The Long Weekend As I See It

Picture it with me

• A beautiful mountain setting
• Lots of Yahtzee, Wii and numerous other games I plan to take with us
• Yummy Food
• Good Company
• An uncomfortable pull out couch
• A little Buffy
• A lot of sleeping in
• A hot tub

Sounds like a near perfect long weekend to me
L

Best News

Here you can be anything.
I think that scares you.
I've been here before but only by myself.
What giving up gives you and where giving up takes you.
I've had and I've been.
Here in center frame, there's only air.J
ust enough space to fit.
I said it out loud over and over but what do I know.I
said it out loud but it did not help.
I'll stop now.
Just so I can hear you I stay up as late as it takes, as long as it takes.
I promised I'd see it again.
I promised I'd see this with you now.

Jimmy Eat World, in concert, in Calgary

Awesome!
L

Friends & Family Rate

Brad decided a while ago that he’d start doing some DJ’ing, small stuff, mostly weddings, it’s a great way to make a little extra cash. We’ve done a bunch now, all of them for friends of ours so they’ve been given the Friends & Family Rate.

A couple weeks ago Brad got a call from Mindy Moore asking if Brad would DJ the dance for her Aunt’s Wedding. It took some scheduling but we decided it was worth it since for once we could charge his actual price. Mindy told us the location which we promptly forgot.

Jump forward to this past weekend, it was busy. Lots packed in. Friday we needed to help set up for Brad’s cousin’s wedding (Paul) and then rush down to the Fireworks competition. On Saturday while Brad was at work I would go help move his Sister and Brother-in-law. Brad would pick up the DJ equipment after work, swing by the house and pick me up so we could hurry over to the Family Dinner for Paul’s wedding. We’d be at least an hour late but it was the best we could do. After the dinner we’d hurry over to this other wedding and DJ. It was busy but well planned.

Friday was successful; we set up for the wedding and had plenty of time to make it to the fireworks. Saturday the moving went well. My Mother-in-law and I headed over with a carload to drop off and started visiting. I mentioned that Brad and I were going to have to leave Paul’s wedding so we could go DJ this other dance. She asked where it was and I said I wasn’t sure. All I knew was it was for Mindy Moore’s Aunt.

“Uh, Laura... Mindy Moore’s Aunt is marrying Brad's cousin.”

All this time, we never made the connection! Guess we should have written down the location eh? That may have triggered it. Needless to say the Friends & Family Rate was re-instated.
L

Fireworks Part 2

So once again we made the trek over to the fireworks, with our one set of friends in tow...

The first night we went Canada was competing and they did an incredible job, we loved it! The next night was Spain and their's was pretty average, we were unimpressed. Disappointed even. So last night as we headed over I was a little nervous that these ones wouldn't be good either, I was most definitely wrong though, I loved last nights almost as much as Canada. Here are some photos of the night.


And as a special treat I'm adding a video to this post, fun eh?

L

Absent Friends

Brad and I were so excited, from work he got 8 tickets, plus dinner to the fireworks competition, which we love. What a great idea! We were thrilled to invite a bunch of our friends, but who to choose, there were so many options! So the narrowing down started.

We extended our first invite to Naomi and Dave and they were excited, yay, success!
We next called Ian and Jen, the perfect time to hang out with them, only Ian is out of town. Fine, we’ll take just Jenn and Invite Cora to take his place, only Cora has plans.
Fine, we’re 3 down and have lots of time... only now the trouble starts...

Jenn is out of town so Jenn and Nathan are out
Jane is out of town so Jane and Ken are out
Lisa and Brady are still on their honeymoon
Chris and Lynn just moved
Dan is in Idaho
Marissa and Brendan have plans
Lisa and Doug are moving that weekend
Kim and Andrew are going out of town
Julie and David are down in Magrath
Irena has to work
We found Janine who was excited but then had to cancel
And then sadly Dave and Naomi also had to cancel*

We did luck out and Ian became available but here we are, 6 hours before the event and we have 4 remaining tickets... it’s starting to be depressing.

We made a real effort... called more people than we could have imagined necessary... if we missed you I’m sorry, it wasn’t on purpose and if you read this in time then call me, we’d love to have you come! We’re now out of ideas and may have to try to scalp our tickets... it’s a bit of a sad day.
L

*Names are not listed in the order called

I'm a pro too

It seems a digital camera makes everyone think they're a professional... here is my attempt
L

Weekend of Fun

Every year Magrath celebrates it's anniversary and my favorite part of it has always been the fireworks. They'd set them off at one end of the football field and we'd lie on the grass at the other. The fireworks go off right above your head and occasionally you'd be lucky enough to be hit by sparks, you're that close!

There are few things I love more than fireworks, so I was thrilled to be able to go to the first night of the Fireworks competition. We were there to see Canada and I'm not sure I could have loved it more. Mom, Dad, Rob and Riley came up and Riley was so cute, he'd clap his hands and proclaim that it was "Awesome". We're lucky enough to have tickets for Tuesday and Thursday as well. While you aren't hit by sparks for these ones they do have the added fun of music, I love the music!

On saturday we went on a Zoo trip, check out the pictures.
It was such a great weekend! I look forward to Tuesday and Thursday.



L

Shuffle

I have this iPod, and I’m pretty in love with the iPod. It’s not new, I’ve had it for years and it’s been well used. It’s 20GB of space and it’s jam packed full, not enough room for a single song. To put new music on I have to remove something which is always a hard decision, I’m afraid I’ll take off something that one day on my walk home from work I just HAVE to hear. The last couple times I’ve gone to remove music I’ve started to think that maybe since I don’t listen to everything, it’s full of songs that aren’t that good and I should go through and remove them. I never actually follow through with this thought though.

Then there’s the feature I could never really grow to love... the shuffle. In the years that I’ve had my iPod I think I’ve used the shuffle 3 or 4 times. The music is too random, I didn’t like that. I think over the years though, what with having to remove music to put new stuff on I’ve ended up with an iPod full of some really wicked music. I actually used the shuffle yesterday and today and ended up with the greatest mix. I heard so many songs that I’d forgotten I loved. So here’s to my favorite toy and new music to come, bring on the shuffle!
L

Anywhere But Here

One day at work, months ago, Kim wasn't feeling well, she'd had a cold for a while and had run out of tissues so she asked Betty if she could have one of hers. Betty cooly said while handing her the tissue,

"You know you can buy these at the drug store in 5th avenue place (across the street) for only a couple dollars."

Kim and I were a surprised at her stingy-ness... apparently Betty doesn't like to share her tissues. Later she made some comment under her breath about how it'll be difficult for her to live with someone one day if she can't even share her tissues. Kim and I wholeheartedly agreed.

Yesterday was Kim's last day at work. She's decided to go back to school and I couldn't be happier for her, the only drawback being that she no longer works with me. We've known for a long time that she was quitting so I've been preparing myself for her absence. I went into work today, ready to not see her and noticed she'd put her tissue box on my desk with the above post-it note attached. What a great way to start the day, with a good chuckle, I'd totally forgotten about that day. I'm sure she wouldn't admit it but she'll miss the crazy Betty experiences, you don't get those anywhere but here.

Good Luck at school!
L

Pictures Say It Better - Part 2

Here is Chris and Lynn at their wedding... don't they look so good?

We had a few weddings to go to this weekend, here we are at Al & Janaya's wedding the next day

And to end the post on a HORRIBLE note! Brad and I stayed at my parents house this weekend, I went downstairs to check if there was anything bigger than the double bed we were currently in. Instead of discovering a bigger bed I found the biggest house spider I've ever seen! It was awful! The picture doesn't really do it justice put trust me it was bad.

Pictures Say It Better

Right before our wedding, Brad and I bought a digital camera. We're so pleased with it and have fun. This afternoon I was loading pictures onto my laptop so I thought I'd post a couple here.

This is one of my favorite cupcakes to date. Chocolate cake with Cream cheese icing, yum!!

We got a new bbq that we can't get enough of, we use it for almost everything. Our favorite being bbq pesto pizza. The pesto one is half finished, it's the green one. It still needs tomatoes and feta cheese. The one beside it is pretty great too though. Pizza sauce, pepperoni, green peppers, onion, garlic, mozzarella and cheddar cheese. Just as good as it sounds.


This is a picture of a wedding cake I made for a friend's wedding this weekend. It turned out well.

I didn't plan on this post focusing on food but that's the way it ended up so I hope you're hungry now.
L

Things I’d rather be doing than sitting at my desk doing nothing

1. Finishing Chris’s wedding cake
2. Reading a book
3. Eating pink lemonade Ice Breakers
4. Sleeping
5. Cleaning my house
6. Pretty Much Anything!

Tickle Bread?

How was your long weekend? Ours was great. Brad and I wanted nothing more than to totally relax and lounge and sleep in late and not have a single real thing to do. We decided the best place to execute this plan was down at my parents house, so after work on Friday we headed to Magrath. Our plan worked perfectly, we slept in late everyday (despite the double bed). We ate eggs benedict for breakfast, my favorite, and watched movies. We ate yummy food including homemade multi-grain bread and chocolate cupcakes with raspberry icing. We even waded in the pool my parents have in the backyard. It’s one of those one for kids but it’s a pretty good size, Brad and I were about waist deep.

Probably the highlight of the weekend was my nephew Riley. It’s interesting to watch how quickly kids change. Only a couple months ago when Brad and I went down we were nothing but annoyed with this little guy. Every morning we’d wake to his screams and he would throw tantrums and cry and was just plain annoying... not the case anymore. He’s turned into this adorable, fun boy that says the funniest things.

He loves to swim in the pool so when the adults are talking it must be referred to as the p-o-o-l so as not to get him excited. He likes it when you read stories to him, he wears cute Superman and Bob the Builder underwear and loves all Thomas toys. I’m not sure it gets any cuter though than when he’s talking to Brad... or as he pronounced it “Bread”. We taught him to tickle this weekend so he’s say, “tickle Bread?”. At first when he’d ask where Bread was we were confused... well I guess there’s bread on the counter, it took us some time to realize that Brad = Bread.

Anyway, here’s to a great weekend spent with Bread and my family, we’ll do it again for sure.
L

Disappointed

I’ve been waiting for this release for a while now, the new Yellowcard album.
The last album they made was not good, it was not anywhere near the sound of Ocean Avenue so when I started to hear good things about this latest album I was excited. The band members themselves admitted that Lights and Sounds wasn’t very good.

For this new album they went with a new producer and have been talking about how they’ve gone back to what they love and have made an album they’re really proud of. I’ll admit, I had high expectations but this new album just doesn’t cut it. The overall sound is very close to Ocean Avenue which I appreciate, but the songs all sound the same. They’ve taken that formula and applied it to every song, it’s boring. There are two noticeably different songs, Paper Walls, which uses a cheesy boys choir at the beginning and Dear Bobby which is cliché in the lyrics and the use of the old man speaking was silly.

So overall I give Paper Walls a 2.5 out of 5, I’m disappointed, I expected more.
L

Addicted

So I was reviewing my blog and realized it’s been a long time since I posted any sort of list... the list is sort of a staple on this blog so the following is well overdue.

Newest Addictions

1. Yahtzee
2. Instant Star
3. BBQ Pesto Pizza
4. Buffalo Chicken Calzone from Cheesecake Café
5. Tanks on the Wii
6. Smoothies
7. So You Think You Can Dance
8. True Bride Confessions

I'm sure there's more but those are the ones that came to mind.
You should definitely come over and play tanks with Brad and I :)
L

My Winning Streak Continues!

Last night we finally opened and played our new game of Yahtzee.

It’s been years since I played and my memories are all of playing with my Dad... he was good at Yahtzee. I however was not good. I’ve never been very lucky at dice games, so while I was excited to play I was a little nervous too.

Brad and Cora and I played and the first game turned out much as I expected it would... I did not do very hot, in fact I was very obviously in last place. Determined to not end the game on such a sour note I insisted we play again (it didn’t take a whole lot of arm twisting). In my very first turn I lucked out and rolled the coveted Yahtzee!!! That helped my score for sure. The rest of the game continued on a positive note and come the end of the game I’d won! I was definitely surprised and now I’m excited to play again... it might be my new addiction.
L

Wednesday Woes...

It’s 10:55 and I’ve seriously said two words at work this morning...

It’s one of those days. Brad and I woke up late this morning so we were rushed... I called in sick yesterday and I’m still not feeling super today. I’m working on a project I don’t really want to do.

I expect the day to be long and not very fun
L