November

Well well, look who's finally back blogging!  Man have the past few months FLOWN by!  Thinking back it's hard to remember everything significant that has happened but one really big thing for me, lifechanging in fact, I got into MRU!!!!!!  I'm in the Bachelor of Science Degree, eventually will be majoring in Geology, I'm thinking of a minor in Geography and GIS Systems.  I'm currently taking Physics - hard hard hard!  I actually have a mid-term this week!  Yikes!  In January my academic path is actually changing a bit.  I will still be attending Mount Royal but also will be a SAIT student too!  I will be finishing my certificate at SAIT come January, that's the Geophysical one.  School will be my life for the next 6-8 years unfortunately and fortunately!

The rest of August had flown by quickly, cousin Maddy & Ryan's wedding was in Radium and I did a bunch of catching up with family.  Then Cornfest was the end of August which I actually still have corn from in the freezer!  September long was our last camping trip of the year, it was pretty fun and actually the weather even held up for us!  I also started MRU in September, that is a big school once you first start, I was so lost!  You get use to it quickly though especially when you are there 4 nights a week!  I had a pretty good 24th Birthday but didn't take many pictures.  Scott and Darryl decorated my office and that night I went out with friends to again Aussie Rules, it was so much fun.  Piano bars are so cool!  These are two of the only pictures I ended up taking.



 

This is the first picture of me as a 24 year old!!

I also have been taking a lot of courses through work, one of them let us create our own datum projections on vegetables.  I chose a turnup and drew my Earth datum. 

In September I got to see Cirque Du Soil for the first time, it was alright but I actually thought the Grand Stand Stampede show was better.  I think that Cirque Du Soil is probably better in Vegas...a place I'm definitely going to travel to within the next couple years!  We went to Kevin & Shelley's for Thanksgiving.  It was nice to get together with everyone and play games especially considering we had no Schell Campout this year.  I didn't take any pictures there for some reason though!  Ohhhh and some more interesting news I received early August...Amber and Mike are engaged!!!  She asked me to be in the wedding also, I'm so excited it will be a blast!  Amanda and I have been compiling ideas and looking through Bridal Magazines (a guilty pleasure of mine since Julie's Wedding).  Dress shopping begins in January or February some time, excited for that too!

October sped by as quickly as it arrived, not having hardly any free time makes time seem to evaporate!  Before I knew it, it was Halloween.  We went to a huge Halloween Party downtown in an old theatre.  Coolest thing ever, the main theatre (movie theatre) area was just for mingling, then in each theatre there was a different band or different theme of music and if you got bored you could just leave that theatre and go to a different one.  Here's a little bit of that...

Julie, this is for you - I know you love him!

Then suddenly out of no where it's November! 

This month I have slowly been keeping up on my Christmas Card project although last night I ended up making 3 birthday cards for no reason.  I think I have about 10 more cards to go then everyone will be receiving a hand-made completely re-used & recycled Christmas Card.  One thing I know is next year my New Years resolution will not be one that time consuming!  Hand making every card for every event takes a lot of time and I've discovered that with all this school work I definitely can't take on a job that size again for a while.  I'm going to continue hand-making wedding cards though because people actually keep those ones!  Mainly this month has been about saving for Christmas and studying for our finals in school next month.  I'm done on the 12th so I should have lots of time for Christmas related fun this year!

Just following up on my last two months goals, I did finish that secret project I was working on which happened to be a slide show of Julie and Justin's wedding but I completely forgot about all of the "before" pictures so I suppose I will have another project soon to be working on once I get some free time (meaning the school semester is finished)!  For my physical goals I actually did become quite a bit more physically active with all my spare time.  I took the scuba class with Kas and we ended up doing some dives in Lake Chapareal to complete the certification, one of them was a night dive.  It was so cool to come to the surface and see the sun setting from the middle of a lake, I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful, and just being there in the water floating waiting  for the rest of the people to surface watching that sun set was just so cool!  I tried kickboxing classes for the first time which is a major cardio work out!  I had a blast at it.  Soccer started up again and I have been swimming any chances I get because my NLS recert is coming up and I need to be able to get in that time swim to recertify!!  I'm planning to try boot camp this month (actually tomorrow), and see how I like that...bet I will be really sore.  I took my very fist aerobics class on Friday it was a killer, I literally could barely walk afterwards and my legs were so sore the next day I felt like I was beat up!!  It really does feel good to get some exercise every day, I feel so much healthier and now it's almost like second nature, when I miss my exercising it feels the same as when I miss brushing my teeth, it just make you feel 'ucky'!!  I actually had been eating healthier all summer (due to more time to prepare foods), and ended up loosing almost 15lbs...went from 143 to to 129 and I feel great!  It's really all about the kinds of foods you eat though.  I wish I had more time to try out some cool healthy recipes!  Don't get me wrong, I really love to gorge on my chocolate still, but eating healthy makes you feel great so I want to keep it up!!

As for my mothly goal catch-up:

September

Monthly Goal

•  Take care of that tire business!  (Check - thanks Julie)!

Physical Goal

• Try kickboxing  (Check)

October

Monthly Goal

• Find a bitchin Halloween costume  (ended up going as what Candace told me to be!)
• Take ABC's of XYZ's survey course (check - certificate is on the wall now!)

Physical Goal

• Start swimming at MRU after classes  (this went well until I started needing more time for studying, now will be swimming on the weekends!)

November

Monthly Goal

• Study, study, study, study.  You have a final next month!

Physical Goal

• Attempt boot camp

I'm not going to lie, I totally made the September ones something I knew I actually did...although if it were September I can imagine those being my goals at that time.  Next month I want to attempt a big Christmas baking job...maybe Kas can come over for it?  My thing this year to help us with money is to bake gifts rather than buy them...might even try and attempt cake pops!!  But that kind of fun can only begin once the school semester ends unfortunately!  Wow, there is an blizzard outside right now, complete white-out...soon I would never know the difference though, we are moving floors at work, back up to 28.  I will be stuck with an inside office again...at least it's not a cubicle though, I wouldn't be able to handle that!!  Well take care, be in touch soon (hopefully not in three months from now)!

Speedy Summer!

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been.  Actually I kind of knew...I didn't really feel like blogging the past month...I didn't really feel like I had anything to say, I've been doing a lot of waiting to find out if I'm accepted into university and am still waiting.  Trying to get in as much physical activity as I can this summer since I'm not in school and have tons of free time now - but I rolled my ankle at the beginning of July so that was a bust, I'm only beginning to be able to ween myself back into sports and exercise this week.  Physio has helped out a lot but I think I should be ok now to get back into the fun.  This weekend Kas and I are going to get PADI Certified!  That means we're getting our scuba diving certificates.  The course has quite a bit of information in it for such a short duration.  There is an entire text book to read and 5 assignments to do...I really don't know if there will be a written test, I hope not - we all know how well I do on them, sigh.  Anyways, let me talk about my goals...

July 2011

Monthy Goal

• Eat healthier - now that I'm finished school I have time to prepare actual meals, no more peanut butter crackers for supper!!!!

Physical Goal

• MAGGIE - As Ted would say from How I Met Your Mother, Make Adjustments Go Get It Energized!  I wanted to get as active as possible for this month, when I rolled my ankle I was off physical activity for the entire month...it was horrible, needless to say, that goal was not met.

August 2011

Monthly Goal

• Finish up my secret special project I started back in April.

Physical Goal

• Re-do July's physical goal now that you can.  So far this month alone I've gone jogging, swam 1.6 KM, done athletic yoga, and will be scuba diving this weekend - quite a bit for it just being the first week of August!

So what has been going on with me lately other than school and my ankle...

Well....

July long was awesome, I had a blast the entire weekend camping with Julie & Justin and the nice little last minute stop from my parents.  I loved our blue drink club drink....mmmmm.  I could have sat there and drank those all day if Julie didn't get so drunk sun-tanning haha.  I also liked our little walk!!  And came home with a brand new saying "If you fall into the river, don't fall into the deep end."  I was pretty mad to realize my camera had deleted a bunch of pictures when I got home, but here are some that were salvaged.

SNACKIES!!!

Stampede this year was by far better than any other year I've ever gone.  Well the parade wasn't so great, kind of boring, the Royals sped by so quickly you could barely see the black blur from the vans/cars they drove in.  We did get free beer though because we watched at a company I work with from the 4th floor, it was nice because you weren't crammed in with the crowd and you had bathrooms you could use whenever you wanted.  The food at the Stampede grounds was crazy, we ate deep fried pop-tarts (awesome), deep fried mushrooms (Uncle Gary's are way better), pocket dogs (awesome), and oodles of pizza (American pizza - completely amazing).  They have deep fried oreos, coca-cola, and kool aid too.  They even had pizza on a stick.  We drank tons of fresh lemonade and don't forget about the beer, that wasn't hard to come by, getting into the beer gardens however, that was tricky.  Went to the Trews one night, and to the Stampede Talent Search before that (Paul Brandt won it in 1992, he's from Calgary you know - he went to MRU too).  I got to go to the rodeo one day with work, that was cool, we went to Fort Calgary that night with work to see a bunch of concerts, the only people I knew were John Fogerty and Big and Rich...of course there was free beer that night! 

Then one night we went to the Grand Stand show...seriously the greatest outdoor show on earth just like they say & the chuck wagon races.  It was me, Becky, Kas, and Evan.  Kas and Evan weren't there yet and we only were able to purchase standing room tickets.  It was the last Saturday of the Stampede so it was packed so Becky & I grabbed some seats in the second row (front and center), we said we would sit there until we got kicked out...there were 4 seats in a row so we were even good for when Kas and Evan got there...every time people with tickets came we were scared we would be kicked out but we got so lucky, everyone around us was kicked out...not us!  Some people took Kas and Evan's seats, then the people with those tickets came and kicked them out...then the people with the tickets only stayed for like 1/2 an hour and just left and never came back.  So when Kas and Evan got there they had seats again, we didn't get kicked out all night!  We researched the cost of the seats we were sitting in, they were $350/person!!!  Crazy!  The show was amazing, like a mini cirque du soleil, people flying overhead dancing doing crazy things on ribbons and flying sofas, it was so cool.  There was so much going on, I loved when the shot off the confetti, it was everywhere, one even landed in my beer!!  At the end of the night we were all heading to the train and this crazy storm came, there was a major downpour, we were soaked to the bone in seconds then the hail started, we all had to run under a bridge and wait for the hail to stop.  By then there were so many people trying to get onto the train, there had to be at least 200,000 people at this one train station alone, it was insane.  We were all wet trying to make our way through a line that wasn't moving but eventually did make our way, it was actually kind of fun, it felt like we were on Titanic or something.

There was a woman dancing inside that ball thing, the other thing that big light guy is holding is a couch with kids on it singing

This week has been pretty busy, work is busy like crazy, I've been trying to catch up on all the exercise I've been missing out on with my ankle (I think I may be able to play soccer again next week)!  Next on my to-do list is assemble a bunch of cards for events coming up...I have a wedding on the Nixon side in a couple weeks and really need to get started.  I would also like to finish up my Christmas Card project but it's hard to spend much time inside when there is a beautiful summer outside just waiting for you!

Something I really missed this year, The Schell Campout.  I wish we would of had one.  I really want one next year but it seems to be a fading tradition.  Amanda thinks that the cousins need to take charge as the parents are getting tired of all the planning.

Future endevers I'm excited for...well one is coming up right away - Cornfest.  I had such a blast last year, this year my parents.  Cornfest is like a mini-stampede that is a thousand times cheaper!  I love the craft sales (where I picked up that Marilyn Monroe/Elvis picture).  I also cant wait to get more Scentsy stuff from Auntie Terry.  Another thing I'm excited for, our last camping trip of the year (only three times out this year-boo), we're going to Little Bow with my parents September long.  Of course there are quite a few other things I can't wait for but one of the things is super far away but I just found out about it a couple days ago, now I have an entire year to be excited and help plan!  I'm really excited for this thing, extatic, and super happy.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, signing off for now.

Waiting...

So remember how in the beginning I said I created this blog for mainly ranting...well here goes....

I can't believe how long ago, yet seemingly not so long ago, school had started and now it's finished up for the summer.  I am now playing the waiting game until my grades are sent to me or posted in my file before I know if I'm going to be a University student this fall.  My test went well for the most part, although I did not get to finish, and when they say pencils down they mean it.  And if you have a bunch of blank ones you skipped over and thought you'd come back to and guess on in the end, that ain't happening!  The woman supervising just kept on yelling pencils down, pencils down, and it got louder and louder until she was yelling at me.  I told her that I wasn't handing in a blank test so she would have to come and get it from me if she wants a blank test handed in (I wasn't rude, and it wasn't like I was actually doing the test anymore, I was just guessing on the blank bubbles I skipped), anyways, she comes bolting down the aisle and rips the test out of my hands just like on How I Met Your Mother when Marshall took the bar and they had to yank his test away, yup exact same thing.  Sheldon thinks it was kind of rude of me to make her do that and say that to her, so do a few other people...I didn't come this far to hand in a blank test.  I don't care what you say or who you are, if you think that 2 hours is long enough to write a Pure Math 30 Diploma, it definitely isn't for me and it definitely wasn't for about 10 other kids in the room of 19.  Anywho, I'm going to be driving myself insane until mid-July.


So... on that note, camping!  We're off camping this weekend with J & J, and our Mexico friends, yay!!  I'm so excited... what I'm most excited for is bush pies, it's been a year since my last one and I can hardly wait for Thursday night!

*Picture stolen from Julie's blog*

It's too bad quite a few people can't make it out this weekend, but we'll make the best of it anyways.  I've been to the campground we're going to before, my Dad always said he would have no problem eating a one pound burger so the last time we were at this campground, an event took place...Jody and Gary made my Dad this one pound burger, the bun was like a loaf of sour dough bread, the thing was huge...he actually ate it all.  I can't wait to see the drink club drinks this time... oh and I finished a whole bunch of pages for the scrapbook, I'm all caught up on the book for now - I'm going to bring it along.  I wish we had some outdoor games to bring but I'm sure we'll think of something to do either way.  It was funny because I was thinking of things to pack and I almost decided I wasn't going to bring my swim suit because I thought it was too early for that, then I remembered it was summer!  Being our first camp trip of the year and all, our first camp trips are usually in spring so I wasn't used to this!

I have quite a bit of packing left tonight, then it's off tomorrow right after work, shall be a blast!

Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways...

So what an excellent month so far... even though I'm stressed for finals.. or just one final, I'm still able to let loose and cram in a tiny bit of fun...

May long I went to Lethbridge with Kas & Evan, it was an absolute blast, I like how we managed to get in a few different activities, visiting at home is always nice but getting in something new is good too.  So here are some words to sum up May long and some pictures to go with it...

Piano bar, zombies taking over the world, excruciating heat on a Saturday afternoon walk, soup & sandwiches, Mexico friends, Lethbridge friends, Twister, midnight overflowing popcorn, ADVENT calendar, drink club drinks, doing the dance & point, a lot of bathroom breaks/photoshoots, too many olives on the pizza, BBQ, I never, shots, hockey finals game 5, Lowie pee-blanket, talk of many things, milk, forcing Kas to read out loud to me the whole ride home, and Julie staying up late!!!

So I got a new nice little addition to the balcony... picked up a little patio set from IKEA, it's nice and little, my main purpose for this was to allow for a change in scenery for doing homework.  Throughout the summer I can see book reading, date nights, or even enjoying a simple glass of wine out here.  I'm thinking it may get too hot through the core of the summer to enjoy it too much but it shall be a nice little addition to spring and fall evenings.

Also, another thing I've recently attempted is baking cupcakes... let's just say when the recipe says it makes 24 it makes 24 even if it doesn't look like it will.

Needless to say that things that may rise in the oven are not my fortay.

Alright so June, June, June....

My monthly goals for June are not going to exactly be very exciting...

Monthly goal/physical goal combination for June:

• Study!  I have my final coming up at the end of the month and I need to get in as much study time as physically and mentally possible.  Craming your brain full of information is really physically hard on your body, you will be just as tired after a long study session as you would be after a long work out...different parts of your body are tired of course.  I need to get a 60% and that's it, I think I can manage that if I give it my all.  Math is tough, but this is just a small stepping stone I need to cross to be on my way to achieve something I actually want.  Yoga of course will continue through out June three times a week, but my main focus this month is school.

Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

So most of the Mexico story is up on Facebook so I will keep it short and sweet. 

My trip... swim with the dolphins, mango margaritas, Senior Frogs, exploring Cozumel, attending a beautiful wedding, pina coladas, mango tangos, pokemon drinks!  Meeting new friends, the nicest, most fun people ever!  Some shopping, beaches, beers in the street in Playa Del Carmen, lots of swimming, swim up bars, yummy rice from the Japanese restaurant, exploring Mayan Ruins in Tulum, renting scooters in Cozumel, eating at an authentic Mexican restaurant/shack on the beach...NUDE BEACH, playing in the ocean and playing in the waves, exploring Xel-Ha (ocean waterpark), snorkelling, tubing - one of my favourites, cliff jumping and loosing an earing in the ocean, eating crepes, eating lots, cappuccinos and soup were an every day craving even though it was thirty degrees, coming home with a sun tan and a full memory card.

Anyways, here's some kickin' photos from Mexico....

My beer on the bus

Our friends

The palm trees

The crazy ocean when the storm came and the tide came WAY in

The fossils (ok that is probably just me)

The catamarans

The mango tangos

The beach bar

The Mexican Wrestling Masks (epic pic Lindsay)!

The deep fried ice cream

The cappuccinos

The spot we had to meet our bus at, yes this dot.

This is the Day Eric, Lindsay, Ryan and I went to the ruins.

The Mayan Ruins (minus the heat, it was so hot this day)

The papa, moma, brother, and baby Coronas

Holding the monkey

Swimming with the dolphins and seeing them again at Xel-Ha (different dolphins though)

The wild parrots (everyone but Sheldon)

Pretty much every drink we had, Lindsay and I worked

our way through the drink menu pretty much to its end.

The sunsets and the pirate ship.

All in all it was a fun trip, we met some fun people and did a lot of fun activities, more than we ever have before.  Next time I want to try zip lines and cave swimming.  I know that we are hoping for a trip to Spain summer 2012, but I will still always have a special fondness for Mexico.

Vacationed Out...?

Wow, what a crazy, yet fun, last couple of weeks.  Mexico was a blast... haven't gotten around to looking at the photos yet but will be trying to accomplish that sooner rather than later.  One of the things I am able to share right now is the swimming with the dolphins photos...

 

Me, Lindsay, Ryan, Eric, and some other strangers....

 

It was such a neat experience, dolphins feel way different that what I thought they would!  They're so friendly too, we did one thing where they shot us up in the air by our feet, it was so cool.  I want to do it again!  We did a bunch of cool stuff in Mexico, and I will blog more about that later on...and guess what JULIE.... We had three cats on our resort... they were small and twiggy and they wouldn't come near anyone, we think they were wild, they had those long pointed faces...they wouldn't accept any food either.

Playa Del Carmen was a lot of fun, but it came with a pretty penny... participating in all the excursions was pricey but definetely interesting...especially when you're going with a group of strangers who turn out to be awesome!  Who's to say you'll ever be back again to explore Mayan Ruins, swim with the dolphins, play at the massive outdoor ocean park, tube down a canal with crazy trees over-hanging, ride scooters through Cozumel and stop at the most beautiful beaches (including a nude one...but we didn't swim there), play in the waves, or snorkel over sting rays and millions of yellow, blue, or zebra fish.  I really wanted to swim in the underwater caves and do the zip line... oh well next time!!!

Also, I really want to do a Mexico trip with the Kellers...maybe even throw in a few of the other Schell's as well, I think we should put this on our bucket list for one day, even if we can't convince the parents, maybe we can convince the cousins!!  I know Amber & Mike are off to Puerto Vallarta in a couple of weeks so I hope they have just as much fun as we did.  ...more details on Mexico when I have pictures.

So as for school I didn't miss too much, I actually did do homework on the 5 1/2 hour plane ride there and again on the 5 1/2 hour plane ride home...got quite a bit done.  I'm starting to get a bit nervous...the end is nearing and then it's just one week of review before the big exam... yikes!  I'm actually excited for it to be over and done with, I just can't wait to find out what my grade is so I can just relax.  I do have to say that I was way more nervous in the beginning that I was setting myself up for failure jumping into something so hard I knew nothing about, but I've been studying hard, working with Amber online as my tutor, and just a ton of review on my own and I have really improved.  I have been building up my confidence so I hope that will help me with writing the diploma!  I've signed up for my first university class...physics I....it will be 3 nights a week starting in September.  I know the first couple years will be a heavy load but if I can make it past that then the fun stuff will begin!  Too bad it doesn't just start off with learning about rocks...first math, physics, and chemistry...then the fun stuff!  I get to go to field school which I'm excited for...you live out on the field and study what field geologists do, you will be right there where the action is!

Well I suppose I should go over my May goals for the month...considering I'm actually blogging on time for once (I noticed that I only blogged once last month).  Anywho, here they are:

Monthly Goal

• Focus on my studies.  There is only just over a month left of school and this next exam is what will be deciding the next 7-10 years of my life.

Physical Goal

• Get walking.  Now that the snow is gone (fingers crossed) I will try to walk where ever I can...hello walks to the movie theatre and mall I have missed all summer!  I started this one off really well, Monday after voting I walked home from the polls (granted they were only 5 blocks away, but I did it!)

The other thing I need to work on is my card making... I have a TON of cards to do up for this month.  I also was hoping to get the inside of the Tribute all nice and clean... I'm hoping to accomplish most of this on Sunday.  As for tonight, I've got to get Kas' birthday stuff together and then I'm golden!