What have I been up to, Part 2

 Whoops, it's 2017. Happy New Year!

I want to do my annual yearly review, but I feel like I should tell you how the rest of my year went first. So here we go...

September: I did the Big Bang Mud Run again! This year's went a lot better than last year. The run was organized way better and this time I didn't make the mistake of doing the 12k. I did the 7k with my SIL and we finished in 88 minutes!

The whole gang at the mud run

We love our visits to the farm. 

Astrid and her cousins at the cornmaze! 

October: My birthday was pretty quiet this year. I debated inviting a bunch of girls out to brunch or something, but instead I just watched Conference at home and had a friend come over to watch with me. Oh, I also made an impromptu trip back home for Thanksgiving. It was quick, but fun. And Halloween was great! For my friend's Halloween party I dressed up as a witch and did green-face and everything. I love dressing up. And then Astrid dressed up as Cookie Monster and we had so much fun trick-or-treating at the mall, and then doing trunk-or-treat and then doing a quick trip down our block with dad in the evening. It was a very busy day.

On the road to Lethbridge

Cookie Monster! She was so cute! 

November: I got so many nosebleeds this month, it was stupid! I was even paranoid that I would get one at work and start bleeding all over a patient. Thank goodness that never happened. Me and some girls did an art date and it was so fun. It was good to get the creative juices going again, even though it was just recreating something someone else has already done. Ooh, MOANA also came out this month and Joe and I actually went out to the theatre to see it on the second night it was out (we don't go out to the movies anymore because we hate Cineplex so this was a big deal).

Nosebleeds. Blech. 

Arting! 

December: December could have gone so much better. It was still good, don't get me wrong, but with my calling at church and making preparations for Christmas down south, I was so done. Astrid's birthday was a quiet affair. We had originally wanted to do the sleigh rides they had going on just outside of town, but we were in the middle of a particularly cold snap that week, so the sleigh rides had been cancelled due to -40 weather. Yeah. Ridiculous. So instead we had some friends of ours with a little girl Astrid's age come over for cake and we let the girls play afterwards. And then of course we spent Christmas with my family and it was such a good visit. Astrid went ice fishing for the first time, we got to see a bunch of family we haven't seen in a long while, and we alllllmost got to see our new nephew - except we left a week too soon. Bummer. I guess we'll just have to make another trip to see him!

We went sledding just before the cold snap, thank goodness!

Astrid and her birthday presents.

Our family Nativity Pageant. All the second cousins!

Grampa was so proud to have Astrid ice fishing with him. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we'd caught any fish! 

What have I been up to??

My, my, my. I can't believe it's been 8 months since I posted anything. Whoops. My bad.

It's been a really great 8 months. Let me see if I can sum up what's happened...

February: Katee and David (Joe's sister and her husband) came to visit for a weekend with their three boys. We took them to the Jump Yard, a big trampoline place here in town and they loved it! Afterward there was a lot of sickness in our household: first Astrid was sick and then I got it. I missed a lot of work that month.

The Jump Yard!
[EDIT: Sorry, it looks like the video won't work. I may try something else later...]

March: More sickness. Astrid and I took turns. But the snow started melting so we started going for walks down the block. Astrid was just starting to get good at walking at this point. One on set of Joe's days off we went to the temple and left Astrid with Aunty Katee. I think that was the longest I'd ever been away from her at that point. My parents also came for a visit at the end of the month! Dad could only stay a couple days and mom stayed for 5.

Joe clearing the ice from our spot. Yay! 

April: On April 2nd, the quintet I had been playing with since September played our one and only concert. We played Mozart's Quintett in A (KV 581 if you want to look it up) and we didn't do too bad except for the second movement. Thankfully we had a good start and a good end, so hopefully the mess in the middle wasn't the only thing people remembered. Playing with that group was a fun experience though and it was great to have a reason to play my violin for a bit. April was also the month when I started checking out the playgrounds with Astrid. She loved this.

We went for a lot of walks in April

May: My youngest brother, Keanu, came home from his mission! Me and Astrid flew down to Lethbridge and it was awesome. What is usually a 9-10 hour trip turned into a 3 hour trip! Including the lay-over in Calgary! It was weird to get to town with half the day still left to go. Joe joined us a couple days later when his days off started.

The plane we took from Calgary to Lethbridge. So tiny! 

June: I received a new calling in June to be the Primary President for my ward. If you don't know what that means, it means that I am in charge of all the children between the ages of 18 months and 12 years old. Along with 2 counsellors and a secretary we make sure all the classes have teachers as well as prepare lessons to teach with all the children together. It's a lot more work than I imagined, but hopefully once we find our rhythm things will be a piece of cake.

Astrid experienced her first thunderstorms in June and she loved it! 
[EDIT: Sorry, this video's not working either. Just know it's super cute!]

July: We drove out to Cherry Grove for the first week of July to reconnect with Joe's hometown and old friends. It was a great trip! We hope to go back every other year for Pioneer Days because apparently it's quite the shindig. When we got home from Cherry Grove, I was given the opportunity to teach a Water Rehabilitation class once a week in a small town 30 minutes from GP. I was nervous going into the first class, but it was a lot of fun working with the people who came out, so every class since then has been a piece of cake!

I busted out my good camera for the first time since November for our trip to Cherry Grove and this was the first picture I took: Astrid in front of the hotel we stayed at in Barrhead. 

August: This has been the month of visits for us. I forgot to mention, at the end of July my mom and sister came up to visit for 5 days. Then, Joe's mom came to visit for the first week of August. This was great because she and Astrid have never spent any one-on-one time together. She lives with Joe's sister, so whenever we see her, Astrid's cousins are always around and so Astrid usually runs off with them. So it was great that she could come see us on her own because she and Astrid were really able to bond. My water class ended for the summer, but it went well enough that they want to run the class again in the fall! I'm excited to do another session and I look forward to see where this will go from here.

Astrid and Ninnin at the dino museum. Best buds! 

Good times

You know, in the past I've had a bad habit of breaking my promises to you. A lot of times I promise to "post pictures soon!" or if I've got something happening I'll "tell you all about it tomorrow!" But a lot of times I don't. Either I don't end up taking pictures of said event or I'm so pooped from doing whatever I was doing that I couldn't possibly get around to telling you all about it.

I've decided it's time for me to change my ways. I promised to tell you how my Canada Day turned out and dangit, I'm gonna do it!

Yesterday was great. It was hot. It was fun.

As I told you, I was going to be in the GP Canada Day parade with the rugby club. So in the morning we got together to decorate our float. I ended up being made float captain and was put in charge of decorating the thing. It turned out pretty good! I had a truck; 102 pink and white balloons; pink, green and white streamers; 4 mini bill boards from our sponsors; and a pack of green paper plates. I used my very best Macgyver skills and came up with a pretty sweet float for us. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the finished product, but trust me, it looked great.

It was a hot, hot day out so by the time we were finished the parade I was ready to take my clothes off and jump into the first body of water I saw. Lucky for everyone, I am too self conscious to go streaking in public, so I waited until I got home to strip down and take a nice, cool shower.

The original plan was for me to go out to some of the festivities with my housemates when the parade was over, but I was too darn hot so I cooled down at home instead.

It was still a great day though! I got to hang out with some good folks and have some fun in the sun. I even got some tan lines going and this time I have a picture to prove it!

Wahoo! Look at me go!

Ew.

I think I just drank sour milk.

I made a protein shake after morning training and I mixed milk and water with my powder, so I couldn't really tell at first. But now I've got a funny taste in my mouth and my stomach doesn't feel too good. Blah.

Anyway, that's not what this post is supposed to be about. I wanted to tell you about my trip to Utah! Since I mentioned it in my post about my summer, I should let you know how it went. And show you some photos. 

This is Johnny's first picture on the blog! I am married to a hunk :D

We shot stuff! We spent a weekend in Logan with Selina and her man and this was one of the things we did with them. It was pretty fun. The last time I shot a gun was 4 years ago, so I enjoyed myself quite a bit. 

We visited Temple Square. This was taken on top of the Conference Center. It's a sand blasted mural which we thought was pretty cool. If you ever visit Salt Lake, you must visit Temple Square and learn a thing or two about us crazy Mormons. 

We ate the most AMAZING cupcakes ever! Down in Provo there's a magical bake shop called the Sweet Tooth Fairy where they make your sweet dreams come true. We also may have brought a dozen cupcakes back up to Canada with us the day we left. Om nom nom! 

We visited the Hogle Zoo. It was fun to walk around and look at all the animals. My favourites were definitely the elephants and the rhinos. Johnny looooved the gorillas. (Naturally. He's practically a gorilla himself).

And we played with my little cousins. We stayed at my Aunt's place once we left Logan and the kids absolutely loved Johnny. Whenever we were there, he'd hardly have a second to himself. I've always told him that if we have a little girl, she would have him wrapped around her little finger but Johnny's always said he'd be able to resist...

 But after spending a week with THIS little cutie, he's discovered that he is an absolute sucker for girls with big, brown adorable eyes. And if our babies get my genes, they're gonna be just like her! (Except a little lighter maybe...)

And that's our trip in a nutshell! We had a blast and I loved seeing my family and exploring the Utah valley with Johnny. We will most certainly go down again in the future. 

Aaaand, We're Back!

Did you miss me?

I hope you didn't. I hope you were all so busy having wonderful summer adventures that you didn't miss me at all. Or, if you live in the southern hemisphere, I hope you were having equally wonderful winter adventures to distract from the lack of me in your blog-life. 

I had a great summer. And I feel all ready to go for school this semester (not really. I've still been making last minute changes to my schedule).

Here's what my summer contained:

• One week in Utah. Complete with time spent with my best friend, Selina as well as a small branch of my brown family. 
• A new job. I work for a wonderful lady named Jo and I can't wait to tell you more about her. 
• One week spent in northern Alberta getting to know my newest nephew.
• A generous helping of the Settlers of Catan. A LOT of Catan. 
• One season of club rugby. It was great going out to practices and games and meeting some new faces. 
• A weekend in Whitefish. Helping my friend Becks photograph a wedding. 
• One week at Kootenay. Camping with the family in the best place on earth! 
• One wedding anniversary celebrated more than a week late. I'll explain why later, but I'm sure those of you who know our situation already know why. 

What did you do this summer? I hope you had a good one!

Kiss Me and Smile For Me

Well aren't you a lucky bunch? Today you are getting 3 posts-in-one from yours truly. Why the excessive blogging, you ask? I shall tell you.

1. Today is Wednesday. That means another installment of the Wonderful Words of Wednesday.

b) Today is also the last day of March. That means you get a recap of my month.

iii. Today is also the day I leave. For Australia that is! So of course I must say goodbye to you lovelies.

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First thing's first. Dub^3!

For those of you who are new, Dub^3 is short for WWW which is short for the Wonderful Words Wednesday. This is the segment where I talk about words that I like and you smile and nod and pretend to be interested. (Yes, I can see you smiling and nodding through the computer)

On friday, I learned a new phrase: Kitty Corner. I've heard it before and I know what context to use it in, but I've never been entirely sure of what it means to be "kitty corner" from something. When giving directions, if the place you are referring to is diagonally across from another place of reference it is said to be kitty corner from it. For example, "My house is easy to find. It's just kitty corner from the school over there."

But seriously, kitty corner? I hate cats, why do we have to bring their offspring into this? It turns out, the original word that was used used to be "catercorner", but people had trouble remembering "cater" so over time it got replaced with "catty" and it has now become the "kitty" that we hear today.

reference!

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H'okay, moving on...

It's time to recap my resolutions for March.

1. Write a journal entry once a week.
It's fairly obvious to see that I'm doing well with this one. I've recently bought a new notebook to serve as my journal. It is red and I love it.

2. Find a job.
Found one. Still have it. I watch Tim's kids.

3. Get my license
Boo yah! I got it. I can't remember what I did back in the days when I didn't have it.

4. Work out 2-3 times a week.
Just when you thought I'd given up, I surprise you. I've surprised myself. I've been running and biking all month. I love getting my endorphins in the morning. Toby tells me that only two props are returning to the Pronghorns this year, so if I can get my fitness levels up and my knee up to snuff, I will have a spot on the team come fall!

5. Stop gossiping.
Oh goodness, every month I hide my face in shame when I come to this goal. This is the only one that I've made no progress on :( but maybe now that I've gotten the other ones out of the way, I can focus on this. (yeah right...) I should make a T shirt that says "No gossip zone" . . . =O OMG! That's a good idea!

So as you can see, March was my month of progress. I can cross my license goal off my list entirely and my workout goal has now taken effect. Rugby has made its way back into my life this month, I got some vaccinations, Elder Bednar came to Lethrbidge and gave an awesome firside, I made a buttload of shirts, I created a weekly blog-segment, I babysat a lot, I hung out with Plausible, I told Pirate Steve (and you) about Plausible, I played in the Kiwanis with my orchestra, I donated blood, Selina came to Lethbridge on Saturday (we've been together every day since she's been here) and I finally got to play Beatles Rockband - it was everything I imagined and more. Oh, also - this Monday for FHE we had a scripture study night. I was so pleased with how it turned out! People actually showed up with scriptures in hand, ready to participate. I am so grateful it was a good night, I think we should have another one before the end of the year.

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Ack! I can't believe it! I'm leaving for Australia soon! Depending on when you're reading this I could be on my way right now. Please don't miss me too much, friends. I will be home soon. I am going to try my hardest not to miss you so that I can enjoy every moment. I still have no idea what the computer/internet situation will be like down there, but I do know that I won't be bringing my lap top. As I promised, I will try to take a picture everyday specifically for this blog. I can't say I'll be able to upload everyday (if at all), but you will see them eventually.

If you happened to notice what time I'm posting this, you are quite the observant person. It's so late/early because I've been up packing all night. My friend, Star was pestering me over a week ago to start packing and I just laughed. Sorry pal, that's not how I roll. With every single trip I've been on, I have never started packing more than 2 days before I leave. I don't put anything in my suitcase until the night before. I've been using this system for years and I don't plan on changing it :P

Anyways, enjoy the next month without me! I hope I'll be able to give you at least a couple updates to share the fun I'll be having. I also hope to find me a hot Tongan to bring home. Fingers crossed.

Beat That

Oh dear! I totally forgot that February is over! That means I need another check-up on my resolutions.

1. Write a journal entry at least once a week.

As you can see, I'm still going strong with this whole blogging thing. So that's a checkmark there. Ka-check!

2. Find a job.

I've found one. I'm nannying for Tim and I didn't apply at Chapter's. But I made some good money this month! Ka-check!

3. Get my license.

I've made progress! I drove with my grampa a few times last week and I've made an appointment to get it. Woot! Almost ka-check!

4. Work out 2-3 times a week.

Ahem, umm... Me and mom are failing. We haven't even gone to redeem our months worth of free classes at the YWCA. But I did do some serious walking with my sister when we delivered papers this weekend. It's March now and the snow should be melting, maybe I'll get out my bike! For now, a big fat X.

5. Stop gossiping.

I am now conscious of when I gossip. So now that I can recognize it, that'll make it easier for me to stop, right? I'm not completely hopeless, right?? Another X.

I only have two resolutions that I'm failing at now, but resolutions aside, I'd say this was a pretty good month. Let's see, I got my visiting teaching done, I went to the Sweetheart's Ball and a wedding all in one night, I got to show my ward what a Polynesian Luau is like, I helped my ward make a whole bunch of Vic Park T shirts, I went to the temple (finally!), and I watched Canada host the best Olympics ever.

It looks to me like February is going to be a tough month to beat in awesomeness, but who knows what March has in store. After all, I do plan on getting my license...

Let's See How I Did...

With today being the last day of January, I thought I'd write a little something to recap my month and let you know how I'm doing with my resolutions.

1. Write a journal entry at least once a week.

- I think this one's pretty easy to tell how I'm doing on. This is the thirteenth entry I've written in one month!

2. Find a job.

- I wanted to have found one by the end of January and I did! Except I don't start til February (tomorrow). I've got a nannying job for a guy named Tim. I worked for him last year and his kids didn't drive me totally insane, so I thought I'd give it another go. I've also been told that Chapters is hiring, so I might check that out for something to do during the daytime.

3. Get my license.

- Okay I don't have it yet, but I have been driving around a lot lately and I've set a goal to get it within the next few weeks. This past month I've come across so many times when I could have just taken the van out to do what I want, but with my lack of license, they were all no goes.

4. Work out 2-3 times a week.

- Without a gym membership, I couldn't see myself lasting very long on this one and I was right! But my mom recently bought a coupon book with one for a free month of an introductory gym membership for her and a friend. So maybe next month will be better...

5. Stop gossiping.

- Surprise, surprise, I'm still gossiping. But I don't think I've been gossiping as much as I used to. I've still got some secrets about some people that are locked up inside of me. I haven't even told anyone about my unofficially engaged friend! Except my mom. And one other girl, but that was for a really good reason, I swear! And besides, I told her not to tell anyone, so we're good, right?

So besides dropping the ball on three of my 5 resolutions, I'd say this month was pretty good. I started playing my violin again, I started going to Institute, I went to Utah, I learned how to play a song on the piano, I donated blood yesterday and I hung out with Cassandra for the first time since we last hung out in November. And I got my visiting teaching done! Yay!

Next month looks promising. I start nannying again, I've got some awesome FHE activities planned and there's even a wedding to go to with Suitman! (Not the one I'm in, that's not til July)