personal - 2/5 - Five Blondes

When life is hard.

November 12, 2009 By Micaela 8 Comments

Sometimes I feel like there is no point to me blogging these days. The best blog posts to me are the ones that are open and honest like this one or many of this girl’s. Since so many of our readers are people that I know in real life it’s often easier just to gloss over the details that aren’t pretty or happy.

But you know what? I also love the blogs that just post pretty pictures of perfect lives because I like to believe that some people’s lives really are that way all the time. I mean it’s okay to be happy and to blog about that. But not when it’s just not how you feel. Even the most positive blogger, I like to think, reaches that point where they have to say, you know what? Sometimes life is HARD.

Sometimes life is hard.

I am an underemployed girl feeling like life is more stagnant that I want it to be.

I am a girl who knows I can get a lot more out of life than I am, right now. I am a girl who knows that I can put into life a lot more than I am right now.

I am a girl who feels my husband’s emotions, both the good ones and the bad ones, way too much and lets them affect me instead of just being me, which brings circles of positivity (which are wonderful) or negativity (not so wonderful.)

I am a girl who lets feelings of being unwanted by a friend ruin her day.

I am a girl who sometimes finds it hard to trust and sometimes finds it impossible.

I’m a girl who looks towards the future instead of living in the present, which really, is all I ever have.

I am a girl who wastes precious seconds of her life with these things that I know are not me, not really, or not the me I would prefer to be.

I’m aching to write about all of the good things so, I don’t know, so you won’t feel sorry for me? So I won’t feel sorry for myself? Because something in me says you shouldn’t end a blog sadly? Sometimes life is good and sometimes life is great but right now I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about how sometimes, life is HARD. You know?

Filed Under: micaela, not so happy, personal, relationships

Happy Things

November 10, 2009 By Lauren 6 Comments

This week has been a very blah week, so I have found myself on tumblr and weheartit looking at pretty pictures a LOT…probably more than I should with 2 assignments and a midterm coming up. (It’s okay mom, they’re getting done, this is just a break!) On my account on weheartit (amazing website by the way), I have 11 pages of pictures that I’ve “hearted”, and on tumblr I have “liked” a whopping 531 posts. Unfortunately I rarely reblog them, sooo my Tumblarity is…Zero! Haha, I wanted to post some pictures that I’ve hearted on weheartit that have been becoming my Macbook background like it’s their job, soo here ya go! (I had to cut this down a lot..and there are still 20 pictures, I hope you enjoy)

3900297638_01c6b24001_o_large

I used to make millions of collages. Clear tape was my best friend, and all my magazines were all cut up!

20080505160130

Had to include this in here. It looks so amazing, and I wish I was there right now. I might be alone on this, but I WANT SNOW!

[Read more...]

Filed Under: decorating, lauren, life, nablopomo, ottawa, personal, random, skiing, university Tagged With: pictures

Lost and Found

November 9, 2009 By Erica 15 Comments

Lost: One (1) job. Answered to the name of Social Media Manager. Last seen in a comfortable chair in a much-colder-than-necessary-windowless office. Often seen consulting with friendly co-workers and employers in order to continually improve our services. Paycheck seems to have wandered off, too. I tried to call but the phone goes unanswered.

Found: One (1) even-more-incredibly-positive-and-supportive-than-I-ever-imagined husband. More time to do schoolwork and freelance. A more impressive, well-rounded resume than I realized. An established network of local connections. Clarity for the future. A fresh start. Sanity. Saturdays.

Photo by dvs

Filed Under: life, nablopomo, personal Tagged With: laid off, layoff, lost and found, lost job, nablopomo, social media

It's one thing to drift apart, and another to take off running in the other direction

September 2, 2009 By Erica 18 Comments

I remember seeing our engagement pictures posted on our photographers blog and tearing up. My heart raced, I got a little shaky, and a silly smile spread across my face. There we were, in love, for the world to see!

Today I’m looking at engagement photos also on our photographers blog and again am tearing up. My heart is racing, and I’m shaky.

No smiles.

I’ve seen several old friends appear unexpectedly on their blog before, as well as a couple of new friends. My high school crush was there one day looking very James Dean with his high school sweetheart. The prom king and queen, almost a decade later, finally tying the knot. I was always happy to see my friends on Last Forty Percent’s blog, knowing they made a fantastic choice and would have beautiful photographs to treasure just as we do.

I knew that this most recent couple was getting married. 10 days from now, actually. I don’t know him, but I know her. Or at least I thought I did.

She was my Best Friend – you know, the friend you share your dreams and have adventures with. We made gingerbread houses in her kitchen and played board games and pinball in her basement (There was a pinball machine! In her basement!). We practiced music together, she playing viola to my cello, along with the violins of several other friends. We went to the local fair every year in a group and bought bracelets allowing us to go on the Gravatar until we were sick. We nervously started high school together, expanding our circle of friends while at the same time remaining close. Our commitment to music took us to Europe, where we travelled through Switzerland and Italy with our high school choir. We started growing up, standing on a dark sidewalk after a party bravely taking slurps of Cherry Coke laced with whiskey.

Maybe it was here where things started to go awry. In truth, I’ve never figured it out, and perhaps I’ll never know. All I do know is that one day I arrived at school, approached her at her locker to greet her, and was met with a blank stare.

From that day forward, I didn’t exist to her.

If she had to speak to me, her words were terse and short. If she had to be near me, she turned her back and stared into space. I spent days – weeks – months – years! trying to figure out what I might have done that would make her no longer want to spend so much as a moment with me. Her own brother, whom I count as a friend, asked me what happened between us. I told him I wish I had an answer. Oh, how I wish! I have no answers. Only questions.

Perhaps I wasn’t cool enough. I’ll be the first to admit, I was really awkward as a teen. Maybe I did something seemingly horrible to her, or said the wrong thing. My brain-to-mouth filter is not always on. Maybe I didn’t pay enough attention to her, or was making the wrong friends. Maybe this, maybe that. I’m maybe-ed out. I need to stop myself before I get into the what-ifs, but I’m leaving this post with one what-if:

What if she reads this? It’s possible she is.

Will she reach out?

Please do.

It’s been 10 years. What I wouldn’t do for closure.

Filed Under: friends, personal, relationships Tagged With: friendship

Coming into focus

August 27, 2009 By Erica 10 Comments

One of the first things I did when I started using a Mac every day at work this week (thanks, boss! You rock!) was find out how to increase the size of pages in my web browser. It’s command +, by the way.

My eyes are getting old. Too much staring at computer screens, squinting to read tiny words, getting headaches from too much reading in general. About two months ago, Katelyn and I started rehearsing for our gig as ‘wedding singers’ at Micaela and Kent’s wedding with our friend Michelle, who is a very talented pianist. It soon became apparent that I was having difficulty reading the lyrics. This, combined with a discussion with a co-worker who is around my age and got glasses this past January and continual prompting from my husband, made me realize that I definitely need to get my eyes checked out. I have an appointment this afternoon.

Jessica (my co-worker) quickly made me realize the up-side to needing glasses – picking out frames! Since then, Denis and I have been to Lenscrafters where I tried on various frames for fun. I always seem to move toward dark and neutral coloured frames, whereas Denis is very opinionated and says that I need frames with more colour. So many options! What’s a girl to do?

Filed Under: life, personal Tagged With: glasses, lenscrafters, optometry

Boyfriends and the Internets.

August 24, 2009 By Leah 14 Comments

Dear ~~common-law partner~~ boyfriend of mine,

First things first, I love you. I really, really do!

But I have some things to explain to you. Specifically, the part of my life that I call the internets and you call DANGER.

In a way, I don’t blame you and I can understand where you are coming from. And I do feel that in the past few months it has gotten a little out of hand. That is why, for you AND me, I have privatized my Twitter (permanently, this time) and reduced the number of people I follow by a lot. Hundreds, even. (Sorry to all of you. You are all wonderful people, but, as I said, I was just getting out of hand).

One thing that is NOT going to change is the friends that I have made because of my blog and because of Twitter. I have met some great people and they have become my friends in this new city of mine. And you know what? I am not going to stop hanging out with them because it scares you. People meet online all the time. People meet their spouses online, probably on a daily basis! (You know that because we often watch those happy eHarmony commercials together.)

I do not hide these bloggy-friends from you, nor do I place myself in situations that could be potentially harmful. But my new friends are wonderful! They are funny, like-minded, single, not single, happy, and sometimes not happy, employed (and sometimes briefly unemployed), kind, and most importantly, REAL people who have become an integral part of my social network in Calgary.

I’m not replacing you, or Natalie, or the used-to-be-distant relatives that I can now call my friends. I need these people as an addition to my social network. I am a social being! I love talking (usually really fast), dancing, getting advice from, teasing and just hanging out with these people (WHO ARE REAL). I need to have someone I can call if I don’t want to be alone on a Friday night when you are working. I like talking to them about relationships, dancing, clothes, gossip, the meaning of life, knowing how to be happy, and ZOMG YOU! I talk to them about you! And way-more-things-than-that-but-I-can’t-specify-because-Hi, Mom!

So please, accept these friendships as a permanent part of my life. Encourage me to continue to go out of my comfort zone and meet new people. Do it because you love me, and because your job forced me to move to this great city where I want to be happy and fulfilled. (Just kidding about the forced; I made an informed, adult decision which I am very happy about.)

In closing, I love you (even your monkey legs and your pterodactyl alter ego) and probably will for the rest of my life.

Leah.

P.S. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt you to try and do the same?

Do you have any “rules” you abide by when meeting people off the internets to ward off potentially dangerous situation?

Do you have any advice for Mr. Leah to satisfy his (reasonable) wish for me to be safe?

Filed Under: answer, Calgary, friends, leah, life, personal, relationships

Kate's life in photos

April 25, 2009 By Kate 4 Comments

1. A picture of you in your room.

Back in university…

2. A picture of you posing with someone you don’t actually like.

Sorry E and D, he just hates me! I can’t believe he let me hold him long enough to get a photo.

3. A picture with a former crush

Before he was my crush and now he’s my husband!

4. A picture of you very drunk.

Halloween 2008. Dressed up as Minnie mouse, riding Mic’s horse Sheila.

5. . A picture of you with a parent or two.

Me and dad being silly.

6. A picture of you on your birthday.

A photo from my 19th birthday. Too drunk to get back into the bar so we waited outside. It’s such a random photo but I love it. This is from before Scott and I were dating (he’s to the right in the photo) {and similar to Micaela’s my shirt is also riding up… oh drunk birthday girls}

7. The youngest picture you can find of yourself in digital form.

Scanned in, but it still totally counts. I’m in the yellow at the bottom. No Lauren yet!

8. A picture of you in one of your favorite outfits.

9. A picture of you making a goofy face at the camera

n120800716_30002443_9678

10. A picture you miiiiiight have edited to make yourself more attractive.

Miiiight or, yea really definitely did…

11. A picture of you and a team or club you’re in.

Since I never got a copy of the group photo… this is all I have of baseball..

12. A picture of you showing off a new haircut (even if it’s an old haircut now)

ooolllddd haircut. But look at how cute it was!

13. A picture of you truly being yourself.

14. The most recent picture of you.

White jacket- walking with the ladies in T.O. on the weekend

15. . A picture of you being absolutely ridiculous.

Being ridiculous being the last drunk ladies at ladies night. Drinking while sitting on the floor.

16. A photo that you are tagged in that you aren’t actually in.

I’m not actually tagged in this one… but it was my profile picture at one time. I took it last spring.

17. A picture of a time in your life that’s over, but you wish it wasn’t.

Leah and I at the RANCH!

18. A picture of a time in your life that’s over, and you couldn’t be more thankful that it is.

The wall of fame and shame on our university townhouse wall. It was fun but I’m so happy to be living at home now.

19. A picture with your oldest friend.

21. A picture of you when you were anything but happy, even if you were smiling and did your best to hide it.

I remember being so mad that we had to climb this tree to take a darn family photo… looks like Lauren wasn’t that happy either!

22. A picture of you that you had no idea was being taken.

I’m not sure if Mic even knew she was taking the photo! New Years 2006

23. A picture of you when you were a different person than you are now.

24. A picture of you in a fashion “DON’T”.

After jumping into a huge mud puddle from the play centre. Mom made us hose off outside.

25. A picture of you in a swimsuit – whether you love it or loathe it.

26. A picture of you taking a shot / chugging a beer / downing some sort of mixed drink.

At the Chicken Run party- a party in a chicken barn!

27. A picture of yourself that you hate.

It’s probably wrong to hate photos of you from your own wedding, but I really don’t like this one.

28. A picture of you with someone you love.

29. A picture of how you’d like the world to see you.

30. A picture that describes how you’d like to spend every day.

Trying new things, driving fun equipment!

31. A picture of a time when everything was changing.

University graduation.

32. A picture that makes your heart hurt.

But in a GOOD way! You know, the achy I’m in love feeling way.

33. A picture that makes your heart smile.

A photobooth picture we took for dad when he was in the hospital over Easter a few years back. Translation: We Love You!

34. A picture of one of the best nights or days of your life.

Filed Under: Family, life, personal

Tuesdays with Micaela: Easter weekend in Ottawa

April 14, 2009 By Micaela 9 Comments

Over Easter weekend I travelled to Canada’s capital city, Ottawa to visit my babiest sister Lauren with Kent, Erica, Denis, and our parents.

Here’s a little photo recap.

We took our friends dog, Eve out for a walk:

Coolest house on the block:

On Easter Sunday we toured the parliament. Lauren and I love the parliamentary library so much that we almost bought library shaped earrings at the gift shop.

Kent in front of the parliament:

Erica in the parliament’s Peace Tower (highest building in Ottawa):

We slept over at Lauren’s place. I’m sure you’ll recognize it even in this small picture as a typical student house. This is where we had sleepovers and watched way too much of My Super Sweet Sixteen.
Funny story: Lauren and I had the tv on Mean Girls when we left with mom to go shopping. Our dad was staying behind and when I asked if he wanted me to remote to switch the channel he said, “No, actually can you turn the volume up?” Despite spending a large portion of his life living with six girly-girls, my dad has managed to remain surprisingly manly, but even the manliest dad has his weak moments, apparently.

After Erica, Denis, and Kent left us on Sunday we visited the Nature Museum. Lauren and I had so much fun with all the interactive games where we got to tape ourselves making chimp calls and bird sounds.

Our not-so-blonde momma (don’t tell her that though):

Me, hanging out in a tree:

The photo ops really were endless:

After the museum we had some snacks at a market/bakery where apparently Obama had recently enjoyed some a cookie. Poor Obama probably felt like he had to order a Canada cookie to show his pride, even though the cookies looked pretty unappetizing and everything else there looked soooo good! At least he’s a good sport. Now they’re milking these cookies for every penny:

Thanks for being so much fun, Lauren! I LOVE Ottawa and will definitely be visiting you next year when I’m living only four hours away instead of nine.

That was our nontraditional Easter weekend, a far cry from our usual which always includes a 9am Catholic mass and way too many Easter dinners and easter egg hunts. I did make Kent an Easter basket though. I couldn’t help myself. I “apparently” didn’t warn him (ie. he didn’t remember me warning him!) I didn’t care though, I love giving him holiday gifts even if I don’t get any in return. My parents have always made us Easter baskets (and gave the three of us plus the two boys one to share this year) and later Kent was very apologetic and decided that he liked the basket idea so much that it will be a tradition from now on. Starting new holiday traditions is my favourite.

Check out the rest of our trip on my flickr!

Filed Under: Family, Holidays, life, micaela, ottawa, personal, random, sisterhood, travel

It's happening. And it's great.

April 11, 2009 By Leah 11 Comments

Since graduating about a year ago, and subsequently moving across the country with the boyfriend, I have noticed a lot of changes within myself. Positive, progressive changes that make me feel as though I am growing up. I have always felt grown-up, and have generally been a thought as though I was a mature person, but in the past month or two, I am surprising myself daily.

It’s in cleaning the house and keeping it that way for more than 24 hours, in brushing and flossing twice daily, in washing my face daily and paying more attention to my beauty routine, in making doctors appointments for myself, keeping budgets, and exercising regularly, it’s in cleaning and vacuuming Tim’s car, in making my bed every single day, and in doing groceries on my own. It’s in sitting in a popular bar with my best friend discussing literature. It’s in being on time on a regular basis, and scheduling my days so I can be the most productive, and even in paying more attention to my appearance and the way I am perceived by others. It’s in going to see a documentary on a Saturday evening, and being told by your tax specialist that you didn’t seem your age, because “people your age usually don’t care about the details, they just want the money.” It’s in thinking about how my actions affect other people, and in finding myself thinking deeply about the things that are important in my life, and what I am looking for in all of my relationships.

I feel it in being more aware of my surroundings and of the life I am choosing to create for myself, and the difference I am making in the world.

So tell me, was there a moment or period of time when you really starting becoming an adult, or felt grown-up?

Filed Under: life, personal, question

Tuesdays With Micaela ~ My engagement photos

March 9, 2009 By Micaela 18 Comments

A couple of months ago I blogged about Winter Engagement Photos and trying to come up with ideas for our own. On what I’m pretty sure was the coldest day in January, Kent and I had ours taken in our cute little town. We ended up being really happy with our photographer, Dana Harper. She only made me wait four days for the pictures! Any girl can appreciate that. I chose 30 of my favourites out of the 300 she sent me, and she edited them for us. When Kent and I are together we always have lots of fun and are constantly trying to make each other laugh and I think Dana did a good job of capturing that.

Here are the results:

If you would like to see the rest, visit my brand new Flickr page at micblonde. I am quite excited to have my own Flickr.

We are going to have a signature frame like this one as our guestbook:

Katelyn and her husband Scott did this and I like the fact that it is up on their wall and always up on display, rather than on a bookshelf collecting dust. Whenever new people come to her house they always look at it right away. Sooo, if you get a chance to look at all of them let me know your favourite. Hope you like!

Filed Under: love, micaela, personal, photography, thoughts, Wedding

When life is hard.

Happy Things

It's one thing to drift apart, and another to take off running in the other direction

Coming into focus

Boyfriends and the Internets.

Kate's life in photos

Tuesdays with Micaela: Easter weekend in Ottawa

It's happening. And it's great.

Tuesdays With Micaela ~ My engagement photos

Recent Blonde Moments

Back to Our Roots: Archives!

Search Five Blondes

Recent Comments

Calendar of Posts

We have a lot of categories.

February 2012
M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Jan
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29