and the service begins....Steven and I notice something at the front......something on a table.....something I hadn't done since I was in Edmonton....something looked a little off.....Could it be.....no wait.....it couldn't! BUT IT WAS!

A Half Loaf of Bread and a SINGLE CUP OF GRAPE JUICE adorned the table for COMMUNION!

Steven looked at me....and I looked at him....it was pretty obvious. This communion was going to be a weird one.

Steven just couldn't believe that he had said all those opinions about communion at last weeks service without experiencing communion here first.

So the worship starts and then ends (it was lovely) and the sermon begins and finishes off (very powerful....meaningful...) and then it started. Communion. And I have done Communion many times....but never like this. I was very concerned I was going to get sick! What if I got a cold sore! So then the Pastor organizes people to stand around the table at about 8 at one time.....Steven and I happened to be in one of the front rows....so we went first with a few other people. So they passed the loaf around and you were supposed to rip off a piece. So we did that. We were very much concentrating on the bread and passing it around when to my surprise I saw the big silver cup of juice coming my way! I quickly downed the bread and Steven did as well....we both looked at eachother and I took the cup in my hands, raised it to my lips and took a sip....and Steven gave me this nervous awkward look and took a sip as well.....wWell, when we passed it to the next person they

dipped
their
bread
in
the
juice
HOW EMBARRASSING! Yeah, so we were the only ones to sip the juice (we had no bread left to dip anyway) and everyone else very sanitarily dipped the bread in and then ate it........we walked back to our seats and Steven could not stop laughing. He was shaking our bench! He just could not stop thinking about the fact that we sipped out of that cup and that everyone else had dipped the bread! We poisoned everyone with our germs! We also were laughing that we were the crazy Canadians who thought that this possibly wasn't a communion but a lunch and left the communion table full of bread and juice mustaches around our mouths like children....

Nobody mentioned it to us afterward....but we were still laughing about it after the service....I guess I'm going to watch and listen more closely the next time I'm in a strange church and communion begins in a strange way....

Honeymoon pictures

2008-03-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

The honeymoon was really really fun and relaxing! We went skiing, dogsledding, shopping, had a fondue dinner and even went to a dinner theater! Very memorable time!

Good Evening to you all

2008-03-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hello! Today I made Steven lunch, (this is a recurrent request from him) and I really don't mind making him lunch as long as he is patient if I'm late to meet him at his work. After the lunch with the rest of his co-workers, Christina and I (another wife) decided to walk "Truffles" (their dog) and pick up some stuff for the home at Target. It was my first time at Target, and I was quite overwhelmed (It was a super-target, not that different from a super-walmart.) Except it looked a little like a department store. They had 33 tills with about only 5 cashiers available to serve us. It had a pizza hut, starbucks, and another restaurant that I cannot remember. (CRAZY BIG!) Anyway, we had some delicious starbucks and I had a Cinnamon Dolce Latte, thought you might want to know! (It was abnormally platable! (acceptable or agreeable to the palate or taste; savory: "palatable food.") So maybe that latte wasn't savory per say but it was a tasty treat..tasty enough to get recognition in a blog! Ok, ANYWAY, we shopped around this extravagantly large and profusely vast target for a few hours....and I picked out some really nice dish sets and the cutest glass pitcher, I just had to get it! Yup, Target is an interesting place.

Steven and I both have been asked why in the world we would move to Kansas City, coming from Canada. The people just say, "what? isn't that place supposed to be so much better than here??" One lady even asked why in the world Kansas City.....I have yet to quite understand these comments....Kansas City is not the greatest place I have personally ever been to....but it is so much different from home. It really isn't that bad. But I will give everyone more of an opinion once I have been here longer than 2 weeks.....considering I have only been here for a mere week and 3 days....oh dear....I'm starting to miss home....not the weather....just the people.

So on that sad note.....

Aloha.....which means hello and good-bye! which means apsolutly nothing.

p.s. Steven and I are a few blocks away from 2 liquor stores.....which are the same chain under the same name. "Berbiglia" Isn't that a crazy name??? It is spelt how you say it. Whenever we talk about Berbiglia we often say it several times because the name is so strange! Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........Berbiglia Berbiglia Berbiglia..........ok I'll stop!

oh good grief!

2008-03-25T11:59:00.000-07:00

This is a picture from my bachelorette with all the cousins! Thought I would throw that in here with the rest of my random post!

Read what I accidentally almost posted on someone's wall. If you read it carefully, it makes me sound so crazy!

"Yeah, school is all done and I graduated from Grant MacEwan from the Social Work program. I worked after school till I got married in a group home and now I technically can't work here at all! "

It makes it sound like I got married in a group home, and not only that I got married in a group home, but because I did, I cannot work in the States! So there is some mixed up thought process! Good thing I read that before I sent that out! When I read it after I wrote it I burst out laughing! How embarrassing! I will be asked if I had the ceremony in a group home, and what kind of a person would do that anyway? So strange. So there is a mistake for you to laugh at!

Today Steven and I had lunch, I made him a lunch and brought it over to him. It was pretty tasty and Steven ate whole wheat brown bread! I was pretty excited about that. Although the bread here is considerably sweeter here than in Canada, it is something that I keep noticing.

Also, the drivers are so angry all the time! Everybody honks at eachother, and it's not like Canada, people here honk ALL the time for anything! driving too close, not moving exactly when the light is green, all that kind of stuff. Makes me a very scared pedestrian. Although I wouldn't compare it to the Carribean countries who just honk their horn for honking sake, the people here are actually pissed!

So two American insights for the day. The bread here is made with more sugar, and the drivers are considerably more angry than in Edmonton.

So Relieved

2008-03-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that the wedding is over. Seriously that was one of the most stressful things that I have ever done and I guess now that it is over I am much more happier! I enjoyed the day, (the beginning of the ceremony I was feeling extremelely nervous) but it got easier and easier after that. Maybe that is why I don't mind being here, because it is such a relief after planning for that day for so long! (Well it seemed like a long time!)
This past weekend we rented a truck and spent all day saturday furniture shopping at the most amazing furniture store ever. Nebraska Furniture is just phenomenal! Very cheap prices for things that are cheap and then they also have some really nice stuff as well that is priced appropriately. The store is honestly twice the size of Ikea easily. They have really nice stuff for interior decorating as well. Steven and I picked out a small kitchen table and 4 chair set, a computer desk, a dresser with a mirror, and a toaster! One of Steven's coworkers, Tim, agreed to help us move this stuff up the three flights of stairs to our floor. Another one of Steven's coworkers, Eric, gave us a couch so we moved it on saturday as well to our apartment with Tim's help again. (I totally could not have moved the dresser or the computer desk up all those stairs! So I am really thankful that he did this for us.) Right now our apartment is coming out of dissarray from the do it yourself assembly that took place all day yesterday by mostly Steven. The only thing we did not complete was putting the mirror on the dresser - definitly not as big of a priority as the kitchen table and chairs! We went to "Lowes" which is set up very similar to Home Depot, and we bought some hampers (thank you Joni!)...no dryer balls yet, some appliances, (electric frying pan, waffle maker, blender, sorry christine, no sandwich maker yet!) and some basic cleaning and organizational supplies. We needed two carts in the store and it was nice that we could make use of our truck again! We plan on buying a vehicle hopefully in the next two weeks. Things are coming together and having my own place with my own stuff feels wonderful!
Easter was nice, we went to the Good Friday Service at the "Revolution" church and it was nice, and the Easter morning Service on Sunday went really nice as well. We signed ourselves up for a small group on tuesday nights so hopefully that works out well. The church had hidden 99 Easter eggs around the sanctuary and the kids had to find them during the greeting, it was pretty funny.
Today I have to return the truck :( and do laundry using our new laundry baskets! Thanks again Joni!

p.s. I bought the nicest shower curtain! Makes this place look like a classy establishment!

p.p.s. Can you tell I am sooooo pumped about all the new stuff I just bought! And there is still so much more stuff that we need still! Shopping is sooooo much fun when you have money to spend and things you need!

In Kansas City

2008-03-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Kansas City. I'm sitting in my apartment, sitting on the only piece of furniture that we currently own besides the bed. One folding chair. At least it has a slim piece of padding. I am typing on an upside down cardboard box. The monitor is set upon a tupperware container. Unfortunatly all of our media is crammed into one corner because this house was built a thousand years ago and has a very limited supply of outlets and only one cable outlet. The telephone also has to be in this very corner. The sun is hot down here let me tell you. It is a balmy 19 degrees Celcius outside right now. I walked outside without a jacket - just a t-shirt. I have all the windows open letting the fresh heavenly breeze flow into this desolate apartment that looks incredibly cheery from all the sunshine. I have to close the blinds otherwise it gets way too hot. Also with the heavenly breeze comes traffic noise, construction noise, and children playing from the nearby school. So it's a little noisy, but not a big deal. I walked to meet Steven for lunch(......YUM!) At his work and ordered some food from the restaurant downstairs. As we walk in the guy behind the counter calls out "Hey Mr. Steve!" Steve explains to me that this guys knows everyone who eats at his place by name. He says "This must be your new wife!" Steve introduces me as "Jess." Behind us are two women waiting in line. They give us a wave and Steven introduces them as the ladies from the bank downstairs. "This is Gina and Susan" He introduces me as "Jess", and they give me a friendly smile and a "Haah Jess, come on over and we will include you with Steve's account." (I guess we are on an short version of our first name basis here.) Our food is ready and the guy who owns the place calls out "Mr. and Mrs. Jessica!" We laugh and I feel like I'm in some quaint small town when really I am at the bottom of a 15 floor office building encompassing multiple different businesses, and the tallest building till you get near down town.....Which is like Capilano to downtown Edmonton.

Anyway, there were a few more conversations, one involving poutine and how in the states you can't order those cheese curds....it went over my head because I don't eat poutine that much. I'm not too eager to gain the 15 pounds associated with marriage that quickly. Anyway, tomorrow I have great plans! One of the wives who came from Canada invited me for some yoga at her house - she lives about a 35 minute drive away, but she is offering to drive so that makes it just perfect. I suggested we go to JCPenny....I cannot wait. Now I can actually start buying things for the home! Starting tomorrow. OH! And tomorrow is Good friday and that will be nice because I am really looking forward to attending the church that Steve has been going to. Haven't gone to church in 2 weeks so this should be good.

Have a good one, aaaaaaaah, I am just enjoying this heavenly breeze and this rediculous place where everything is cheaper and everyone talks weird.

A very fun night!

2008-02-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

Last night was my bachelorette party! It was very fun! The night started out with toboganning and stern warnings from our mothers to be careful on the most deadly hill in edmonton....the last time my cousins and I had been there, a girl had an accident and had to have re-contructive face surgery! So needless to say, this hill is steep, and has bumps that will send you flying! The best sled was one that had a smooth plastic side and a layer of foam - perfect for the bumps big and small as you go down! (Many were lamenting this morning of sore bums.) That was very fun. Then we headed out to a hotel where we proceeded on with our merry little party. It was very fun, we had alot of games that we played. Then we all got separated at mid night by a security guard. Apparently we were being too loud. Then a devastating phone call with the threat of eviction! We all kept it down after that....but it was pretty funny. A pretty memorable night too! Thanks to Penny, Eva, and Christine, and all the others who made it so much fun!

a time to be silent, and a time to blog.

2008-02-12T08:32:00.001-08:00

Almost nothing has changed since my last post. But every single day I feel closer to the finish line. You know how at the very end of a race you feel motivated to go a little bit faster? I will be surprised if I don't run down the ailse, dragging my dad behind me, "Come on Dad, only 4 more meters!" The finish line is definitly in sight now. I have been delegating tasks and it has helped in de-stressing myself. Thank you so much for everyone who has agreed to help me! It means so much! Lately I wake up in the morning motivated to do something - anything. I just feel on-edge. I have been going swimming, but it's most definitly not for the goal of fitness, although that will be a bonus. I just need to get stressfull energy out of me and swimming seems to help, and it is especially nice in this disgustingly cold weather to be able to sit in the hot tub after a good swim. I did 28 lengths yesterday, which is nothing compared to Oma and Opa's daily quota of 60 lengths but I'm getting there. So to say the least (as of this week) I have been feeling a little bit of stress. The sleep is a little more troubled and I am really done with not having Steve around. He comes back in less than three weeks, and less than 4 weeks till the wedding day. And then peace. And then we will go to Banff and have so much fun, have a little get together with the fam before we leave and then head out on a one way ticket to Kansas City!

woops

2008-01-30T18:46:00.000-08:00

sorry everyone. I totally forgot about my blog! It's kind of unreal. Steven left at the very beginning of January and on friday it will already be Feb.1st. He seems to be enjoying his time in Kansas City. He often talks about the apartment that he found for us to rent (built in 1940!!...sooooo old!) and the cleanliness of the streets. Sometimes he will brag that it is a balmy +17 degrees celcius there.....while we are suffering in -44 degrees celcius frigid weather. I just don't know exactly what to think of Kansas City. Mostly I am excited because it sounds like a cool place, but it is REALLY REALLY far from home. So it's hard to imagine a life down there with friends.....but I guess it will come eventually. These days I just plan the wedding. That is the main reason that there have been hardly any blogs. I average about 2 wedding things per day and my "to do" list is down to 3/4 of a page. Some of the things on the list are easy, like calling people and asking them to do stuff for me, and other things are slightly more difficult such as, well, nothing is really that difficult at all, it is just sitting down and doing it. So I guess some things are lengthy chores and some are relatively shorter and easier. Lots of people are offering to help, and just having the knowledge that people are willing to help makes it easier to deal with. For the most part I actually really enjoy doing all this wedding planning. I think I would much rather be the one making all these decisions than someone else. (I always thought I would hate planning a wedding, turns out it's really not that bad.) And on the wedding day I will have done it mostly myself, which will make me proud. So that is what is going on in my life. Mostly just wedding stuff....and without steven it is hard to write posts because all my life consists of is the group home and the wedding planning....which can get boring. So anyway, I will try to write later, until then, bye bye!

Looking forward to the end of my shift....boxing day celebrations!

2007-12-26T09:12:00.001-08:00

Ok, so yesterday the kids came about 10 minutes afer I wrote that post...and then it was even sadder. they were just so hyper and they were pushing limits and I was by myself.....augh. So today has been another amazing day at the group home. (sarcasm) One of our girls has been trying to convince me that just washing her hair is as good as having a shower...so that's been interesting. The boy that we have here is supposed to clean up his room today. We just finished and it took us (I helped him, he needed it) coming up on an hour and a half. I feel like I should be almost done my shift when I have only completed only two hours of it - another 4 to go. Anyway. Today is boxing day and I actually am thankful for this 8-2 shift because now I can celebrate boxing day with Steven's mom's side of the family, (yesterday was his dad's.) Should be fun, it always is. Anyway. I needed to vent about work. Right now I hear the shower being turned on and off and banging in the bathroom, so who knows what is going on in there with that girl!

it's 7:20...still no kids...

2007-12-25T18:18:00.000-08:00

AUGH! NO kids Yet!

20 minutes...

2007-12-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

Ok, it has been 20 minutes since the last post and still no kids!!!!!!!!!! AUGH! I am bored and I want to eat a christmas dinner!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-25T17:20:00.001-08:00

hello, it is Christmas Day and I have to work. What probably is the most brutal about this curerntly is that I have been here for a useless half an hour without any children in this group home. While my family is eating the most delicious din din, I am on the internet while my co-worker plays nintendo. Ok, I am a little sad, but really, I'm not too terribly sad. I'v decided I won't despair, I did get to spend quite a bit of time with my family this christmas! Yesterday was Christmas Eve and it was wonderful! We read the Christmas Story from the Bible and watched "The Nativity Story" on TV. We opened up presents and I was very pleased with what I had to give, and what I recieved! Very relaxing evening, it was memorable. Today I woke up and went to the Christmas day service at our church. Then Steve and I went to his parent's house for opening of gifts and stockings! Once again, nice gifts! Then while munching on some hors devors we watched some "planet earth" which Steve's parents had recieved and it was spectacular! Then to Grampa and Gloria's (Steve's side of the family) for some family time, although I didn't get to spend christmas dinner with them, I still spent some time with them so that was nice. So anyway, I hope that everyone had a satisfying christmas! Merry Christmas and hopefully these kids show up real soon so it can be worth my while!

GRRR

2007-12-20T15:42:00.001-08:00

Ok, I seriously have had it with middle aged women who don't know me telling me how to live my life. It happened again today, as it happens every once in a while, this time at a work party. I made a funny comment that Steve and I were in a dillema because I still want to go to Banff and he wants to (all the sudden) go to Paris! Everyone was laughing at me saying : "Oh wow, she's complaining because her jerk of a fiance wants to take her to Paris for their honeymoon." (Sarcasm.) Then I said, well we both want to go to Europe sometime. Then the social worker of our house turns to me and says : uh, how long have you known him? (Condescending tone.) I said, "we will have dated for 3 years by the time we get married." She looks at my boss," hmmmm.... yeah.....you don't really know someone until you have lived with them. (boss nods knowingly)...do you live with him?" I reply, no...... SW: oh, well, you learn alot about someone when you live with them. You will be very surprised, relationships take work. You should only marry someone unless you live with them." Well, I wanted to punch her in the face. They (boss and social worker) went on and on and on about the importance of living together before marriage, and how there is no way we ever get to go to Europe because I don't know Steven or Men. I kept my composure surprisingly well. First of all : YOU DON'T KNOW ME! Second of all : YOU DON'T KNOW ME OR STEVEN OR HOW WE FUNCTION TOGETHER. Thirdly: If the people who know, love, and care for me and Steven individually and together were the least bit concerned, I would have concerns, but since those people are excited and not at all worried, why would I take any of your bogus "live together" precautions???!?!?!?!? Especially since I know that it is a fact that people who live together before they get married are 50% more likely to get a divorce. I am one of the smartest young women I know. I haven't wasted my life away on things like alcohol, drugs, or the party scene. I have a secondary education and I work in a job that applies it directly. I am going somewhere. The people that I spend the most time with are healthy hard working and wonderful people. I have positive relationships with the men and women in my life. I have a positive relationship with my parents and Steven's parents. I do not know everything, but I do not take crappy bogus destructive advice from people who do not know, love, or care about me or Steven. I will gladly recieve advice from my family and extended family. I welcome advice from my friends. And honestly, I don't think life is going to be a walk in the park, I expect it to be hard at times - not a fairy tale, which maybe the people who give me that kind of advice weren't anticipating in their own lives. I don't know what it's like to be married, but I dont think that it's rocket science! I am sure we will be able to figure it out, like people have been doing from the beginning of time. I am the most confident in this: God has truly joined me and Steven together, and we have decided to base our marriage on the firmest foundation - Jesus Christ.
p.s. even one of my non-christian co-workers agreed that they were quite rude in making these comments.

News from Kansas City

2007-12-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

So Steven left for Kansas City on Sunday to return on friday. This is what Steven has written me on his first impressions of Kansas City in a facebook message:

hey i'm here. the trees arn't that massive and the city is quite nice. it appears to be a lot like edmonton, but i havent seen much of it yet. the people are nice and the work setup is pretty cool. today they had chicken and salad and buns for lunch. there are some people that barely have accents but really it's not noticable. today we ate at a seafood resturrant where they fly all the fish in fresh and reprint the menu everyday with the fresh fish. i ate fresh rainbow trout from idaho and it was delicious. well i will tlak to yuou later, love you and wish you were here!

Just in case anyone is wondering how he is doing, now you know!

I don't think we'll be in Edmonton anymore, Toto!

2007-12-10T10:51:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't already heard, Steven got transferred to Kansas City, Missouri. Yeah, so that means I'm being transferred as well, after the wedding. Now there is quite a bit more things to do before the wedding! Steve moves down to Kansas City in mid January, and then comes back for the wedding, we are still having our honeymoon in Banff, and then fly down to K.C.! Yeah, it was a shock. I have spent a few days crying and a few days being really excited. Right now I'm in "kinda excited, a little worried" mode because of all the things that need to be done. Sometimes I think about it and I just kinda feel like throwing up...because the nerves in my stomach are all weird. I have yet to actually throw-up. I had never heard about Kansas City before I was apparently going to move there. And it's weird because it is actually not completly in Kansas...It's like Lloydminster - borders between Kansas and Missouri...and right in the middle of the United States! (We will be living on the Missouri side, which according to the internet is the better side!) So here is a map for people like me out there who wouldn't know unless they look:

Nothin but Net

2007-12-07T14:36:00.000-08:00

So Steve and I were at the swimming pool having some fun playing basketball on one of those basketball nets that hang above the water. Steve loves it because he is taller than me and he can always "slam dunk" it over my head. Why I let him do this, I don't know, probably because he loves it.... Anyway, we started playing 21 and I could not get the ball in the net for the life of me. It was soooo brutal! So the ball goes really far away and I swim to go and get it. I yell to Steve: "If I get this in, you buy me diamond earings for christmas!!! I was soooo far away, I took my shot and ...sure enough nothin but net! We both just turned and looked at eachother with this "NO WAY!" expression! I guess I know what I'm getting for christmas...

Oiler's Game!

2007-12-05T16:42:00.001-08:00

Last week Dad, Andy, Penny and I all went to the Oilers game! The weather was brutally cold
and we walked far to avoid paying for parking because that is the biggest rip off ever! The game was against the Columbus Blue Jackets and we won 3-1! It was a great game! Thanks Dad for taking us!

Christmas Bake Day!

2007-11-30T10:13:00.000-08:00

For the first time in a long time I am excited about seeing the snow. It doesn't bother me really very much to have to take extra time to drive in it or to be so careful all the time. I did almost get into two accidents on separate occassions this past week. And still the snow is not really stressing me out very much. I guess because the sooner the snow comes and things start getting cold the sooner the wedding! I find myself wanting to go swimming all the time lately - so that I can sit in the hot tub and finally get warm! It seems like a shower just doesn't cut it these days for getting you warm!

I am missing out on the annual christmas girls party with my highschool friends (that actually started in junior high.) I have not missed a year since then and am feeling a little sad about it. Sometimes having to work friday and sautday nights is not always that great! Oh well, at least I can see them the next week at bible study.

Last sunday we had a really fun time doing some christmas baking with my bible study friends and cousins! We made christmas trees (coconut/white chocolate), gingerbread men, sugar cookies with icing, gingersnaps, and candycane shortbread! DELICIOUS! And it was so much fun! Thanks to everyone who made the treck out to St. Albert for that! It was a really great day! Here are some pictures I stole from facebook! Thanks Erin!

BACK TO THE GRIND!

2007-11-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back to work! I'm actually really happy about this and this is why:

The bad kid who caused me and the whole team so much insane stress and frustration has left the house! Peace has returned to my work!

I missed the staff! So happy to see them again

The kids missed me! (That's a pretty good feeling!)

We have a new kid! PLUS: This new kid takes no medication and has no mental issues! He is very intelligent and it is very refreshing to talk to him! (He just came to the house so he might be trying really hard to be good, but his record has shown that he doesn't have many issues!)

So I am pumped about going to work. Today I work from 2-10. It's a friday so that means it will be a fun shift! And tomorrow I tackle the 12 hour shift! (Which doesn't scare me like it used to!)

This is a picture of this past summer playing the "Golf Ball Game" I'm pretty sure it has an official name but none of us knew it.

honeymoon location: BANFF!

2007-11-13T08:18:00.000-08:00

Oh, Banff may seem like a place you can go to anytime you want, but how many people actually do go and then do everything you can to have fun? That is where Steve and I want to have our honeymoon and we can't wait! Steven has already booked hotels, dog sledding, and a helicopter ride around the mountains! We also plan on skiing for a couple days but you don't need to book that in advance so we will play that by ear. I guess I just didn't want to go someplace hot where it would be so restrictive to do anything and go anywhere because the place outside the resort is dangerous, or you don't know their language. I would most want to go to hawaii because it is safer and the people speak english, but that is too expensive and we can't afford it. Besides, banff was so exciting sounding that we decided to get married in March more because of the honeymoon reason than anything else.

On a more depressing note: I am going to drop off the forms that say I can go back to work, and from there they will organize when I will start. I don't know what to think... I guess going back to work will be ok.

Going back to work...

2007-11-12T15:23:00.001-08:00

Yeah, so I'm probably going back to work this week. I'm pretty much better, not 100% yet, but the doctor says "I can see that you are doing a lot for your long term recovery, keep up the good work." Sounds promising! Anyway, I'm actually looking forward to going to work, it will be kind of like a fresh start. I actually really needed that break, it truly was from God. The first two weeks were no picnic but after that I started to enjoy my time off and then I got a head start on my wedding!

Speaking of the wedding, I booked the caterer today and the hair salon! They said "We highly recommend the trial hair-do" I was like shove it you money hungry salon people!!!! Well, I figure that there is no way that I could honestly look that bad after a visit to the salon, like come on. These are professional hair stylists. And besides all of that, I am cheap, and I could use the extra $55 dollars. How ridiculous that the trial is less expensive than the wedding day hair-do. I should just tell them that it's a trial on the wedding day. (I won't but honestly.)

Anyway we are all still so tired from Matt and Liz's wedding which was a total blast. We danced till 1:30am! (We as in Steven and I, and our friends) Everyone's calves hurt. I certainly hope that I didn't spell that wrong - I mean the muscles on the back of your lower legs! The wedding gave me some good ideas for my own especially since I plan on having my ceremony in the same place. Steven was making fun of me telling people that I was taking notes. The embarrassing part is that people were like "Where are these notes?" I was like, no I took mental notes not actual notes! So thanks a lot Steve!

Found: A hall!

2007-11-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

I found a hall! It is exciting! It's a newer building and yet still small, just the right size! So thank goodness that is over with! We also have a location to take pictures indoors (which is a big deal in Edmonton because it is simply too cold to take all the pictures outside in the winter!) And not only that, it will be for free, which makes a huge difference. I need a photographer that will take pictures for less than 1.5 grand ... This is going to be difficult. Hopefully I can get a good one in time!

Another couple in my group of friends are engaged! As of right now there are 4 couples in the engaged stage! That is alot of engaged people. Matt and Liz are getting married this weekend, and then Steve and I will be next in March. Two more weddings will follow in the summer. Crazy. We are so old!

Just a picture of Steve and I:

New Post!

2007-11-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

Oh you must be so excited! I took an extensive break from blogging and now I am back. Things that you missed if you read my blog and never actually talk to me:

I rolled my ankle at work. And it wasn't just a little sprain, it was REALLY bad and it has been almost 5 weeks and I am still off work. The first 2 weeks were no vacation but the two weeks after that have been better and now I feel as if I am nearing the completion of my recovery and almost ready to get back to work. I feel so much better. Don't ask how it happened, I don't want to talk about it! But as of right now it is still obviously swollen and still needing more time.

I got engaged! About a week and a half ago! It is very exciting. Steven and I are pumped. I got really excited and started doing everything I could to plan for the big day. We are thinking the big day will be in early March - hopefully. We still need to find a hall. I am hall searching today actually.

So hopefully blog you later and maybe sooner than later as the last break between posts ended up taking almost 4 months!

trampolining in ardrossan>trampolining in St Albert

2007-07-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

maybe this is bad....posting out of sheer boredom. It's late, I should probably go to bed. Well not that late, but late enough to make me feel like I'm wasting my time doing anything but sleep. So I am house sitting......for my parents! Weird I know. I moved back home till the middle of next week while they are away. It's kinda weird. (I already said that.) Anyway. Here I am back in ardrossan feeling extremely isolated. Some things about living on an acreage are so incredibly awesome. Like jumping on a trampoline - slightly awkward in the city. If you jump, somebody WILL see you from their window. So you, jumping on your trampoline are feeling awkward because you know that someone is watching you. Not only is someone watching you, but they are probably just staring, perhaps judging you. But today I jumped on my trampoline in ardrossan and nobody saw me. I had fun and Steve joined me, and I didn't feel watched. Well, there are also other great things about living on an acreage but I pretty much am sick of writing this blog. I seriously have to go to sleep!

Slippin' Slidin' in St. Albert!

2007-07-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

Slippin' Slidin was our after work past time this monday. We slipped and slid in the back yard. It was great. The most refreshing thing I have done this summer. This picture was taken with my phone. I am in love with my phone. These are all my housemates. From the left is Steph, me, Marla, and Lori. Garbage bags and dish soap work really well at making you super slick for a quick slip and slide! That was the day of the major rain pour that suddenly came and suddenly went. I love summer. I love living in this house. And I actually really like my job. More than I thought that I would. I'm starting to get good at it, which makes things a little bit easier.

new phone!

2007-07-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

This is what my new phone looks like, except mine is in white. I have never owned a cell phone surprisingly enough. I have done fine until I moved out, and my new house phone is only in the basment and no one in our house cares about it because everyone else has cell phones. My bedroom is upstairs and I miss calls a lot, especially because we don't have voice mail. The last straw was when I went to rundle park and I couldn't find anyone because I didn't have a cell last friday. Steve and I got the couples plan from Rogers. We chose Rogers because it is the only company that gets reception in Steve's basement. I have the white one, and he took the black. Oh yes, we are that cool. I had to get the white one! It matches my car perfectly! It is kinda cool because it is a 3 mp camera as well as a walkman. It comes with earphones and is a mp3 player too. wowzers. Interestingly enough, all of the phone companies have the exact same couples plan for the exact same prices. They varie in apsolutly no way what-so-ever. We think that they're in cahoots.

long time no blog!

2007-07-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

hey there everyone! I actually moved out. Totally and completely moved out. I now pay for everything I do. I have to buy the stuff I never had to buy, like q-tips, nail clippers, and laundry detergent. I have lived in this house for one week. At first it was VERY lonely, considering that I work at wonky hours, like evenings and 12 hour shifts on Saturdays. So I am at home unless I have something better to do until about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, then I go to work. So it definitely sucks for that reason. When I get home people are getting ready for bed. Although part of me really has no problem with shift work! I like having my days to sleep in and have some days that I get off really early from work, that part I don't mind, it is only an issue because no one else's schedule is similar to mine. So during the day I don't see anyone till I get to work, that is mostly why I am lonely. For the most part I really enjoy everything! My mom is coming for a visit today, and oh, she is here! ha ha, bye!

hurray!

2007-07-06T15:55:00.000-07:00

I bought a car! it's pretty! it's white! it 1994! grand am! v6! 4 door! ahhhhhhhhh. I feel a lot better now. This weekend I am moving out. Excitement. I got the loan from the bank, although it required a lot of hasseling. I used up my gift certificates to Ikea and Sears from Christmas for a duvet cover, 500 thread count sheets! (oh, they are so nice!) and a rug type accessorie for my room! It will match my bright green walls, and I do mean bright green!

July long went awesome, went to Steven's parents cabin and did a hike, and a 4 hour quad ride! (literally 4 hours!) and it was no mediocre quad ride, very exciting. At night there was fireworks for Canada Day. It was a great weekend.

Steven did one of the cruelest things a boyfriend can do to a girlfriend. Oh yes, it may be hot outside, but does that justify shaving your head? It looked so different I couldn't even look at him for the first 15 minutes of him surprising me with it. I am more used to it now. Pictures to come of the horror! Oh how I miss his curly hair.....

Sunday's Hike

2007-06-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

So on sunday I proposed to some friends that we go on a hike. We discussed places that are close to edmonton to hike rather than the mountains. Although the mountains would be ideal for hiking considering the majestic beauty of it all, I just wanted somewhere that didn't require any gas. So we went to Elk Island Park for a 10k hike. It took us 2 hours and 45 minutes! We were pretty tired by the end of it, and I just laughed so much because Steven was considering going hiking on the long weekend, as in hike with your backpack to the place you want to sleep and the only stuff you have is the stuff you carry on your back. It would involve hiking all three days of the long weekend and hiking for most of the day. He was considering this and I told him that he should. I have never heard him complain so much as on this hike, holy moley. He kept saying "well I definitly made up my mind about the long weeknd!" He HATED it, and it was only 10k. I seriously do hope that I can at least once go hiking in the mountains this summer some time, maybe with Steve if he can handle it!

Bummed

2007-06-22T17:45:00.000-07:00

So things at the bank haven't really been working out. The person who helped me got sick and so I won't have the money till next week even though I have the car in mind that I want to buy and am waiting to buy it - if only I actually could! Anyway, I can't move out this weekend either even though everything is totally packed up in my room (it's so weird.) So I'm a little bummed.

Update on a busy life...

2007-06-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

Wow, I didn't realize how much time had passed since writing the last blog! Anyway, thank you laura for the reminder! I have my job, and it requires me to work most evenings. I know that this is pretty sucky, but it is a little bit ok considering a lot of evening stuff requires very little paperwork and just includes making supper and taking the kids out to fun events like swimming, bowling, fort edmonton, playgrounds, and other fun things. I have had my first 12 hour shift already and it really wasn't that bad either, even though it was quite long. This saturday I have another 12 hour shift from 10-10. blah. Oh well. Hopefully I can put in my time and can hope for better hours in the future. The kids that I have worked with primarily are pretty great kids. I have worked at three different group homes so far and they have all been so diverse. I think that is what I like the most out of this job. Although one day I did come home angry and upset at the night that had happened. It involved some grade sixer's ganging up on me! ha ha, it was pretty horrible, but I have some new skills on how to handle it....I don't know if it's going to work but it is what the boss said to use! So I am going to be busting out the new Jess with skills never seen before. Don't you wish you could just watch me in action? ...at 10pm at night? Moving on. I almost have a car. yah, almost. As in another person who needs to help me has a emergency leave of absense! AUGH! Even though it has only happened twice, once from my new job and once for getting money from the bank to buy my car, it seems like it has happened way too many times! So hopefully I actually get my answer tomorrow like they said and buy the car tomorrow, otherwise.....man oh man. Moving on again. I am moving out this weekend.....if the bank will let me. If the car will promise not to break down (It's a 94 grand am) Every time I think about writing a blog about my life I feel so burdened knowing there is so much to write about! Anyway, now that it is done, I should finish up with some other big news: Steven graduated last week from Computing Science from the UofA with Distinction! My boyfriend is the smartest. Anyway, I should probably stop writing now.

work? car? home?

2007-06-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the organization I plan to work with has been kinda messing things up, after 700 phone calls every day this week I finally found out why they haven't phoned me. Someone had to leave for the week and left my papers on their desk. Anyway, now I don't start till Tuesday which is good, but it has still been 2 weeks now since I came back from my trip, and not working. Not to mention I didn't work the two weeks before I left because no one would hire me if I was leaving right away. This also makes it impossible to move out or get a car. So moving out will have to wait, (I'm thinking about 2 weeks) and trying to buy a car is now in full swing. I will have to see how this new job goes, two of my friends working in a group home quit on their 2nd and 3rd shifts. So this is not good encouragement. At least I have solace knowing that there are tons of jobs out there, the only issue is how much people pay, which generally in social work, is not very good.

Last night we had a baby shower for Steven's cousins new baby girl! I got her the cutest dress with lady bugs on it and this super soft yellow outfit thingy. It was really nice and while we were there I found out she has a blog! I was so excited, so I'm going to be adding her to my cool person's list! Everyone there was also talking about facebook quite a bit and how it is not restricted by age, everybody has facebook now and it's awesome! Yes, I quite like facebook and blogger. I think its great that people can write things for other people to read, it makes for a very inclusive life.

Dominican Fun Times

2007-05-24T08:58:00.000-07:00

That was an amazingly awesome trip. SO MUCH FUN! In the pictures you can see from the top:

1. The girls chewing on sugar cane, you don't eat it, you just chew it and so much juicy sweetness comes out!

2.The boys pretending to be sharks when we went to swim with sharks and sting rays.

3.The girls pretending to eat the coco plant. Usually when a coco plant is ripe is goes from green to yellow and then to red.

4. This is when we went on an outback safari through the country side. There is hardly any pollution, the air is so pure and clean, our tour guide told us that although the dominican people who live in the country may be poor, none of them ever go hungry because of the wealth of food.

5. The girls before supper one day. I'm showing off my t-shirt from the outback safari.

6. Taking a horseback riding break. And if you read my previous post, this break was very much needed for me. We are chewing on fresh coconut.

7. A section of the resort we stayed at. You can see our rooms, we stayed on the third floor in the top left hand corner.

8. Erika, Marla, and Kylie wiped out from boogie boarding. It's pretty intense.

9. Marla, Erika, Steph, and I.

10. All 13 of us at the sharks and sting rays tour.

the dominican is a great place....Happy Mothers day mom!

2007-05-13T16:19:00.000-07:00

Happy mothers day mausha! This is a picture from Steph and I´s balcony of the day it rained! Tuesday. The rain was really cool, I got very burned on monday so I have been just putting on TONS of sunscreen these past few days. This is everything that a tropical vacation should be and everything that I dreamed it would be. It is the vacation of my dreams. Steve and I went kayacking today on the ocean! there was coral reef sticking out of the white breakers and we almost tipped over! It was so scary! hitting the coral reef would have really hurt! Thank goodness we didn´t tip over......then the resort has these entertainment people who got us to play this game for some prizes, Steph won, but she didn´t want the half hour massage, so she gave it to me! now I am the happiest girl in dominican! tomorrow I am going to try for the 5th time to get my legs tanned! but its been close to impossible to get any kind of tan or burn going on there.....It´s like the whitness refelcts the light back. Take that sun. This past week I also went and snorkeling the coral reef which was pretty neat, so beautiful, so many crazy fish, also during that trip we went swimming with sharks (nurse sharks) and sting rays. Nurse sharks are not dangerous, so it was scary cause they were right there swimming right beneath us! Last night we went for a sunset horseback ride along the beach....believe me it sounds 100% more romantic than it really was! But that was still fun, I am VERY sore from that trip... mostly because my horse loved to straight out run and my stirrups stretched out longer than my legs, so I was only holding on to the saddle without a handle. When that is the only thing you are holding onto...it is soooo impossible to pull on the reigns....to say the least I was a little stressed and a little sore from all the bumping. So when we went back after a much needed break, I very sneakely said that a different horse was the horse that I rode there and had a much more pleasant ride back home! sneaky I know, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Happy mothers day mom! I love you soooooo much! I tried to call collect but you weren´t home! So sad. Happy mothers day anyway! Tonight is the spanish buffet....not too sure what is going to be different about this one compared to Mexican and Dominican food night.....the best one so far has been bbq night.....although I have been quite adventourous in my food these days....rabbit, duck, and goat have been the different kinds of meat I have tried. And there is alot of mystery food here.....the desserts are kinda questionable......I never know what is actually going to be ok with my stomach... Most people here are not too sick....but there has been some considerable talk about the runs.....but it has been an incredible time so far, this week the plans are to go on a dominican country side safari, and to santo domingo the first place that columbus apparently landed in all of north, central, and south america! love you all!

today I'm leaving for a tropical vacation!

2007-05-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

hey everyone. guess what! I'm going to the dominican republic today! na na na na boo boo! Well technically I leave at 12:30am saturday morning, but I have to be ready to go today! I have everything packed except for:

1. 1 pair of flip flops (perferably white...that sun is hot!)

2. ziploc bags to put my shampoo and conditioner and all other liquids in

3. my toothbrush - because I want to use it before I go

4. and I think I need more american money than originally planned, so I gotta get that yet...

5. and canadian money because unfortunatly we have two stops in canada before we actually leave for the dominican.

Other exciting things!:

1. one of the girls is fully moved in and living in my new house, I helped another girl move in over the weekend, although she wants to still sleep at home rather than in the new house. I think people don't really want to sleep there alone. So anyway, our house finally looks like a home and it's so exciting!

2. I set my cousin on a date with one of steve's roomates! I heard from both sides.....and both sides said that they had a good time! In the words of him: "It went really well" and her words "we got along great" sooooooo, is love in the air? well, when I get back from the dominican I will blog about whether or not he actually phoned her.....and whether or not she agreed for a second date!!!!

3. I know this is lame, but the rain is making everything soooooo

green and pretty and I can't wait to come back and see everything

in full bloom and thick in foliage!

4. Christine got a tan! ha ha, I'm just kidding christine! She does have a rather fair complexion, and in her words "Jess, I've never been this brown before!" So I'm excited to see that! I wish I could put a picture up of her, but I don't have any of her super dark!

5. Nothing is for sure yet, but I'm pretty sure I have a job at a group home so this is good. Money is good.

All this excitment is just too much for one person! ha ha......

Anyway, blog you all in a couple of weeks! Adios!

p.s. this blog took me soooooo long to write because of the pictures! AUGH!

resumes, cleaning, & shopping

2007-04-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have less than 2 weeks until the dominican and I am going job hunting today! I'm printing out a few resumes and I dressed up wearing a blue shirt and matching skirt. I am also wearing these cute open-toed summery shoes with white flowers which is exciting because I can switch from the winter-looking business professional black and grey look to more summery-happy but still professsional clothes. My resume is soooooo awesome because I worked hard on it and Steve helped a little bit too. He took a course at the UofA on how to do a resume, so I pretty much have a genius helping me. I kinda want to work with old people, but I seriously don't know what is going to happen today and what is going to strike my fancy. I'm just going to apply everywhere and see what I get. But I'm crossing my fingers for old people.

Every night for the past few nights I have been going over to my future house and cleaning it. There is so much work that needs to be done...last night we did yard work and I cleaned the very dirty bathroom and it is looking soooooo good! Our yard is way nicer than the boy's yard! ha ha. We have young kids living on either side of us and little tiny dogs living on either side of our future home. Our house is probably the least distinguishable house on the whole street! It is so boring! Just that stucko with crushed beer bottles all over it! The funny thing is that on the inside it's a carnival! The walls are all different colors and we have miss-matched everythings because we have so many donations from the grandparents and relatives of my house mates. Everything is very exciting!

Last week the girls, a.k.a. the "womenican of dominican", went out shopping for sundresses and beach attire. It was pretty fun. I picked up some good stuff, makes me way more excited to go now! Yesterday Steve and I went shopping for some more beach attire and the funny thing is that we have these matching hats and shoes.....we are going to be such dorks but that's ok! Marla, if you read this, you have to keep this quiet...you are the only one who reads this out of the fellow travelers and we wanted to keep it secret!

feeling just awesome

2007-04-16T16:49:00.000-07:00

ok, so christine's wedding was probably one of the best days of my life. Words can't even describe....pictures will be posted later. Not only did I have a good time but it was also the most entertaining wedding I have ever been to! And cozy too! And just awesome. Just awesome. Today me and Steve did nothing. Actually that's not true, this morning I wrote a final exam which I did poorly on, I will be satisfied with a D- because that class is the worst ever. Then I visited Steve and we went to the volkswagon dealership - yes I'm interested in a new car, I don't know how this all works but I want to learn more, I finally spent some of my christmas gift certificates at West Ed and visited the new H&M! I think it has resonable prices and lives up to it's hype, especially the women's clothing. Anyway, after that I just watched tv and had a nap! Homework is all done, classes are all done, I only have one final exam in psychology, I did good in it so it won't be hard! I'm feeling very good. very very great! now I have to get a job for two weeks.....because after that I'm going to the Dominican!

wedding fever

2007-04-13T13:36:00.000-07:00

ha ha ha, this picture is funny. This is going to be us tomorrow minus the fact that these people are a different race! I am soooooooooo excited for christine's wedding! like really excited. I don't know if I have ever in my life been this excited for a wedding. I mean, it's kinda weird. I think about it all the time. I'm pumped to wear my bridesmaid dress. I always think, I can't wait for christine to walk down the aisle (is that how you spell that?) I'm going to bawl my eyes out! I also can't wait for the dance, for picture taking, for feeling comfortable with the people I am with, unlike the last bridesmaid experience that I had. So anyway, for all those attending this event, if you see me looking like I'm about to burst with joy out of my seams, I seriously am that happy. I'm so happy for christine and glen, I'm happy to party and dance, and not to mention today is the last day of school and tomorrow will be a great day to celebrate it. I also get to look pretty all day! ah, what more can I ask for?

I've got the wedding day jitters, but I'm not getting married

2007-04-12T13:11:00.000-07:00

This post is just for christine! you have GOT to write at least one blog before your wedding day! You just gotta! It only has to be a sentence about how you are excited and busy! Please?????? We wanna know!

Peace Out for Two weeks.

2007-03-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

I have a TON of work to do before school ends. So good-bye for now, I will see everyone in two weeks. but I still might blog between that time....we will see.

I will leave you with this quote that I cannot remember who originally said it:

Nobody is EVER too busy to tell you how busy they are.

That's totally me.

Peace Out Dudes.

My great weekend!

2007-03-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

I had a great weekend! Starting on Friday at Field Placement, I helped lead through several classes with the men's addiction and rehabilitation program! It was scary and yet very satisfying. Using the basic couseling skills we learn in school I was able to be the one in charge on Friday and I felt respected by the men there and effective. It's funny because the age range of these men go from 60-late 20's and sometimes I just think, I'm 21, never done drugs, female, and I am able to handle (with help) a men's addictions group! How exciting! Anyway, I went and talked to my Field Placement supervisor from the women's program that I was apart of for most of this year and she told me some profound things about being a counselor and how group process works.

Also on friday, I went to Starbucks to meet with my Field Placement Supervisor and I had $1.37 in my pocket. I went up to the Starbucks and asked if there was anything for about that much, and she just said, what do you want? I told her that if I didn't have enough it would be ok, and she just said what do you want? She eventually convinced me, and even the customers waiting in line were asking "how much are you short?" So I ordered a shaken iced tea passion fruit and it was so delicious! This is a must have when it comes to Starbucks drinks! Anyway, it turns out that those ladies gave me the biggest size and I seriously could have cried it was so sweet! They just said, make sure to do something nice to someone else in the future and I assured them I would! I think one of the other touching details of the story is that it was in one of the roughest neighborhoods in town. Seriously rough. And it's interesting how that would never happen in downtown....it really says something about the quality of people we have living in edmonton.

Ok, so saturday I went and bought christine's bridal shower gift and other gifts and it was the best! You know I LOVE buying gifts for people especially when they have a list of everything they might want at the store, it makes my shopping experience so great! And honestly I love the bride I was shopping for and she is so easy going and low maitenance when it comes to keeping her happy. She appreciates everything! It was a good experience. Saturday night I went to a group of tired friends from school and we talked and played games and it was so much fun, although we were so tired that the evening ended rather early because of that!

Then there was sunday, church, and then the bridal shower and that was just a blast. We played the toilet paper bride, and played a quiz about how well you know the couple's love story. It was a great day, one of my favorite parts was a speach from her aunt about being married, it included expectations and reality, the beautiful parts of being married and how to make it work. Another good part was when all the married women said something to christine about either how to make it work, what they wished they had known, or anything to look forward to. Some good stuff came out of that conversation, and it was said several times that having a Christ centered marriage is the most important thing. I really appreciate all that kind of stuff. It was a really nice party!

It was a great weekend!

Blahs

2007-03-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

Another picture of me and Steve having fun......ho hum, wish I could be having this much fun now....:( I'm doing homework these days. I feel bad when I'm not doing it, so in other words I'm stressing and don't know how to relax....but that's ok because I'm pretty sure that it's just a student thing to do. I never feel like this when I'm not in school so I'm really looking forward to graduating. I'm taking a mental health class, and I keep diagnosing myself with everything I read it's kind of ridiculous! According to me, I have a "general anxiety disorder" ha ha, well, maybe not that extreme but it is pretty tough for me to relax at this point. Sometimes I think about my future tropical vacation that I am taking in May. I cannot believe that it is almost here, we have been planning this since last April, cannot believe it might actually be a reality soon enough now! All us ladies that are going....there are 6, have nicknamed ourselves "the womenican of dominican!" I have a new obsession: Facebook, I cannot stop facebookin it! Every single day, it's very addicting. Well blog reader, I'm sorry, but I must depart! Homework assignments titled spousal abuse, childhood abuse, anorexia nervosa research paper, and community log#3 are all calling my names! Wow, looking at that list, it's no wonder I never want to do my homework! How completly depressing!

40th post!

2007-03-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Happy 40th post 106 kicks!

(hmmm, that would be me.)

I named my blog 106 kicks because it is the name of a radio station in Ontario, I thought it sounded pretty cool! Anyway, I started blogging because of procrastination issues while doing homework. I pretty much mostly use the computer to procrastinate so after school is over I have a strong feeling my blogging will soon etiolate ...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/etiolate I looked that one up on dictionary.com.....so maybe you should look it up if you don't know what it means! (I know, the way I used it is not exactly dead on the meaning, but you get the picture.) I'm trying to make this blog interactive! Anyway, I couldn't go with all my friends to Frontier Lodge for cross country skiing, ice clinbing, repelling, and hanging out in the foothills this weekend......I had Suicide Prevention Training all weekend....what a bummer. On saturday night I went to bed at 9:50 I was so exhausted. Sunday I studied all day, and today I have the last midterm to do in psych. To say I'm busy is right on the mark. Stressed as well.... But now I must go and write this midterm.....augh.

Steven's teeth

2007-03-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

This picture is totally ridiculous! ha ha. thanks tab. I'm just doing more homework. I didn't go to class today. It was the greatest. And I got a lot done. Steven is getting all four wisdom teeth out today so I'm making him jello. I'm making pink jello and then putting whipping cream in the shape of a big tooth. Or maybe a big mouth iwth teeth and draw a tongue. Anyway, I thought I would put those 7-11 candies on top, those candies that are teeth and gums.....pretty funny. But he won't be able to eat the candies... Poor Steve.

bored

2007-03-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

I'm supposed to be doing homework, but I decided to rebel and write this! oh, maybe I will put up a picture since steven says that all posts are 100% better with a picture from anywhere of anykind! Isn't that cute? A real hot dog!

laptops

2007-03-07T18:29:00.000-08:00

I got TWO assignments done today! woooowoooo! Tomorrow is D-day. I have the biggest presentation of my life happening tomorrow and I'm a little nervous. I can't wait for it to be over. It is definitly that time of year. All I can think about is school. Sometimes I phone Steve and get sad because I haven't seen him....but then I get back to doing my homework. I haven't worked out in a month. I've been eating a lot of chocolate and gaining weight. I do my own make-shift yoga in my bedroom before bed and when I wake up in the morning....basically the same stretches that we did in grade 10 gym class, but I call it yoga. I rented a laptop from the school to motivate me to do my homework because I have to pay per day. Too bad $5000 dollars for tuition and $1000 for text books hasn't done that already....but I sat in second cup and worked hard for a couple hours with my lap top that has my school name written in big letters across the back. So this is good. I like working in Starbucks and Second Cup. I like how there are alot of conversations going on at once and it's impossible to follow just one, and not to mention the loudness of the blenders and other coffee equipment, and then the music that I have never heard before. All this ambiant noise makes me very happy. Not to mention I always drink a latte while typing away on my laptop. Of course that doesn't help with the whole gaining weight thing. Tomorrow I have to hand the laptop back to the library of my school, but I might not and just keep it for a few more days. Anyway, I'm going to start on more homework. This lady with her laptop is soo happy. That's how I feel with a laptop and now I want one.

oh my goodness! that's so and so....

2007-03-05T10:07:00.000-08:00

I never knew how much I do this until Steven mentioned it. Now I realize that I do this all the time. Everytime I go into town I always think I see someone I know and then I say, hey...I think that's so and so.....but when I get close enough and look hard enough I realize that it isn't. Since Steve has mentioned that I do this I do it SO MUCH! Especially in the park.....I went to highschool there and it is very common to see someone I went to highschool with, or see someone who is one of my little brother or sister's friends either shopping or working. One time we were driving over the Wayne Gretzky bridge, and I thought I saw this lady I go to school with right now, but when I went to school and asked her about this, she told me she couldn't drive....I should have known that because she has these crazy eyes.....So many times I think I see my social work teachers and especially one and it has come to the point that whenever we are driving or are out and I say "hey!" Steve says, no it's not "so and so." Maybe I'm just really paraniod about people seeing me....who knows. I have a feeling that my false sightings will go down once I move because I won't be in the park nearly as much. Anyway, some friends of mine suggested that I write my blog on this particular topic. They say they don't read it, and would never have a blog...but I just think they are jealous and feel a need to be in on all this glorious blogging fun! Too bad they will never know that happiness that it brings me....
These are two famous people without make-up on.....can you guess who they are? Maybe you have a little bit of false sightingsness in you as well.

grrrrr

2007-03-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

so I am currently waiting for one of my group members at the millwoods campus so I can give her some material, it's been 45 minutes and she isn't here. arg. not that I have anywhere to be really otherwise I would have left a long time ago, and yet, here I sit... a little miffed.

a very overdue pearls before swine

2007-03-01T15:38:00.000-08:00

Winter Retreat memories

2007-02-28T17:53:00.000-08:00

Today it is exactly two years ago that me and Steve met.

I went on a college age winter retreat with a whole bunch of people I didn't know, hmmm, nope, I really didn't know any of them at all. The reason Steven and I started talking was because we were asked to draw the journey of our lives, ya it could have been really deep but most people just drew a picture of their house, their elementary school, stuff like that. So Steven drew this picture of his highschool, drew a stick-figure girl inside the school with a "X" over her. So I asked him if he liked girls. He got so red..... and tried to explain his girl problems from highschool. Steven was SOOOOO easy to tease....now he knows me too well and doesn't fall prey to my schemes. He says he liked me because I was crazy, and I never really understood that. I mean, there were some seriously crazy girls who were on that winter retreat. Anyway, when I looked at the date a while ago I remembered the significance.....Steven is going to read this and comment for sure about what I wrote and either tell me I was wrong or I really was crazy. So if he hasn't commented on this blog yet, he will and I will probably be in trouble.

Velvet Elvis

2007-02-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

I'm in a bible study with a few friends and we currently meet on sunday nights. We are reading a chapter before each study of the book "Velvet Elvis" by Rob Bell. We just had our fourth meeting and this book is quite good. It's different than other bible studies because you aren't searching for the right answer. We just discuss what we have read and what impacted us. I really enjoyed chapter 2 because it was about how everybody has different interpretations of the bible and you shouldn't just take something for fact when someone says that it's true even if it's a pastor or some other high up christian leader. The important thing is to read it for yourself and ask God to help you understand what you are reading. All scripture is God breathed, yet so many people use scripture to back up things that go against christianity or use it advance themselves or justify things. Chapter 3 was an interesting read as well talking about flexibility in what we believe, and why so many students going into college fall away from God because what they are learning in class isn't what they have grown up with, it's a different kind of truth and people are unsure how it fits into the christian ideology and faith system. Anyway, I recommend it, although the author is quite young and in my opinion this is shown in the way that he writes and the what he says.......it's still a good book, worth reading (I'm only on chapter 4) Anybody have any good suggestions for good bible study material??? I have heard Beth Moore speak, and after that I decided that her book(s) are going to be my next bible study material.

Peace Out Pepsi!!!!

2007-02-23T09:36:00.000-08:00

Tab came over yesterday and took some pictures and it was so much fun! Steven was really apprehensive about the photo shoot saying it was lame and stupid going in, I think he thought it was going to be a lot like walmart where I would sit in a chair and he would put one hand on my shoulder, and I would fold my hands in my lap and we would fake smile for a while.....but it turns out that Tab just let us have some fun while she took some pictures! She is going away to Switzerland for a year and since she has always offered me and Steve a photo shoot, we finally took advantage of it and it was really awesome! So, a picture of me and Steve rockin out and pepsi simpson.....a.k.a......hottest dawg on the planet. Peace out!

p.s. there are more pictures hopefully to come.

READING WEEK!

2007-02-21T10:30:00.000-08:00

AHHHH! Reading week is FINALLY here! Now I can have a chance to have some fun and complete some projects that really badly needed to be finished and write some papers I didn't have time for.... So far to celebrate I have had a family day with Steve's dad's side of the family, gone out to cook my absolute favorite bar and danced the night away, (the last time I went out it was september), my highschool girlfriends and I had a get together last night, and cleaned up some things that I had ignored since christmas....so I'm feeling pretty good besides the fact that I'm physically sick but that doesn't really matter because I don't feel guilty about not going to school or field placement when there is none to go to! woooooowooooooo! I have asked Steve to phone me at 12 and ream me out if the project that I am working on is not done by then because I set a goal to be done by 12:00pm! Better get crackin on it, otherwise if Steve reads this blog after he reams me out I'm going to get another phone call....and it won't be pretty. Other than the fact that I hate school, these breaks are quite luxurious. There is no way that if I was working full time I would be able to have a spring break, a christmas break, and a november break, not to mention the fact that I only have at the most 6 hours of class a day.....much better than working, oh who am I kidding I would way rather be working. But I am thankful for the breaks, it's just that when you have so much over your head it is incredibly difficult to enjoy them. For the most part, I am enjoying these breaks.....even though technically I am just doing homework from 10 in the morning till 4......so I'm still working but I am at home and can do stuff in the evenings and no homework is due......ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! My current mood is very happy.

"free" spa package

2007-02-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

I went to bridal fantasy with my cousin because she is getting married soon. We signed up for all the draws that they were having, watched the fashion show and then left. A few weeks later I get a phone call saying that I had won a "spa" package. I then found out that a lady would come to my house and provide the products so we could do it ourselves and that I should invite 4- 10 friends. Now I'm annoyed. I don't want to host anything because at this point in time I really can't afford anything. I especially won't be buying any spa stuff. Anyway, I got all excited because I thought I won a trip to a spa, but instead I got to have the chance of someone coming to my house and trying to sell me something. Which is not nearly as fun. I should probably clarify that when I actually want to host a party like that, they are quite a bit of fun, and it is usually stuff that I want to buy, so that is a lot different. In this case, I bet they took everyone's name who entered the "draw" and just used it to try and sell stuff. How annoying! And this is a picture of the ultimate in beauty sales ladies that I decided needed to be put up:

Monday Pearls before Swine

2007-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

If you can't read it, here are the words:

Crocodile: Hullllooooo Zeeba Neighbor...Leesten, me want you meet new wife Debbie...she a new crockydile mom wiff two keeds. Dis prove dat not all crockydiles ees destroyahs of life...Some ees good moms dat love preshiss keeds....

Zeeba: Hmmm, you know, I've always wondered something about crocodile mothers...Is it true that right after your children are born, you keep them in you mouth to protect them from predators?

(Debbie opens her mouth to revel two crocodiles)

Crocodile: HA HA HA HA HA HA!....Eesn't dat aMAYseeng??...Way to go Debbie!!...Way to go!!

(as he pats debbie on the back)

Debbie: Gulp

Crocodile: Ees okay,....we make more.

I wish so bad that I could get the comics to appear normal size like they are on my computer, but nothing works, so I have to translate!

what a ridiculous conversation starter

2007-02-06T19:05:00.000-08:00

You know what is really ridiculous? Having the same name as someone famous. Really really ridiculous. You know what's even more ridiculous? The fact that people compare you to this famous person even though under only these circumstances would anyone ever compare me to this famous person. I get a whole aray of responses to this fact. I remember when she first became famous. I was in grade 7 and my grade 6 teacher comes up to me and asks, "did I just hear you on the radio?" I was so confused and answered "no." Soon after that I realized that there was a famous person with the same name as me. Some kids in my class liked to tease me about it, and I really didn't mind. I figured that she would be a short lived phase that would pass. So many people asked me if my parents had named me after her. My response would always be "no" and say something like she only became famous a few years ago, that would make me 4 years old if they had. Trust me, the snarky comments that I write in this blog are not my actual responses they are only my thoughts. I don't own any of her cd's and I actually don't care for her music really, but I definitly don't hate her, I also don't mind when her song comes on the radio, I would never purchase any of her music is all. I thought it would be cool if I did like her music but I definitly don't. There were a few boys who wanted to date me for novelty purposes "I dated JS" but that never worked out for them. Except I think Steven might want a shirt that says "I'm dating JS" at least after 2 years I know it's not just for novelty purposes. When I was working in customer service or when I go to Safeway where the cashier's can find out your name, I get so many "how's Nick?" and "is your sister named ashley?" haw.........haw. Then there are some pissed responses like people might think that I'm trying to be smart when I sign up for something or give my name for surveys and they just roll their eyes, and I'm like, augh! I'm not trying to be a smart ass! I'm not trying to conceal my real name, that is my real name! I was worried that when I went into college that people might give me a real hard time, then I talked to a few people and they said, oh don't worry, nobody's going to say anything. So then the teacher calls my name for attendance and I say "here" and the whole class, not even exaggerating points and laughs! I was like holy crap! On the whole, having this ridiculous name has been positive. It's a great ice breaker, and people always like to say that they know me! (I know JS) ha ha. I definitly don't hate it because one day it will be gone, and then I will be a plain normal-named person. Well, that's depressing! lol, not really, I'm looking forward to people not being shocked at my name and having it be so easy to remember (for confidentiality reasons.) Anyway, that day is not coming for awhile so I have some more time with this ridiculous name of mine and I'm going to have some fun with it!
(p.s. I abbreviated my name to be confidential but I'm really not too sure it worked with that giant picture I put at the top.)

Monday comics

2007-02-05T10:09:00.000-08:00

In case you can't read this, these are the words:
Mouse: Where were you today?
Pig: I went to the furniture store to buy a night stand...I already have one on one side of bed and I'd like to put one on the other.
Lady: I'm sorry, but I couldn't help overheading...did you say you're looking for a nightlight? If so...I work for a lamp store and I'd love to sell you something...
Pig: Uhh...no, I'm just looking for uhh...one night stand.
Pig: Guess I should have bought a lamp

video inquirey (if that's how that is spelled)

2007-02-03T13:36:00.001-08:00

Does anyone know how to put a video from youtube onto your blog? I have a video but not sure how to do it.

A very dirty buick = unwelcome company

2007-01-31T19:02:00.000-08:00

So the most ridiculous thing happened this past weekend! On friday night Steven dropped me off at my house, and just as we were going up the driveway, a MOOSE jumped out in front of us! It was rather scary and Steve was so scared that he had to come through MY door to the house because the moose was staring us down! The next morning I go outside to my car and I see all these smudges all over it! My car was super dirty and it wasn't till later that I realized that not only was there dirt on my car, but there was also ROAD SALT! THE MOOSES WERE LICKING MY CAR. So apparently my dad says he saw two mooses hanging around my car the night before. My car is completly disgusting. There is tongue marks and dirt all over the windows, trunk, front, headlights, and DOORKNOBS! (sick! moose saliva on my door handle!) They licked my headlights clean and I no longer need my brights on to shine through the dirt. Well, that is definitly natures hint for me to wash my car! Sorry for the lack of picture, I don't have a camera handy in the daylight hours, but I will arange this and hopefully post the picture soon! So you think that I might have learned my lesson by now, but the car is still a filthy mess and now I like showing off the lick marks. I tell the story to everyone I know, and now you, dear reader, have heard as well!

Pearls before Swine

2007-01-25T20:11:00.000-08:00

2007-01-24T16:50:00.000-08:00

So it's definitly wednesday and the middle of the week. I have homework to do and am putting it off by writing a blog. I just have to say that today I am so ridiculously tired! The whole day was just a battle to keep my eyes open. Good grief.
Last night Steven, Rob, Leigh-anne, and I went to the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Video Game Music Production. It was really fun, everyone enjoyed the show immensly. The crowd that this event attracted was mainly geeks. I have never seen so many nerds in one place, but then again, I have never been to the UofA Engineering Program Buildings. I know what your thinking! Yes I have been to Steven's (semi) passion, the Computing Science Program buildings, and it was seriously nerdy, but not as many people take Computing Science as Engineering. So this overwhelming amount of nerds filled up the entire Jubilie Auditorium. So much Sci-Fi. Wow. They had a big screen that would show images and animation of the video game that we were listening to. So many massive creatures with huge arms and teeny heads. And also so many purple transparent women in so many of the games. I know what your thinking - weird. I enjoyed the Super Mario Brother's Theme song and the Zelda them song. Funny how the same guy wrote both of them. Anyway it was a super fun night and a unique way to express music through video games!
One of my personal favorite parts was (you know when Mario goes underground through a pipe? And the music changes to: dana dana dana.....dana dana dana.....) ya, the whole symphony orchestra did that, I guess it's funny to watch old people play video game music on their cellos, violins, and other instruments.

2007-01-18T17:14:00.000-08:00

After having written the most unpopular post so far, I feel I need to redeem myself after such bad reviews (yes, there has been some bad reviews.) I have gotten no comments at all and this made me realize that my audience, although it is small, indeed has influence over what I write. There is some pressure to conform, and what the heck, why not! Do expect, however, some more of my social worky opinions as I am currently in the program and can't help but let my current thoughts on issues spill out onto my blog. This has been some of my feed back:

I didn't like that post Jess

It sounded really feminist

Write about better and happier things

Just to let you know that conference is not about encouraging feminist values on women, just an information time to get involved in government if anyone ever wanted to.

That being said, I'm going to be busy tonight doing homework and reading text books. And to all you people who read my blog and never comment, you make me look uncool....*cough* marla.

This is me being a model for one of Tab's assignments. If you want to check out examples of her awesome artistry and amazing eye for all things photographical go to www.myspace.com/delightfullyeccentric !!!

Calling all women!!

2007-01-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

Hey there ladies! This is for all you pro-active women out there!
Alberta Municipal Affairs is holding a 1-day session called "Be on the Ballot: Women Impacting Local Government" on Monday, January 22, 2007. There will be discussions about overcoming barriers, influencing public policy, with many female elected representatives representing Alberta municipalities and counties participating on the panels.To see the agenda and learn more about registration, visit http://www.beontheballot.com or the Alberta Municipal Affairs website at http://www.municipalaffairs.gov.ab.ca look for "Workshops, Consultations & Registrations" and click on "Women Impacting Local Government Conference".
For more information please email info@beontheballot.com

p.s. I know this is the 3rd post since monday, but what the heck, doesn't this sound interesting? The conference is totally free! So if your interested in making some changes in your community, finding out how you have a say in your government, or just curious as to how this stuff even works, check it out! By the way......I can't go I have school that day so sorry, I cannot walk my talk, but it's still an intersting opportunity!

2007-01-16T18:06:00.000-08:00

This is what I might be waking up to on May 2nd. Or maybe some palm trees who knows. I'm excited. My first tropical vacation ever.

So far, my favorite vacation spot that I have gone to has been Ontario, and then the shushwaps. Although the place I'm most looking forward to going to is Australia. Some day I will go. What's everybody's favorite vacation spots or a place you would most like to go?

Stupid 3 hour break

2007-01-15T11:58:00.000-08:00

This picture is from 2004 Grad photo day. I found it on one of Tab's old websites that she has all these old highschool pictures. I figured I hadn't posted a picture in so long, people must be getting bored! I don't know what I'm going to do with myself with this 3 hour break each monday. It's destroying me. Not only that, but I left my purse in Steve's truck and so I have no money at all! Although it does prevent me from spending unnecessarily at the Tim Hortons downstairs. But having no money is so brutal when your bored! At Grant MacEwan they offer a diploma in massage therapy and are looking for volunteers who want to get massaged. The Massage Clinic office was closed so I'm a little bummed. Having a weekly monday massage would be so nice, and such a great thing during the worst three hours of the week. So I'm already hating school, and I haven't started ANY homework at all. I really should get on it. I need to be more motivated. Unfortunatly, I'm not. Today in class we had to do a smudge. It's an Aboriginal purification ceremony. It was pretty neat, I enjoyed it! No it did not involve praying or worshipping other gods, mom. Anyway, I had better go, at this moment I am bored and probably boring to listen to. Hmmmm, any other things to talk about........last night I ran for 15 minutes! My next goal is honestly going to be 25 minutes. I will let you all know if I can do it, or if my knees give out. Good grief, I'm already an old lady at 20 years old.

BLIZZARD

2007-01-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Isn't this weather incredible???? Not in a good way though. I turned on the radio this morning and the report was that people were sliding backwards on Dawson's Bridge road because it's so slippery, and that is the road that I take. Not only that but just about EVERY road to get into down town from the east is quite steep so I figured even if I had found an alternate route I would probably still be screwed. The roads were so bad I didn't go to my field placement today. Wednesdays although are generally uneventful, except for that time I went bungee jumping, (I wrote about it in a previous post). Today is a great day to do laundry and clean which is what I have been doing and it feels good. I also am going to do my first assignment that is due in a week from now! I counted it out and I have 18 assignments due this term, the bulk of them are due at the end of March. Even though I could try to start early, lets face it, I have always been a procrastinator and deciding to suddenly try my best might be a shock to the system so I plan on taking it easy. Snow is pretty, but it's always a little bit depressing and worrisome (is that how you spell that??) I find that I'm always worrying (holy cow, I'm horirble at spelling.) about the roads not just when I drive but when other people drive. I always get stressed when I drive in the snow because it is so easy to spin out, especially in miss buick. Hopefully everyone has safe drives to and from wherever they go and that everyone takes it easy! I hope that everyone takes advantage of these snow days and enjoys the great indoors! Drink some tea! Sit near your fire place! Read a book or do a puzzle! Clean your house! (that's not that relaxing, but sometimes people just don't have time when life gets busy, and if your forced to be at home, why not?) lol, can you tell I'm pumped to be at home?

People are always so much more ambitious in January than other times of the year

2007-01-08T10:40:00.000-08:00

Alright, right now I'm writing in the grant macewan library because I have a 3 hour break between classes today,(how brutal is that) and what else in the world am I going to do besides blog? Well, I could be doing homework, and I have very ambitious hopes for finishing early. For example, today I have a class called Aboriginal Anthropology, a very interesting class. One of the assignments in the class is that you have to write a journal every week about the reading that was required. I'm thinking that if I'm really fast and really sneaky, I may be able to finish all these journals in 2 weeks and then turn the text book back in for a refund! I know what your thinking, ya right, like Jess has the ambition and the determination to do 20 3-page journals in 2 weeks, well I don't, your right. But I'm going to make a valient effort tonight! And tomorrow! By the way, my previous post about getting a toned belly fell through after 2 weeks. So that shows how much determination I really have. It's a known fact that when someone has a bunch of homework due, anything else in the world would rather be done, including toning one's belly. I'm also pretty ripped off about the cost of text books. Two of my courses have text books totalling $20 each, while a couple of my courses have $200 texts. Isn't that completly ridiculous? I would rather pay someone a dollar a page to photocopy, because you honestly only use about 20 pages at the most anyway, well, if your me and you don't do the required readings! Anyway, I guess I better get started, sorry to keep my readers waiting!

And now a little humor at my expense:
A social worker asks a collegue: "What time is it?"The other one answers: "Sorry, don't know, I have no watch."The first one: "Never mind! The main thing is that we talked about it."

A social worker is facing a mugger with a gun. "Your money or your life!" says the mugger. "I'm sorry," the social worker answers, "I am a social worker, so I have no money and no life."

Ah, these are all things that I have to look forward to!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

ho ho ho, merry christmas! I love the gifts I got, my car is fixed, and I'm off to the boxing day extravaganza at Steven's aunts & uncles today! Hope everyone's christmas was as joyful and merry as mine! New Years is coming and that will be quite fun. I got a lot of gifts relating to the fact that I'm moving out. I was thinking to myself, 3 1/2 more months, I will be done school completly, going to Mexico, and soon to be moving into my new house! It is so thrilling! Not to mention what kind of a job am I going to get after I finish school? I have no idea! Well, continue to celebrate the holidays with the most important people in your life! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

christmas shopping and broken down buicks

2006-12-19T12:48:00.000-08:00

My car broke down on friday. I was driving and I lost heat, power steering, the water cooler, and my battery light went on. So the belt that ran 3 of those things came off, and I am housebound still on tuesday. Well, I shouldn't say housebound because now Steven is required to drive me everywhere. I should probably change that to say that actually Steven is now Jess-bound. My dad is doing his best to fix it, but he destroyed his knee, so it has been a bit of a process. About christmas shopping, I have 4 more gifts to buy. Even though this is ridiculously ambitious, I plan to go out and get 3 all totally done TONIGHT. The problem is that I am going shopping with Steven, so I can't buy him a gift when I'm with him. So anyway, hopefully the next time I write I will be done all my christmas shopping and back to driving my Buick all over the place! Merry Christmas, Jolly Shopping!

DONE-ZO!!!! and now its quincey time!

2006-12-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm done and I can hardly believe it. That was really really tough, way tougher than semester's that have passed. But it is all totally over!. ....well, until January 3rd, thats when I go back for my last semester. So today Steve picked me up from the SA and I helped him and Gregg, Snake, Jason, and Devon build a snow fort/quincy! Steve made me go inside of it and I was scared. The tunnel to the way in was very small, but you could actually sit up inside of it! Then I put some rocks around the outside of the mouth of the tunnel, but you can't see that in the pictures. So I guess I'm going out for a celebratory dinner tonight and some relaxation! I cannot wait to begin the greatest holiday season EVER!!!!!

Time is going fast these days...

2006-12-12T18:44:00.000-08:00

So I did alright on my exams, glad both of them are out of the way. I now have one more class and 2 more days of field placement to complete and then I'm totally donezo! It will feel weird, but I'm already getting used to some of the freedom.

Yesterday I went and visited the house that marla, steph, lori and I will be living in May or June. It is so nice! Hard wood floors in the living room, dining room, and also in the bedrooms. Also the basement is totally finished except Mike is ripping one room apart because its disgusting and apparently re-drywalling it and all of that stuff. There is 5 rooms in the house and 4 of us girls. So there is some variation in the rooms that we can have. It looks like I will get the smallest room in the house, which will be a big change for me as my bed is the width of the entire room! Its weird but I pretty much have my heart set on it, as the windows are way bigger than some of the other rooms. But it doesn't really matter I won't be living there for very long. Anyone who picked up on that last sentence, don't read anything into that! I already have picked out the paint and decided the colors I want for my room. Its one thing to know your moving out, but a totally different thing to actually see it! Nothing seems to be taking its time these days, and I can't believe I'm already going to be starting my last semester in in a few weeks. This is a picture of me and Steven at Pam's wedding, I think this is definitly the best picture that we have taken together and I had to show it off!

CRUNCH TIME!!!!

2006-12-10T20:18:00.000-08:00

I'm writing two final exams tomorrow (monday) Pray for me!

HOUSING CRISIS: EDMONTON

2006-12-06T18:52:00.000-08:00

What the heck is with Edmonton and the rising housing prices! It's ridiculous! Last fall I played a game in the Edmonton Journal called "Rome for the Gnome." Gnomes were hidden all over different parks in Edmonton, clues were given in the newspaper and people had to solve the clue, and then go to that park to find the little gnome often hidden under trees. It became a little disturbing when we went to lift up the bottoms of trees to find gnomes and instead would find an entire family sleeping underneath! Mom, Dad, and kids. Unless you were to physically lift up the tree branches, you wouldn't be able to tell that people were sleeping underneath them. Whats really surprising and why you don't see these people during the day is because a lot of homeless people in Edmonton work during the day and sleep in public parks during the night. "Susan McGee, spokeswoman from the Edmonton Joint Planning Committee on Housing, said working people have been living in campgrounds over the summer or sleeping in the city's river valley."(http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2006/10/31/homeless-edmonton.html edmonton.html) I think that if a person is working full time on minimum wage, they should be able to afford some type of housing or accomodation. It's ridiculous to me that Edmonton is too expensive for people who are working hard to support their families to provide food, clothing, and I don't think that shelter should ever be considered a luxury, especially in Alberta where not having a shelter could mean freezing to death! "Alberta's white-hot economy is creating a new class of homeless — the working poor. The latest survey of homelessness in Edmonton has found that low vacancy rates and lack of affordable housing are hurting those with jobs as well as the unemployed." (http://www.themoneyblogs.com/edmontonrealestate/my.blog/homeless-in-edmonton.html And as for shelters, there isn't enough room. There isn't enough room for people in the richest province in Canada! "168" people in Edmonton each night will not make it into a shelter because either the shelter is too full, (people being turned away) or people will be discharged from a shelter. (http://www.edmonton.ca/CommPeople/HomelessOct02.pdf) People have different solutions to these problems. Some people want to implement a "living wage" for people of an area to earn enough to be able to afford the necessities of life for whatever cost things are priced at in that area. Other people want the government to introduce a type of rent control across Edmonton. There are other solutions such as the prevention of foreign land buyers in the Edmonton area.

It happens to really irks me when I see people who work all day on minimum wage, often long hours, who have families, who don't do drugs or alcohol, are forced to work more than one job, who are responsible, who, because of Edmonton's rising housing prices cannot afford some type of decent accomodation. So, this is just something to think about, especially for anybody who believes that in all conditions being homeless is a choice.

p.s. This is a re-written section of my paper - "The Increase of Poverty in Edmonton", (written with a little more emotion for this blog! lol)

Cat!

2006-12-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

When I move out with Steph, Marla, and Lori, we will get a cat. I'm really hoping we can name the cat some name like Margot or Gloria. I'm really a big fan of pets being named people's names that people don't really name their kids anymore. Although I did go to swimming lessons in grade 4 with a Margot and my mom said there are many people named Gloria. It doesn't matter! Soon I will get to be living in the same house as a cat which is very exciting considering only one other person in my family is not allergic to cats! Our cat is going to be the greatest!

What a RUSH!

2006-11-30T16:13:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I did the craziest thing. I bungee jumped at west edmonton mall. 106 feet. Yes it was scary. No I could not breath. I kept my eyes closed for the first part. What a rush! Wow.

I went into field placement on wednesday morning at the Salvation Army and to my surprise they said they were going bungee jumping! The purpose being for them to show clients how to have a rush without using drugs. I was so excited! I was pretty calm waiting at the top, many of the men were not. Some were on all fours praying. They were embarrassed that I was not that scared, but I assured them that I would be really scared when my feet were over the edge. I predicted myself completly and I'm getting that scared feeling all over again just writing about it! So there was so many people that wanted to jump, and the heavier people were instructed to go first. Needless to say I was near the end! I waited at the top for about 2 1/2 hours, and finally it was my turn! They tightened up my harness, checked it once out loud, and then the second guy checked it twice out loud. They said "put your feet over the edge!" Then he said at the countdown of 5 I was to jump, 5.....4....3...2..1...JUUUUMP!!!!!!.......and I was still standing there, clutching the rail. The guy told me "hands off the rail!" woops. He told me to hold on to the cushion surrounding the bungee, and once again the count down of 5...4....3....2...1..JUUUUMP!!!! And I started tilting and leaning slowly into nothing, clutching that pillow with a death grip, and then........falling. I never screamed, it was too much, I couldn't breath, and I was waiting for some kind of relief, some kind of slowing down, feel anything when apsolutly NOTHING was surrounding me and I was only getting faster and faster. And then I bounced up! I opened my eyes, and went falling all over again! WOW! I started to breath, I almost started to cry! bouncing and flying....and it was over. Scariest thing I have ever done! But I would do again in a heart beat.

This is great

2006-11-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

After completing the amazing race for a fundraiser in October that required running all over the city, I realized how incredibly out of shape I am! I knew that I bought a "get in shape book" last year so I looked through my bookshelf and found it! I had bought a special edition book version of this magazine on "3 weeks to a flat belly!" (The picture is not of my book, but its the same makers.) I never really opened it up until just recently - which is so like me. I keep hearing about the health risks of having weight on your belly, and apparently of all places on your body, fat is most likey to hinder your health when its on your belly. (I have actually looked into this!) And besides all that, Oprah said so! Also, having strong abs helps immensly with back pain. So I started doing the beginner ab work outs everyday since five days ago! ha ha. I just love this book, it keeps away from extremes, so I will keep you posted on how this turns out and whether or not I continue to recommend it. In three weeks I WILL have a firmer belly, and maybe in three weeks I may have a flatter belly. (The magazine also comes with some meal ideas and must eat foods, ideas for post pregnancy weight, and SO MUCH MORE! ha ha. I will post later on this healthy information!)

Feeling a little under pressure?

2006-11-26T21:23:00.000-08:00

I feel like this dog!

So once again its sunday night and I'm doing homework. If any of you thought that my high school habits have faded because I am now in college and paying for it myself its not true! I'm still the biggest procrastinator of all time, the only thing about school now that is really kicking my butt is that if you don't hand in an assignment, you fail the whole entire course, and apparently kicked out of the program! Which is good for a person like me and bad. Last christmas I asked if I could get an extension on an assignment till January the 2nd. Thinking that I would work real hard before christmas, as if! Who has free time in the days before christmas or wants to make time in the days after??!! Every student knows that you will only start working on the assignment the day or two before its due! I'm not the only one who does this! So anyway, needless to say, my christmas was not all that relaxing last year. Definitly the worst part about school is that you think about it during your free time and feel guilty for not working while your having fun or relaxing. SO, this year I have been making a valient effort to work hard, and it really has paid off. But if your wondering if I have made a dent in those 6 assignments still due........I'm almost done one assignment.........and the rest are all due by thursday and I REALLY don't want christmas break homework. I'm also a person who starts shopping for christmas in October to hopefully be done by the end of November. Unfortunatly that did not happen due to the intensity of my assignments in October and November, now I must shop in December, what a drag.

Is anyone else already feeling some holiday/school stress???

2006-11-23T20:38:00.000-08:00

Steven you are adorable! Thanks for helping me with all the homework.
Several
Tigers
Eat
Very Edible
Nightingales
--"Don't commit fraud or grand theft identity."--
This picture was taken last year before thanksgiving dinner at the Oorts. (7!!!!)

The end is near

2006-11-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

So, I did end up getting two of the assignments done and the third I asked for an extension. When I went to class on tuesday, the day the third research paper was due, only 3 people handed in the paper! 3 out of 30! The teacher basically said "all of you asked for extensions, so get the paper in whenever." So that was pretty awesome especially because it means that there is way more people in the same boat as me than I thought. I'm also going to revise a paper I already wrote and change it up a little for this last one...ssshhhhh, don't tell! Although Marla, you amaze me. You only had one paper to write and yet you still asked for an extension! Oh well, we understand you "work" ha ha.

Anyway, tomorrow I lead a group session of about 13 people(my fellow classmates) for one hour. yikes. It's going to be interesting. We are going to start off by giving everyone a christmas festive holiday hershey kiss. And the icecreaker is going to be about christmas so that will be great. But I'm still counting down the days till school ends! only 3 more weeks or so! 6 assignments due by the 30th and 2 final exams by the 12th.......and counting!

2006-11-19T17:59:00.000-08:00

So, I just finished one of the three papers due on monday and tuesday. I'm not going to lie, I was seriously bawling by the end of it. So frustrating! I'm almost done the second one! wow, who would have thought that if I started writing both of them on tuesday, I would only be 2/3rds of the way done by sunday night? I totally thought I planned this out but I guess not. Now I will have to have an extension on my paper - and that kinda sucks because it prolongs the pain! ha ha, oh it hurts so much to laugh.

~~~This is a picture of my adorable dog Pepsi and she makes me happy!~~~

Last few weeks of school!

2006-11-17T13:41:00.000-08:00

Oh my goodness, school is completly eating me alive! I have 3 research papers due on monday and tuesday, and two assignments due on thursday, one of them being a class presentation where I have to lead group for an hour - its not going to be fun! After this week is over, I will have 2 more assignments, and 2 final exams and then I'm done! Steve and I are going to Banff after school is over and its basically the only thing keeping me going right now! Everytime I don't want to do my homework I picture myself flying down the side of a mountain - in a GOOD way! ha ha. These next three weeks are going to go by so slow and so fast at the same time! My current assignment is about poverty in Edmonton. Did you know poverty in Edmonton has increased 30% since last year? That's a pretty big deal, but I really I hope I get a good mark!

p.s. The picture of us at "the top of the world" is so funny, we look like four year olds in our snow suits, but thats mainly my fault for not having any matching snow stuff - not to mention that ridiculous orange touque! These were taken last year at the top of panorama mountain.

The best day ever!

2006-11-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

Today was an incredibly special day for me! I went to church and then Steve and I decided that we would go to west ed to check out the sea lions! I have been wanting to see the sea lions for so long, and finally we went! It was cool because I didn't expect to actually watch it in the stands because you can almost as good as when outside in the mall, but as we were waiting, a guy working there took the rest of the people in the line and said that we could take a seat! It was WAY better to be closer! You could almost touch them! It was such a good show I would recommend it to everyone. Afterward me and steve had a big discussion on whether or not the actors who did the show were also the trainers and whether or not one of them was a girl or a guy, pretty funny stuff. Anyway, we were arguing our points back and forth until we decided to go back and just ask them straight up all our questions. I was right about them both being women, although steve still thinks that one trainer was totally a dude. Steve was right about them being both trainer and actor.
This is also neat: we were walking and all of a sudden there was this bride and she was arm in arm with an older man. So me and Steve went upstairs and watched a small wedding take place on the Santa Maria! Much to steve's dismay we waited until they kissed after they finished saying their vows and a lot of the mall clapped and cheered!
The rest of the day was full of other fun things, but it has definitly been an amazing day! Thanks steven!