Brace yourselves...

Valentine's Day is fast approaching.


Are you ready for it?

I've been single for many a V Day and more recently, I've also been with Joe for 3 (this year will be our fourth). Either way, I've never been much of a fan of Valentine's day, so I always choose to celebrate my best friend's birthday instead.

But this year is different. This year I'm actually looking forward to V Day. Well, sort of.

Joe is going to be away working on the 14th, so I will still hate the actual day itself. But when he comes home, I'm excited to celebrate. (No! Not that! Get your minds out of the gutter.)

This year I went out and bought Joe an awesome gift which I will have to tell you about later because I don't want him to read this and ruin the surprise. And I can't wait to give it to him. (okay now everything I write I keep thinking of it as a double entendre, gahhhh)

Moving on.

Joe says that I've never bought him a Valentine's gift before, which at first I protested, but after thinking about it I realized that this really is the first year I've gotten him a gift. In my defence, I just honestly had no idea what to get him. The man hates chocolate and that's about all the stores are pushing in your face for Valentine's day. Either that or jewellery and Joe's not a huge fan of that either. And then there's the cheesy stuffed animals with the lame hearts all over them and there is no way I'm getting one of those for him.

Ugh. See what I mean? Barf. 

Ooh! He might like this though. Gah, stop it. 

But this year I found some inspiration and got him something nice that I think he will like. Now that I have something to give him I'm actually looking forward to celebrating the holiday for once. 

So what are your thoughts? Do you love V Day or hate it? Or are you indifferent?

To the bandits who stole our Cutco (among other things)...

You know who you are. I may not, but you do.

You think you're pretty smart don't you? Well, I must say, your timing was impeccable. Did you know we were going to move our things out of the storage unit just a few days after you robbed it? Cause we did. And then we took it 900 kilometres away, so if you had waited a week, you would have been robbing an empty storage unit.

Right off the bat I knew you had stolen our stand up mirror. That's okay. I paid 5 bucks for it at a garage sale. We had no way to know what else you took until we unpacked after the move because we had so much other crap in there. Thanks for not taking all of it, by the way.

But did you have to take the cutco?! I'm pretty sure you just grabbed a box and ran, but you sure picked a good box because it would appear that all of our cutco was in that box. And my favourite grater. And 2 of my cookbooks.

You may have taken more than that from us, but we still haven't noticed it's missing at this point. It's kind of become a game in our house. I'll ask Joe, "Hey, do you remember unpacking [insert beloved item here]?" And he'll say, "No... Do you?" and I say, "Nope... Those stinking bandits!"

So to my malicious miscreants, I hope you nick yourself every time you use my cutco and screw up every recipe you try from my cookbooks.

We shall never be friends.
Sincerly,
Leinani

Searching for mountains

It's a quiet morning here in the apartment.

Joe sleeps while I enjoy the morning. He's been put on night shift so he'll be down for another couple hours at least. There wasn't any wind last night so that was nice. The other night it sounded like the roof was going to rip right off. But it didn't. Instead it was just a bit of siding, no big deal. I sure am glad we're just renters right now because water has been found in all the suites on our side of the building. That means they're going to have to rip out the walls to get them dry again. If it were my own place it would be my headache, and we would have to figure out how to resolve the problem ourselves and it would cost a lot of monies. But as humble renters we just have to wait for the owners to figure out what they'll do and we'll just do what we're told. I sure feel sorry for them, but at the same time I'm sure glad it isn't me.

I took some pictures from the deck this morning. I've been trying to see if I can see the mountains from our place, but alas, they don't seem to be there.

Let's zoom in to see if we can find any... 

I think it's just a cloud... But I will call it my mountain cloud. 

Tour

Holy crap two in one sitting! I must either really love blogging or I'm not ready to leave the library yet ;)

I was smart before I left my house and made sure to take pictures for you. 

The entryway. And oh hey, that's me. 

My favourite part of the entryway. Joe's danish cross stitch thingy and my tongan disk thing. 

The living room which I may or may not have tidied just moments before taking the picture.

This is the view from my deck. I cropped out the parking lot and train tracks for your viewing pleasure.

Here is le kitchen. 

Here's the bedroom. 

And the closet of said bedroom which leads into the ensuite bathroom. 

And that's about it! There are other rooms too, but they aren't as pretty because I haven't tried to make them look nice. It's just a spare room, the main bathroom and a laundry room. There are a couple more things we need (like chairs for our kitchen table!), but otherwise we're pretty much settled! I would like to put pictures up on the walls, but I can't until I get permission from the landlords. Hopefully they say yes!

Quiz: 2013 Review

I made it out to the library again. Today I've brought you my annual New Year's quiz. If you're new to the blog, this is something I've been doing since I first started writing 4 years ago. (Holy crap the blog is 4 years old!)

Check out the previous quizzes:

2013

2012

2011 - Gasp! I didn't do one for this year! 

2010 - what a treat, this was also the first post ever written.

And now for this year's quiz:

1. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

We made a theme for last year and that went pretty well so we have created another one: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly” (D&C 121:45)

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?

My friend Cora had her first and my cousin Lacey had her fourth. Cora had a boy at the end of November and they named him Reed. Lacey had a girl just before Joe and I moved away and so they named the baby after me. Just kidding, they named her Penelope and she is the first girl of her family.

3. Did anyone close to you die?

No. We had a couple close calls in the family, but thankfully everyone is still alive and healthy. .

4. What countries did you visit?

None. I haven’t worked up the courage to drive across the border again. But we have an exciting vacation planned for later this year!

5. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?

I think the biggest one is that we have our own place again! After spending a year living with others, it’s nice to be on our own again.

6. What dates from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory and why?

December 14th because that’s when I gained a new sister-in-law!

December 23rd because that’s when our grande adventure began.

7. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I finished school. Boo yah.

8. What was your biggest failure?

Nothing.

9. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Nothing too major this year, which I am happy to report :)

10. What was the best thing someone bought you?

Me and Joe bought a travel voucher for ourselves. And guess where we’re going with it…  

11. Where did most of your money go?

School and moving.

12. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

My brother getting engaged.

And writing my last final of my undergrad.

13. What song will always remind you of 2013?

That stupid Harlem Shake song and What Does the Fox Say.

14. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder? a little bit of each.

b) fatter or skinnier? Neither I think…

c) richer or poorer? Again, neither. Everything’s pretty balanced out.

15. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Enjoying the outdoors.

16. What do you wish you'd done less of?

Nothing. And I don’t mean there isn’t anything I wish I’d done less of, I mean I’d done less nothing.

17. Did you fall in love in 2013?

Yes. I had the most amazing steak at a place called Chop in Edmonton. It was the best. thing. ever.

Oh and Joe. I love him. Like a lot.

18. What was your favorite TV program?

Fringe. ‘Nuff said.

19. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Hate is such a strong word. But I can name someone who I have a hard time liking.  

20. What was your greatest musical discovery?

iTunes radio. Love it.  

21. What was your favorite film of this year?

You know, I saw a lot of movies, but thinking back on them, none really stand out as being my absolute favourite. The ones I enjoyed the most were Monsters University, Thor: the Dark World, Man of Steel, The Wolverine, Frozen and The Lone Ranger.

22. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you?

I turned 23. I got a massage, Joe and I played minigolf then had lunch at State and Main and I skipped my night class to have cake with my family.

23. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

More sun.

24. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?

Nothing too crazy.

25. What kept you sane?

Working out. And Joe.

26. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

I developed a little bit of a lady crush on Jennifer Lawrence just like nearly everyone else I know.  

27. Who do you miss?

Who DON’T I miss? This is what happens when you move away from all your friends and family. But I’m not going to let the keep me down and miss out on new experiences where I am now.

28. Who was the best new person you met?

There were two girls: Lauren and Makenzie. I had two classes with them and they were both pretty funny. I just wish we could have become friends before my last semester of school. Sigh.

29. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:

Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable. You’ll never grow if you don’t step out of your comfort zone and do something different.

A Whole New World

Well it's finally happened. Joe and I are living together like a proper, grown up married couple. We've got ourselves a cute apartment in GP and things are going swell. We moved in over the Christmas holidays and by New Year's we were settled in enough to have our first house guests over to ring in the new year.

Our place doesn't have internet yet, so that's why you haven't heard from me sooner. Thankfully we live close to the library so it's only a 15 minute walk for me if I want internet. If I were really thinking, I would have taken some pictures of the place with my phone so I could share it with you! But alas, you'll have to wait for the awesomeness.

I don't have a job yet, but I've been in contact with the clinic I worked with over the summer so I'm just waiting for the boss to come back from holidays to hear the verdict. Hopefully something works out. With me being jobless I've gotten my first real taste of housewifery. I send Joe off to work in the morning with a smooch and then I have the house to myself to clean and launder and play xbox and by the time Joe gets back in the evening I have a delicious dinner ready for him and me. Being home all day can get a little boring (hence why I'm here at the library), but I've found housework to be surprisingly fulfilling. It actually feels good to clean the house and keep things tidy. (If only my mother could see me now!)

Anyway, I just wanted to drop a quick line to let you all know what I've been up to. I'll probably make another trip to the library next week and when I do, I'll be prepared to share pictures and bring the world up to speed on how my December was.

Until next time, stay warm, my lovelies!

Almost done...

Well the semester has flown by. Now all that's left are three finals. Then my brother gets married. And then I'll start packing away my life to move to GP. And there will be Christmas festivities in there at some point.

We move on the 23rd. Joe has found us a nice apartment to live in and I am excited to see what it looks like. Once we get all our crap into the new place, we'll go out to spend Christmas with Joe's family who only live 3 hours away from our soon-to-be home.

Moving is a big process. Especially when you're moving 10 hours away. Thankfully we still have half our house packed away in storage from when we moved at the beginning of this year which I mentioned a couple times on the blog. All I need to worry about now is packing up all the junk I brought with me to my parents house, which shouldn't be too bad (in theory!).

Wish me luck!