Drink Club

So as you know my cousins, sister, and I have this little club known as Drink Club.  It had all started one New Years Eve when a long island iced tea concoction went wonderfully wrong.  The coke was completely forgotten about and we ended up with more of a limeade (not limeonade) drink.  Anyways, everyone had so much fun I continued this tradition on to the summer where I brought ceasar ingredients out campint, this turned out to be a real hit as well so the tradition lived on.  It has been almost two years now and I came up with the best idea...Drink Club scrap/recipe book.  I want to capture every drink we come up with in this book, success and fail, as I had mentioned in an earlier blog.  I will need to get my cousins to go back in time and remember some of the drinks they had come up with, then go through old pictures and see if I can find anything that would be associated with these drinks to put into the book.  Now these pages are going to be nothing special, I want this book to be one that gets put through all the experience, it will be brought along on all the trips, it will get drinks spilled on it, it will get beat up, it will have character.  So turning a fun tradition into something even more memorable...here is the progress so far, just need a picture for the front.

Also, wanted to take a moment to mention how much I'm loving this Scentsy stuff.  Thank you Auntie T :)  I am burning a mystery scent in there right now because my mom gave me some and I didn't write the names on them, it could be White Chi Tea, it could be Flower Shop...who knows!?!

Also, something else new and improved...bangs!!  When you go to the beauty salon and tell them to do whatever they please they really will and you may come out with a completely different hair style from before!  I don't mind them so far...we'll see how it goes.

The boy-cotting of drinking continues, today is day 59.  I'm allowed to cheat this weekend but I'm not sure if I will... I guess we will have to see how the trip goes.  Yes, trip, this weekend is the VANCOUVER WEEKEND!!  So Thursday will consist of work, yoga, school, packing, and Thursday night we are off!!  Shall be a long day but worth it!  Plus we will gain an hour on the way there, consequently loosing it on the way home but we've planned this out nicely it shouldn't dent our schedules too badly.  I'm thinking I'll have to get another magnet for the fridge...hmm.

Half The Family

So the long weekend has come and gone, it was nice to get that little break especially for me because I got a break from the pool too!  I usually only get a one day weekend so a 3 day weekend felt like a really long time!!  Friday night me and my mom drove out to Taber for the weekend.  I stayed at mmmmber's house, I think the dogs are starting to really like me.  Or maybe they just like everyone.  Anyways, they were so cute.  Because my mom's birthday is this week we decided to do some surprise stuff for her this weekend.  Only half of us were out there though, no boys were able to come they were all busy and Julie ended up getting sick so we only seen her for a few hours on the Saturday, but that's ok because I get to see her and Justin next month which will be here before we know it!  In the mean time, Amber and I got a ton of visiting in, which was really nice.  Just the two of us!  Friday night we spent some time visting with her parents, my mom, and Gary & Jody.  Then we went back to Amber's place and got to work on decorating for the birthday and made this trifle...it was such a good idea because my mom doesn't like birthday cake so this worked perfectly...plus it looked really awesome too.  Who would know that a dessert that looks this excellent could be that easy!  Washing/slicing the strawberries took the longest of the whole dessert!

Oh Kraft Canada, how I love you.

I was in charge of drink club this weekend (even though I'm doing my sober - gig I'm still partaking in drink club).  It was a raspberry/peach/lime type thing that went over well with everyone.  This drink was a success.

And here's the drink with the bartender!  Looking at all that booze I was adding to the alcoholic drinks made me really want some....oh man does spiced rum ever smell good when you can't have any.  So does beer for that matter!!!!

Julie and I decided that we should have a recipe/photoalbum type book to add all of our drink club drinks into.  It think this would be an awesome idea!  I know the exact book to find for these recipes.  Regardless of how well they turn out, into the book they go with either a "Success" or "Fail" written on them.  I'm not sure how we are going to go back in time and re-create the previous ones though.  Guess this will be part of a new "monthly project."

School starts up again tonight, teacher's convention is over.  It's not the best weather so I hope I get there on time. 

This weekend we are having some friends over for a games night, everyone seems to be going to Mexico, so not very many people will be coming but we will still make it fun!  Plus, we don't have long to wait before our Mexico trip so I'm getting excited for that too!  Plus another trip coming up even sooner...VANCOUVER!!!  It will be my first time ever there so I'm really excited.  It will also be my booze cheat weekend so I am not sure if I will break my bet or not...I'm allowed two cheats but I've been doing so good (53 days in now).  I almost want to see if I can make it the full 100 days in a row...but at the same time I want to have fun, and running around with a bunch of drunk people when you are sober is never fun.  Either way I'm pretty excited to go.

A Normal Life For Once

So we finally had a weekend without a bunch of travelling, events, projects, etc... to worry about!  Since I have spent most of February being sick I got quite a bit of housework done this past weekend which really put me ahead.  Laundry pile is finished and I even accomplished washing all the bedding to get these germs out of the apartment!  Saturday was work at the pool as per usual, then I stayed for a bit after work to get some swimming in (February challenge), then it was off to lunch at my parents.  The rest of Saturday was filled with cleaning until it was time for our soccer game which was a late one 10:15 p.m. and I got an assist!  It was awesome, the play went as planned for once, I passed to the other forward by the net and it was a bit of a high pass to get it passed the players blocking then he headed it right into the net, score.  Excellent!  We ended up winning, it was a fun game. 

Sunday was perfect, slept in then decided it was time to get the bottles done and get that money into the trip fund...not much longer before Mexico!  So I loaded up the SUV, took the bottles in, afterwards I really wanted to go to Lush so we explored Southcentre Mall to find there was no Lush there but ended up going to HMV of course and bought a couple movies and such.  Sunday night was pretty productive for me as well...

Got my mom's Birthday present ready to go:

*there is a little hint on top to what it is*

YES I EVEN REMEMBERED TO TAKE PICTURES!

 



Then I got the rest of my Math homework done...here are some things I'm working on

It's not as complicated as it looks

I've been getting into a new show now 24, It's so crazy - always has you thinking.  Spent all night trying to figure out what happens next with 24...it's my new Lost :)

 

I also got thinking on my other February goal for the rest of this month since it's almost over now this goal may have to run into next month as well...I figure this is better since I will probably be doing my card making all year...

February Challenge:

• No buying new movies/tv series for myself

This also got me thinking of March challenges and the fact that have so much to look forward to for the next couple of months...and these little invites will give you the hint...

I'm getting super excited for everything coming up!  This weekend will be a visit to Taber, that should be a blast, plus a long weekend...I will have an entire Monday to myself to work on some projects!  I'm also going to try to keep up with the picture/blog thing...this might be difficult for me but I will try!!  Usually the winter months seem to drag on forever, but keeping busy is the key!!!  Cheers!

A little bit Husky

Alrighty, here's a bit of an update...

As for my monthly goals, they may change a little bit.  I'm thinking that I will still keep on card making, but I don't know if I will be able to finish this project this month, so I'll add another one I might be able to keep my focus on easier.  I'm still contemplating what that will be.  As for physical goals, I will be doing the swimming however I've found I've been trying to cram a lot of yoga into my life lately and maybe will have the challenge of swimming/yoga for February.  My yoga pass is up towards the beginning of March so I'm trying to get in as much as possible before it expires! 

School, well that is starting up next week Tues/Thurs nights.  I'm not really looking forward to highschool math because it's not something that will further me in my career, it's just some stepping stone I have to get over before I can begin to accomplish my goals.  And it has to go all the way until JUNE...BOO.  I'm eager to hear back from Mount Royal on my acceptance into the degree, I kind of hope they interview me so they know I'm serious about this.  I also need to write them a letter saying I will not be finishing my SAIT certificate so they no longer need to evaluate those last two classes as transfer programs for me...hopefully the first two will make the cut, if not oh well just one more class I have to take.  I'm realizing more and more how big of a commitment this is and how much time it will consume, I know it will be worth it in the end.  Yes, I want to live life of course, but this is just something I have to do to be able to live the kind of life I want.  Yup, got my sights set on those big bucks!!  Plus I've realized I do not really like these redundant jobs I've been doing lately and want to do something where I have to think harder and actually use my education for.  So here's to one hell of a long haul!

As for the boycotting booze, so far I'm 35 days liquor free (haha I sound like an alcoholic).  I'm beginning to miss my beer though, oh sweet nectar!  Anyways, I've confirmed with my boycotting booze buddy that I'm going to go for 100 alcohol free days... that is April 10th.  I get two cheats, one I'm using possibly in Vancouver, the other I'm using at a rather exciting event we were unexpectedly invited too....

Work....let's start with the pool first.  I couldn't be happier with my classes this set...no complaints here!  Husky, wow talk about learning.  I've come from having absolutely no idea what I'm doing with these Geographix projects I've been helping with and creating to being able to complete one whole one on my own.  I'm also getting better at loading deviated well survey, and georeferencing (taking paper maps, scanning them and lining them up with our GIS grid system on the computer, then importing them into geologist's projects), and I've also learned for the first time how to load geologist's picks on formations.  It's pretty neat once you've got it down.  I can see how people would get frustrated with it though.  Anyways, a lot has been accomplished in a short 6 months and I'm proud of what I'm able to do now.  I never thought I would do so well with geometry and hadn't a clue how to read latitude and longtitude when I left college...just more learning to come.  Nothing will stop me from achieving my goals here!! 

Julie...I haven't been able to keep up with your blog, that will be my next week goal, catch up hahahaa!  You would think that now since we have internet at home I would be on top of these sorts of things!!!  Also, very excited to see you Feb long!

One more thing, I know everyone who has a blog seems to incorporate a lot of pictures in it, that is one thing I need to work on!!  I just never seem to think of it at the time and the pictures I do end up with have nothing to really do with what I'm talking about!  That is another goal!

P.S. I hope the Day Zero Project website is back up and running soon!!

Yoda

January has really flown by...usually it feels like January to March are the months that seem to last forever, mainly because it is winter.  I've been spending a lot of January being sick.  This past weekend I lost my voice and ended up sounding like Yoda for most of it...or at least that's what everyone said I sounded like.  Went to a small cafe on Saturday and listened to an excellent band and ended up going home with their CD, also some free t-shirts!  Sunday I was so sick, I felt like it was a wasted day but I guess we all get sick every so often.  The end of this month is coming up which means the first of the next month is coming as well, which means a crap load of bills...but on the brighter side of things...a new challenge.

February Challenges:
Finish my "Make new cards out of existing cards" project.  What a way to reduce, reuse, and recycle!  Yay!

Physical Challenge:  Swimming

School also starts up next month, so that will be two nights a week for me (Math 30 Pure) and four nights a week for Sheldon...yikes!  At least we will get to be in Math together.  It will be kind of strange though, we never had any academic classes together before, it will be nice to be able to study with eachother.  Here's to hoping that we don't go crazy!!!  We are stuck in school until June!!

Time for yoga, I'm out!!

The Control

So lately I feel like I've been blogging about things that are bothering me...so I've decided that instead of putting all of my energy into what I can't control I'm going to put it into things I can.  I can't control being ill, I can't control teachers quitting on me for school, I can't control ripping a big hole in my sweater right across my boob on a Monday morning...ok maybe I should be able to control that last one (that was my last Monday morning BTW).  Anyways, I'm putting my energy into focusing on the things I can control.

So far my year has been going really well (minus last week's meltdown).  I've been given a nice short shift at the pool on Saturdays so I have time to swim after my shift, which feels really accomplishing especially for a weekend since we tend to slack off on the weekends.  I've missed swimming, it makes me feel good.  I have been neglecting swimming because I feel like I'm in the pool with work enough as it is but with this nice short shift I have extra time in my day to use for swimming.  It's so uplifting!  Plus I get to do something I'm actually good at for at least an hour out of my week!  Another thing I've been working on is mind body and soul...a.k.a. taking yoga classes.  I absolutely love them.  My cousin Amber said I wouldn't like them until about my third class, she was right.  It's tough stuff and you don't really catch on until you're a few classes in.  Once you start getting better at it, you like doing it more...I'm sure it's the same with all things, at least for me.  I chose yoga because I wanted something I could squeeze into my lunch hour where I didn't get extremely sweaty!  Well, I was wrong.  Yoga still makes you sweat.  Especially because they like the heat freakin cranked!  I'm not even taking hot yoga and I already know if  I can't stand the temperature in regular yoga there would be no way I would last in a 40 degree room!  My favourite thing about yoga is the end where we meditate, your body is taking in the fact you just had an intense workout and this is the reward for doing so, just laying and breathing.  I never really worried about stress before, but now I realize how much energy we waste on stress that we could be putting to much better use.

Now, speaking of this I've decided to let the little things go...if they're not a life changing or life threatening situation, they are not worth the extra effort to stress over, so I'm not going to.  Here is a note to all of the negative thought people in my life, send me all the negative thoughts you want but now I'm barely going to waste the energy to think about these thoughts and opinions.  I've become a changed person in this past year and I've worked hard at it, I've grown to accept and love who I am and whatever thoughts or opinions you send my way will no longer effect how I think of myself.  I will listen and realize this is your opinion of me, but it is not my opinion of myself, so I should not let it bother me.  Maybe you would live your life differently than I live mine and that is perfectly fine, but I'm not changing mine to make you happy, change your own life to make yourself happy.  We all may as well use all the extra energy we have to make ourselves happy with our own lives before we focus on someone else.  With this in mind I've also come to accept how others live their lives, of course you still come across the same feelings as before... jealousy, opinions, disagreement, but why are you focusing your energy so much on someone else.  We feel this way because we are not happy with something in our own life, take this energy and put it to good use.  Once you feel happy about yourself you will feel happy about others.  When I was younger I've dealt a lot with depression, and up until this past year it's been hanging it's ugly head around corners when I'm feeling blue.  It's only now that I've begun to train my mind to ignore those negative thoughts and use that energy towards goals and dreams.  Once I've completed the project of getting my own thoughts on track I will be open to helping others with theirs.  Although I feel all I will be able to tell them is how I changed mine.  It's funny because you can look at a person and have no idea what's going on in their minds, and everything in their lives could be perfectly fine but they are still unhappy.  Getting yourself out of this rut is one of the hardest things you will ever do and one of the things you will have to work hard at for the rest of your life.  When all the little things start building up and the depression begins coming back being strong isn't easy, but it is the cure.  Focus on what is important.  I have two people to thank for sticking with me to help me change into this better person.  One, Sheldon....of course...you helped me realize that when something happens, the situation is really not that bad, don't let my mind make up stories and get carried away, look at the facts and figure out where to sort them in your mind and move on.  The other I feel wished to remain un-named, she is someone I work with and has given me the largest eye opener as to how to love the person I am.  Once this is accomplished everything else doesn't seem to matter as much and life seems to be about 50 times better no matter what the situation is.  I've also noticed I love surrounding myself with people that love themselves as well, you can feel their good energies which is so uplifting and makes you realize their true colours.  True colours are the key to who you are and you must share them with everyone in your lives.  This is a goal I have been working towards.

So now I'm finished being philisophical haha.

So how I'm arranging this year is by monthly goals.  I've set it up as challenges.  Now you all know about my no drinking challenge, these are just extra monthly challenges.  One will be a physical challenge and one will be a regular challenge of anything I want to challenge myself to do.  So here it is...

January challenges:

• Floss teeth every day
• Physical challenge - Yoga

Also, I am still getting used to this blog, I realized I deleted some comments Julie and Chelsey left me by accident...sorry guys!!  I've been keeping up with your blogs too, looks like you've been really into challenges as well, I'm excited to read up on the progress!!

Julie, I'm really excited to come out February long, I hope you decide to stay out in Taber!  I also wanted to say thank you for the blog you wrote about me!  I feel so happy :)  I'm glad you are liking my 30 Day Photo Challenge, I think you should do one too!!!

One hell of a bad week

Man did I ever start this week off on the wrong foot... my conclusion...taking down the Christmas Tree before the Epiphany.  Anyways, Sunday started as me feeling kind of off, not so much sick just not well.  Monday it got worse and I began getting these strange red circles around the outside of my eyes just like a zombie, I had a head ache...I was so tired for absolutely no reason.  Once I got home Monday night I was getting ready for my soccer game but everything just felt worse so I ended up staying home sick.  Tuesday morning I woke up to swollen eyes, even darker circles around my eyes and now itchy like a sun burn.  So I took the easy way out and called in sick to work, which was probably a good idea.  I went to the doctor to find out I had a bad allergic reaction to something but they didn't know what so in order to find out I would have to stop putting anything on my face for a few days...meaning no make-up...not even soap or shampoo could get on my face.  So today I faced one of the biggest fears most women have...going to work without make-up.  Now I know what you are thinking, how shallow is that, but it really wasn't the fact that I wasn't wearing make-up it was the place I wasn't wearing make-up to.  I never wear make-up when I work at the pool and I never seem to feel insecure, but downtown is a different story.  When everyone around you isn't wearing make-up and they all have their hair wet and slicked back into a pony tail you feel right at home with them, but when your in an office and everyone else seems to be dolled up perfectly, you feel out of place.  Plus it doesn't help to come back to work to a picture of a zombie stuck to your door saying "Britt joined the dark side" thanks Scott.  Anyways, of course everyone in the office has to come and ask me how I'm doing... a.k.a. look at my zombie eyes (which were still pretty zombie-ish).  Tomorrow we have a big department meeting at lunch, so I will be facing everyone I work with without make-up, just me, nothing to hide behind, and to make it worse....no make-up and zombie eyes.  Yay.  Sarcasm.  I look like a person who hasn't slept in 4 days and has a major sunburn across my eyes and nose.  Allergies, yeish! Anyways, after everyone had their fun with that they left me alone and I got a phone call.  I found out that SAIT is once again cancelled (I can't remember if I put in here that there was another class offered in May for the one that was cancelled for January, anyways now the May one is also cancelled).  So on the plus side that is a big chunk of moola refunded to me...but at what cost.  I know now that I will not be able to finish this certificate...probably ever.  Oh well I still have MRU to look forward to, so long as I get in.  I am pretty sure I will.  Then to top it all off I found out that I gained 5 pounds in a week, not that that has to do with anything but it's never good news to see you've gained weight.  I am slowly coming to the conclusion that the amount of calories in beer do nothing to your weight size...well mine anyways...it's been 19 days with no beer and I gained 5 pounds?!?  Something isn't right there!!!  I just can't wait for this ridiculous week to be over, and it's only Tuesday!!!  Today I had to get my blood tested at the lab to find out if my iron is low, I've been feeling strange and dizzy lately...So hopefully all is well with that, just another thing to worry about is all. 

Well thanks for letting me rant on here.  Seems like I complain on here more than talk about good things going on in my life...but I guess that's just the thing.  You want to get all the bad out so you type it on here, when all you have inside are good thoughts you want to share those to your friends and family in person so you get the hell out of the house and go see them because you're in such a gosh darned good mood.  Bad mood = sitting around inside blogging.

Out.