Summer Goals

I have been known to overuse sticky notes, both the post-it kind, and the kind on my Macbook.  I’ll regularly have sticky notes saying names or dates I have to remember around my room, even after I can’t remember what I needed it for.  My computer sticky notes aren’t much different.  I currently have 23 sticky notes open in my Stickies app, and I only use 2 or 3 of those.

  • One is my passwords and usernames sticky note (I suck at remembering which password I used for what),
  • one is a list of names I like (yes, there are 29 names on it so far, and I keep adding names. I’m either going to have to narrow that list down, or have a whole heck of a lot of kids). This sticky note also has my dream wedding dress on it.
  • one is a list of random words I like (again, I keep adding words),
  • and the last is a list of my summer 2011 goals.

My summer goals sticky note is a new one. I decided last year that I wanted to knit a pair of socks…and well, that never happened. Here’s a list of my summer 2011 goals:

  • Lose weight.
  • Bike to work at least once a week, and go to the gym at least 3 times a week.
  • While at the gym, do the “Couch to 5K”
  • Climb the elevator leg and take pictures. If you’ve ever been to our house you know what the elevator leg is, and you know how high it is!
  • Knit a pair of socks
  • Knit a pair of baby socks
  • Read 10 books that I’ve never read before

This list is just a few weeks old, so I’m sure I’ll be adding things onto it before my summer starts (which is in 15 days!)

What are some goals you’ve made for yourself this summer, or any passed summers?

Folk Festivals

We were raised on folk festivals in the summer. My 3 aunts on my dads side adore folk festivals and go to them all over Ontario and the states. Home County folk festival is our local favourite. We grew up going to it every year and volunteered there as well by selling ice cream. Last weekend we got to bring Hailey to her first folk festival. She was great all day and I think she enjoyed the music as well as the people.

Hailey with her great aunt.
with aunt Yaya

Playing with Harry
Playing with Harry

Trying to steal a sip
Stealing a sip

Can you spy the baby?
Can you spy the baby

Lau
Lau

Kisses for Harry
Kisses for Harry

Hailey and me
Hailey and me

I’m looking forward to next year when Hailey will be running all over the place and Mic’s baby will be here!

My summer vacay plans (in case you were wondering.)

  • Pretend I’m a full-time blogger and update my and Kent’s neglected blog every day (and this one from time to time, of course!)
  • Pretty-fy my apartment
  • Find the perfect couch
  • Take a summer course (boo, but I gotta)
  • Visit Katelyn and Hails lots and lots (and, you know, other people too.)
  • Take a sweet vacation with Kento (right now the plan is Cuba)
  • Be a bridesmaid in two weddings and a guest at a few more
  • Get a little bit of a job, maybe at a coffee shop
  • Help my landlord out at her drop in day care centre and tutor her cute kiddos
  • Play my guitar lots and lots
  • Get a DSLR and learn how to use it like a pro.
  • See lots of Blue Jays games.
  • Keep growing this baby
  • Go camping for a few days
  • Go to a folk festival

How about you? Feel free to add to my list too!

My Lonely, Lonely Weekend.

I love my job, they want me to come in Monday to Friday, 8:00am – 4:00pm and then go home and not think about work once. It’s great, really. Tim, on the other hand, sometimes has to work weekends at his beloved hotel. Not fun! Take this weekend, he just left for work at 8:30am and has to work tomorrow at the same time. So alas, my weekend will be spent all alone as my friends all have things going on. Wait did I just say friends? Maybe what I meant was FRIEND. Not that I am complaining, I am loving my life out here in the West. Today the plan is to get my hair done, then buy a small tube and plop my butt in it with a good book (read: The Time Traveller’s Wife – this is my fourth time reading it in Calgary alone) and travel down my favourite river.

When I told Tim this plan, I said he should call in sick to work.

“Tim, you should call in sick tomorrow and come tubing with me! Tell them you have … tuberculosis. No – tell them you have TUBE-erculosis. “

Oh, how I crack myself up.  His parents (could I say my in-laws?) have been visiting all week. We went to a real small-town rodeo on Sunday, it was great. Pictures to come soon, after I get my hair cut. To me, getting my hair cut is actually WORSE than going to the dentist; I detest it. Even now as I am about to leave I am feeling a bit anxious and dreading it slightly. But I have my book, and my cell phone so that means I am ready to go and face the scissors.

Hopefully something so fun and amazing will happen this lonely weekend that will make it the best weekend yet!

Gone Fishin!

Kent and I both have every Tuesday off of work together and we always try to do something fun and interesting. Now that it’s summer, this usually involves going to the beach. Last week we met a fisherman at the beach and decided that this week we would go fishing too. Kent has loved fishing since he was young, and I learned what I know from him when we worked & lived at a summer resort two years ago. In fact, the day we started dating was the day that he taught me to fish and I caught one in the first two minutes (good way to impress a fishing guru, I definitely recommend it!) A few of our friends wanted to take pictures of me kissing the fish because this is what you are supposed to do the first time you catch a fish. So I did, but in all the excitement I got the fish hook stuck in my hair! I was so scared that it was going to get stuck in my head (fish hooks are scary scary objects) that I didn’t want to move, so Kent, always calm under pressure, got it out for me. Good way to impress a girl who is afraid she is going to puncture a hole in her skull! Here are some pictures of our day on the river, and see it was a successful day!

My summer is continuing along splendidly, and I still have lots of things to look forward to and quite possibly blog about! Speaking of which… I am considering getting my own blog but I am not sure how it will work for the whole “five blondes” thing. I have always had my own blog (that I eventually grow tired of and delete!) and I just find that I am far more motivated to write in it and post pictures and love it when it’s my own. Maybe I could post the entries in both blogs or write special blogs for fiveblondes.com.

Here is one last picture, Katelyn took it of me after we went for dinner at Kent’s restaurant on Saturday night. After that, I had my first “party” at my apartment! Okay, so it was very very very spur of the moment, and on a Saturday night in July, that means that not many people can make it, but I still had lots of fun and I hope everyone else did too. Note the Lauren Conrad braids I have been sporting (and loving) the last few weeks!

chiquitita tell me the truth…

Okay, the truth? Here goes:

Mamma Mia is an amazing movie!!! Mom and I went last night and let me tell you- it was like one big party. We’ve seen the play in Toronto, but that was too long ago to remember, and I’m so glad they made a movie! From the set, to the actors to the costuming (ESPECIALLY the costuming- simply amazing!), this movie had me and mom going from laughing hysterically and singing to almost crying. I was pleasantly surprised by Amanda Seyfried’s performance though. I remember her from Mean Girls and Alpha Dog, and in those movies she was acting as kind of a (excuse my language), slut. haha. In this movie she was the cutest thing ever! You can probably see this from the picture though. Mom is a huge fan of Meryl Streep also, and said it was nice to see her in a happy, mom role, instead of a serious role, like in The Devil Wears Prada.

If you are planning on going to see it, you HAVE to stay to watch the credits! They are HILARIOUS!

What country kids do for fun!

Our family has always been obsessed with taking pictures, one or more of us always has a camera handy to take pictures of anything that strikes our fancy! One of our fun summer activities has always been taking jumping pictures! Check out these jumping sites: livejournal, and flickr. I remember taking jumping pictures in my room in university, on the trampoline and our recent favourite in the wheat!

A few weekends ago we decided to do an impromptu photoshoot in the wheat.. so please pardon my baseball attire (Re: Short shorts) as I had just finished practice! Lauren, our married friends Laura & Matt, Scott and myself all took part (we may have had to force the guys). Here are some of my favourite pictures (not all jumping ones), stolen from Lauren’s facebook page.

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At least I'm a cute raccoon.

Mr. X and I had a very busy weekend. He had an urge to rearrange all of our furniture so that we could fit his New Bike! inside the house when we pick it up on Tuesday.

Did I mention he bought a bike?

So now our apartment is rearranged, providing Max with lots of stimulation for his little kitty-brain. Seriously, if you ever think your cat is getting bored with his life of being trapped in your home (especially when said home consists of 6 small rooms), just move things around. It’s like Disneyworld for cats.

Speaking of animals, Mr X finally ventured into our barn for the first time! Although we’ve been together over 5 years, up until now the barn has been one place he has adamantly refused to go. We were at the farm trading vehicles and talking to Dad when Dad suggested that we see where they will soon be building the new office and washroom (the barn has been recently majorly renovated. You might say, torn down and re-built). I immediately said YES! and we didn’t give Mr X a choice. Off we went! He wouldn’t touch any of the pigs (not even the day-old piglets), but I feel it was a major step in our relationship. I can scratch that marriage ultimatum off the list (I told him that the wedding would not go down unless he had gone into the barn. I don’t think he realized how serious I was).

On Sunday, Mr X, myself, Katelyn, Scott, Micaela and Kent went golfing. It was a beautiful day – except for the wind. Our course is often very windy and Sunday was no different. I was stupid and forgot to put on sunscreen. My legs, arms, and face are bright red. BRIGHT red…except where I was wearing my sunglasses, prompting this comment from Mr X later in the evening:

X: “You look cute.”

E: “Do I look like a cute tomato?”

X: “No…a cute raccoon.”

So there you have it. I look like a cute raccoon, slathered in aloe vera gel.

Redeeming myself after a month long vacation from blogging

You may have noticed that I have not written in here for a LONG time! Well I have good reasons… well sort of. I have had a crazily busy spring and start-of-summer. I have been away about 7 out of the last 10 weekends, I’d say. But don’t feel sorry for me, all of those weekends, aside from Brownie camp and a training weekend for a camp in Toronto, have been strictly for fun purposes – for example, a concert in Toronto (Leonard Cohen – AMAZING SHOW), a musical in Toronto (Dirty Dancing – also an amazing weekend!), visiting Kent’s family in Toronto, a weekend at my friend Rebecca’s cottage at Turkey Point, and I spent this past week at my best friend Michelle’s cottage in Muskoka. An excellent week of lots of boating, sunbathing, ATV-ing, waterskiing, tubing, campfire-ing, eating, and reading. I had a wonderful time hanging out with my two longest best friends and our boyfriends. And I will admit it – I was not one of the ones doing the waterskiing. Tubing I am okay with, but waterskiing just seems over the top scary to me, weirdly enough, considering I grew up snow-skiing and snowboarding just about every day in the winter. I have tried surfing while I was in South Africa, and I am not afraid of things like roller coasters or high diving boards. This week I decided it was probably because, while I swam in lakes and oceans tons as a child, I didn’t spend any time on boats (besides canoes) and I think I only have one memory of tubing as a kid and it does not end very well! We definitely were not deprived children, don’t get me wrong, but my parents preferred vacations (trips out west to visit family, camping trips everywhere, road trips through the States and Canada, trips to Disney World, Europe, ski vacations in Vermont…) to cottaging. I think I’ll be the same way when I’m a parent. Cottaging is relaxing and all, but I definitely prefer the excitement and culture that you get while travelling.

Anyways back to my point, today I visited Katelyn at work and I asked her if she had ever been waterskiing, and she answered “NO! I’m scared of it!” So I’ve decided that this is one thing we can blame on our childhood! Unless any of my sisters would like to prove me wrong… but I am okay with the idea that I will never be a waterskiier. Kent is naturally good at every sport he tries, he even tried waterskiing with one ski this week, and he will randomly pop out with facts like “Did you know I won the grade 11 athletic award in high school?” and “Did you know that I won an Ontario doubles tennis tournament when I was a kid?” So he has no fears about sports and is convinced that I HAVE to try waterskiing by the end of the summer, and I would be great at it, and why don’t I just try? I’m not so sure… my answer is MAYBE.

Now I am back home for the next few weekends, until Kent and I head to Toronto (again! We should really just move there…) for his friends’ wedding. Which is fine with me.. I am a social butterfly but I am also a homebody. Hence the fact that it is Friday night and all of my friends are out having fun and I am sitting at home waiting for my boyfriend to get home from work and listening to an outdoor concert that is going on in my town. Although I’m not sure anyone actually has to go to the concert because it is such a small town that everyone must be able to hear it from their decks! I love being home as long as I know that I have other options, then it seems more like a choice than simply my own loser-ness showing though. Tomorrow night I am heading to an outdoor Rascall Flatts concert with two friends from work and a few others.

I admit that I have not been taking any pictures this summer that I can post, well actually that isn’t true, I have been but they are all on my best friend Michelle’s camera. She lost her camera cord and so they haven’t made their way onto facebook yet, so here is a picture of me at her cottage from last summer!

Hope everyone else has been having an excellent summer too!!

Picture Every day for a Year!

Thanks for all the great suggestions!  I’ve decided that I’m going to do a summer theme for the first month, starting tonight at a barbeque!

I’ll post my flickr account later tonight!