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Cheerleading Nationals!

December 2, 2008 By 9 Comments

This weekend my cheerleading team made the 5 hour (school) bus ride from Ottawa to Brampton to compete in the University and Open National Cheerleading Championships! We didn’t do as well as we’d hoped, but we still had lots of fun! Definitely something to work on for next year though! Again, I had the largest entourage there.

Three other blondes came (Erica, Micaela and Katelyn, obviously not Leah), two aunts, one friend, one dad, and one OPA! That’s right, Opa came to a cheerleading competition! Mom wished she could come, but at the last minute had to drop out because she remembered she promised a friend she would help with a murder mystery that night. It’s alright mom, you can look at the pictures and relive it that way. Speaking of pictures, here are some taken by Katelyn and me from the competition!

Me!

Me!

4/5 of the fiveblondes

4/5 of the fiveblondes

Opa and I

Opa and I

The Western Mustangs. They were AMAZING, and got first!

The Western Mustangs. They were AMAZING, and got first!

This is my stunt group. I love them!

This is my stunt group- Me, Erinn, Elisa and Rachel. I love them!

One of our stunts- high heel

One of our stunts- high heel

Hope- one of the girls friend was there too! Shes on the Black Falcons, which is the cheerleading team from Fanshawe College in London

Hope- one of the girls friend was there too- shes on the right. Shes on the Black Falcons, which is the cheerleading team from Fanshawe College in London

We have two coaches. This is Gareth.

We have two coaches. This is me and Gareth on the way to the after party.

This is Ashley. I don't have a picture of us together, but she just recently learned how to fit her whole fist in her mouth.

This is Ashley. I don't have any pictures of us together, but she just recently learned how to fit her whole fist in her mouth and is very proud.

The after party was soo much fun. It was basically all the teams at one bar. Ridiculous, but fun! Has anyone ever been to one of these competitions? Or competed in cheerleading?

Filed Under: Cheerleading, Family, friends, lauren, university

Birthdays, vacations, straight A's, weddings, girl crushes, and other things that make life worth living.

November 6, 2008 By 13 Comments

I am so excited about my life right now. For many reasons:

1) It’s my birthday this weekend! And it’s on a Saturday! And I know that I’m getting to an age where this isn’t necessarily something to look forward to, but honestly, I’ve never had a bad birthday. They’ve all been quite fabulous. One of my best friends, Michelle, and I have birthdays in the same week and we always go out and celebrate together and it’s always so much fun. So far we have 21 people confirmed for our joint birthday party. We are going to a comedy club first then out to a bar, which is kind of random but I went to a comedy club once a couple years ago wth Kent and it was SO much fun. Leah told me that she went to one last night, funny enough, and had a really great time. So now I am even more satisfied with my decision because I had been meaning to ask for her advice on the matter. Three of my five blonde sisters are coming along, Erica, Katelyn and Lauren (as long as she can get her booty back from Toronto in time). Should be a great time!

2) I booked my flight to Calgary to visit Leah and Tim in February! I called Kent to tell him that I was booking it, for some reason I felt the need to tell him before I did it and it’s a good thing I did because our conversation went a little like this:

Micaela: So I’m booking my flight to Calgary tonight!

Kent: You never told me you were going to Calgary. We’re getting married, shouldn’t we talk about things like cross country vacations?

Micaela: I didn’t? Sorry… I’m going the first week of February. I found a really cheap flight!

Kent: I’ll come, Book me a flight too.

Me: YOU WILL!?!?!??!?!?!

Apparently our communication skills need some work, but now I’m even more excited to go because not only do I get to see my long lost sister and her long lost boyfriend, I actually get to spend a whole week with Kent which is unheard of. We don’t get to spend much time together at all right now since I moved three hours away and he has a nutso work schedule. Our friends Laura and Matt are going too which we are very excited about because they are lots of fun and fellow skiers/snowboarders so we can hit up the mountains with them.

I was talking on the phone with Leah today about the trip plans and life in general and she said that she is really excited for me to meet her friend Natalie. She said:

Leah: I told her you were just like me but more fun.

Micaela: I am definitely not more fun than you.

Leah: Well… I guess it’s true that I’m more likely to get drunk on work nights than you are.

3) School is definitely agreeing with me right now. I’ve gotten lots of assignments and tests back so far this year and the lowest mark I’ve gotten so far was an A-. I was feeling kind of lazy and unmotivated here for the first while but now that I have lots of assignments due and readings to do I’ve kind of found my groove. I dragged Jen to the library to study on Sunday because at Laurier the library was the place I studied best, and we spent a few hours there it was wonderful and I’m addicted to it.

4) Barack Obama won! Amazing, I tell ya. I am very excited for my neighbours in America and to see what will happen next. And I mean my neighbours in a very literal sense, because I can see the bridge to Detroit from my house. I think my roommates and I are going shopping in the States on Black Friday, so we will celebrate Barack’s win by spreading some of our (sad, student) wealth with America’s (equally sad) economy.

5) I am getting so many great ideas for the wedding and an amaaaazing idea (okay, it’s stolen but still) idea for Save the Date cards… there is still TONS we need to do but really, it can’t start until after this Sunday when we are meeting with the priest to talk to him and finalize a date. At 10am the morning after my birthday. Should be a good time…

6) My favourite girl on America’s Next Top Model, Analeigh, is doing pretty good! I think she has a really good shot at winning. I watched the show with my roommates tonight and I decided that she is the prettiest girl in the world. Her style is WORLDS better than anyone else on the show. Their styles just don’t seem to make sense or suit their personalities while Analeigh’s seems to suit her perfectly. She is just super sweet, and apparently my new girl crush. Even Nigel agrees with me, I can tell he loves her.

Everyone has a girl crush. So do you. Admit it!

So here’s my question for this blog post: Who is your girl crush of the moment? Or, If you are a boy, who is your boy crush?

Sooo… spill!

Filed Under: birthday, Calgary, Family, friends, sisters, travel, university, Wedding Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Thoughts on a Monday Night

October 27, 2008 By 9 Comments

My Monday wasn’t too bad:

- I found out that a second kitten is moving into my student house, it belongs to one of my roommates and that means one more kitten that I don’t have to feed, clean up after, or get shots for, or do anything for but play with and cuddle with. I love coming home after classes to a kitten standing at the door just waiting for some love. And how can you not love this:

- I got to Science class and my prof asked me to come speak with him… I was expecting the worst, of course, but what he said was “Your lesson plan was really good, I photocopied one for everyone in the class, would you mind if I hand one out to everyone?” Ummm nope! Definitely a good self esteem boost, school wise!

- We got that much closer to setting a wedding date… we want to do it at a church that is not our home church so it’s that much more complicated. Soon, though!

- I made a sweeeeet dinner for my roommate Jen and I for when she came home from class starving at 6:00.

- I got a job tutoring a gr. 10 boy in English!

- Had a good phone chat with Kent… well until he told me that he can’t come visit this weekend! Since I started school we’ve managed to still see each other every weekend and of course the whole three weeks that I was off when my school went on strike. It’s his sister’s birthday though so I can’t fault him for that. I guess I would like to have a fiance who thinks his sister’s birthday is an important event. Plus he did take not only my birthday off but the WEEK OF my birthday since he needed to use up some vacation time. We can’t go away since I’m in school but he is going to come vacation at my student house in Windsor… doesn’t get much more luxurious than that! So to everyone who is my friend in real life – November 8! We’re going out in London and it’s a Saturday… birthday’s on Saturdays are extremely important events. The last time my birthday was on a Saturday I was 20 and I got pushed home in a shopping cart.

- My Oma had her hip replacement surgery and she is doing well!

- And always the best part of Mondays: remembering all the fun you had on the weekend! I went with Katelyn, her husband Scott, and a bunch of friends to a Halloween dance in a town near ours – one weekend early but that just means drawing out the fun even longer. This Friday my roommates and I are having a Halloween party of our own.

Here are some pictures of the fun last weekend:

I was a horseback rider and that’s my horse, Sheila. It was impossible for anyone to come near me without kissing it, kicking it, riding on it, feeding drinks to it, or… performing various inappropriate activities with/to it. That’s my friend Rebecca kissing it here.

Jen as a corpse bride, me, Michelle as Little Red Riding Hood, and Rebecca as a black angel.

Katelyn and Scott as Minnie and Mickey Mouse.

Some great friends of ours looking a little shocked… costumes are pretty self explanatory!

Everyone wanted to ride poor Sheila…

Jen’s boyfriend Andrew won Best Male Costume with his “fat plumber” suit!

And two of your five favourite blondes, riding the horse together. I just noticed the guy’s shirt behind us, please ignore it. :)

Filed Under: friends, Holidays, micaela, personal, thoughts, university, Wedding

Can you define your life in six words?

October 15, 2008 By 19 Comments
Postsecret Book

I don’t know about some of the other fiveblondes, but my favourite website is Postsecret.com, and two of my favourite books are the two Postsecret books I own. Every weekend I (unlike most people) get excited for Sunday to roll around so that I can jump over to Postsecret.com and look at all the new secrets!

Even though I will always love Postsecret, I’ve found a couple of new sites/books kind of like it! One is Six Word Memoirs. This is a site where people post about their lives in SIX WORDS! It could be a part of their life, or something they’ve experienced, but I still find it fascinating! While I was looking at the Postsecret book on Amazon, it recommended me a book (don’t you love it when they recommend you books?). This book was called “Other People’s Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant To See”. This is by far the cutest book EVER! It has original pictures of love letters from random people that were found in random places around the world. Some of them are even on things like cocktail napkins, and some of them are heartbreak, like the word “liar” written 183 times.
Hope you enjoyed these books/sites, because I LOVE them!
Anyone else have any books like these that they love? Share!

By the way, I should probably STOP making blog posts in order to keep away from studying. I have a feeling it won’t be very helpful to my successful university career…

Filed Under: lauren, life, love, personal, photography, relationships, university, webpages Tagged With: ,

First Week of School

September 11, 2008 By 5 Comments

This week marks my first week of teacher’s college. So far it is very reminiscent of elementary school – I have classes with the same 30 students all week, and my subjects are things like art, science, math, religion, gym, and so on. Being with the same class all the time is really nice – or it will be once I actually make friends with everyone. Basically by the end of the year all of these people will be like brothers and sisters, and I won’t know anyone else on campus, which is kind of funny. I am taking twelve courses at once, which is a definite increase from the five that is required in undergrad. So that is a little overwhelming.

The University of Windsor is a lot different from the school I attended for my undergrad, as far as I can tell so far. I don’t find myself homesick for my home (although I do miss Kent a lot, obviously – but I will see him every weekend so it’s doable), it’s more that I miss Laurier – the university where I did my undergrad. I keep comparing the two schools in my head whenever I notice something new about Windsor, and it always ends up falling short. I don’t know if it’s just because Laurier is the campus I’m used to and the only one I’ve really spent a significant amount of time on, but in my head it is exactly the way a university should be. The campus was much newer and prettier, I never had to walk through a slummy area to get to campus… and so on. I suppose this might change once I get used to Windsor. Maybe. There is one good thing about Windsor – you don’t have to line up for EVERYTHING. Laurier’s full name is Wilfrid Laurier University – or WLU, and there was an ongoing joke that it really stood for “We Line Up.”

My living situation is going well. I’m living with my friend Jen who I’ve known since junior kindergarten – since we were three! – and two other girls, also in teachers college, that I have just met. It’s always nice to live with someone you are totally comfortable around, that you feel comfortable borrowing things out of each other’s rooms, wearing each other’s clothes, eating each other’s food… I think it just makes a house feel like home. That probably has something to do with having four sisters. With my roomate and best friend from Laurier, Amanda, it wasn’t uncommon for us to come home from classes and find the other taking a nap in our bed, even in fourth year when we didn’t live with each other. So it’s kind of fun to be living with a close friend before I go and get married and live with a boy forever.

Speaking of the wedding – which I will talk more on later – I won tickets to the bridal show in London this weekend. Erica told me that her wedding photographer was having a contest, all you had to do is write a little something about what you love about your spouse. Here is my winning entry on The Last Forty Percent blog.

Finally, a picture of Jen and I in junior kindergarten – I’m the one third from the right in the middle row (if you include the little one in the rocking chair) in the Couturesmith dress. Personally I think I was the best dressed in the class. Jen is the teacher’s pet, sitting on the teacher’s lap! The cute girl in the very center in the white dress was my very best friend up until grade one, when she moved away. And a picture of us a year ago (her in the centre, me on the right) with our friend Michelle.

Filed Under: friends, micaela, thoughts, university, Wedding

Surprise! It's Lauren!

September 8, 2008 By 3 Comments

Hello everyone!

It’s me, the sister who everyone (including the other fiveblondes), thought fell off the face of the earth. Well I haven’t! I’ve just been really really busy this week with Orientation Week- I was a facil, and moving in and such, and since the only time I had internet was when I got lucky stealing it from some of our neighbours, I had a hard time blogging!

I’d just like to say that this post is dedicated to my good Shinerama friend ELI! Eli was in my facil group- The Soniczz, and one of the first things he said to me was “So, before I knew you, and before frosh week I was creeping the people in my group on Facebook, and I happened to see your blog with your sisters, and I spent hours reading it!” Okay, well maybe not exactly like that, but kind of like that. Anyways, after I heard that I was super super excited, and now I am at school writing this post JUST for him!

We get internet on Wednesday, so I will hopefully post pictures of Frosh Week then, and write another post!

Oh and Ps. Since I had gone without internet for sooo long (like 2.5 weeks), I’ve gotten really really behind on my Picture a Day, so I’ve decided to stop doing it until I get internet, and then just start where I left off from!  I’ll let you all know when I start again though!

Filed Under: life, university

Update on Life!

April 24, 2008 By 8 Comments

Hey all, it’s Lauren. I’m taking a break from studying for my last 2 exams of first year! I’m pretty sure Carleton has some of the latest exams EVER-example- my last two are on Monday, and Leah had her last one on April 11. Almost 2 weeks ago! However the smell of summer is in the air here in Ottawa. People are walking outside, enjoying the Parliament buildings (which I should probably do one of these days…), tanning on the grass on campus, and there is rushing water in the river on campus! It’s so exciting to almost be done first year. It seems like just yesterday I was planning on going out west, and not even going to university yet! I’m definitely glad I chose to come to such a beautiful city though. I’ve had so many great life experiences, and made amazing new friends, who I’ll never forget.

 

You know how in movies at university you see circles of people on the grass studying? I never thought I’d see that in real life, but last week as I was walking to an exam with a friend we kept seeing all these circles of people studying, and the first thing she said was “Lauren! It’s like the movies!” It’s so true! Like in an ad for a university:

 

studying

 

This summer I plan on working the same place I worked last summer, at a Conservation Area outside of our town. I also got my SmartServe in January, so I want to get a job serving, maybe at our local golf and ski club, where some of us work in the winter also.

 

Do you remember when you were done your first year?

 

Ps. Some of you may have heard about the girl(Nadia Kajouji) from Carleton who had gone missing (article found here). She has been found this past weekend (article found here). I didn’t know her, but a friend of mine did, and I wish her family the best. There has been tons of action to ensure that this doesn’t happen again here in our community.

Filed Under: ottawa, summer, summer work, university

Five Busy Blondes

November 22, 2007 By 2 Comments

Wow, not much going on as of late! Finals are coming up for those of us in school…naturally an important time of year. Micaela celebrated her birthday earlier this month with a new Lululemon sweater which I have yet to see, but am already very jealous of! Paisley – I love paisley! Kate and Scott are obviously back from their honeymoon, but seem to be having the same kind of difficulties that D and I are having getting telephone and internet service worked out at their new house. Who knew the real world would be this difficult? Leah’s birthday is coming up – always a party – and I hear that Lauren is getting snowed on in Ottawa and is planning to head to Tremblant soon?!? Luck-yyy!! By the way, Lo, I see that Allison Forsyth is sitting out the ski season – there’s a spot on the national team open for ya!

D and I went to Pier 1 Imports last weekend – I was there to browse, D was there to buy a coffee table (even though we have 2 already – long story) despite my insistence that we did not need a new one.  I was holding out just fine…until he pointed out a red and brown wood chest with inlaid flowers on the side…possibly the coffee table/storage unit of my dreams.  Browsing turned into buying and we now have 3 coffee tables (though one is destined for the woodpile at the farm).

Now all we need at the new apartment is a rug for in front of the gas fireplace! I love this design for a rug – in fact I would buy that one except it is a coconut fibre doormat. I guess I will continue my search!

I”m always looking for a creative output, and I love computers, so I’ve decided that my next ‘project’ (as in, the project I will take up when I no longer have to spend evenings at school!) will be a blogging project. Or, rather, a continuation of THIS blogging project. I want to use the WordPress CMS and design our own, unique theme for the site! This goes along with a side project that I can’t mention right now. ;) I am excited to get started on it and have found some great resources already, such as those on Lorelle’s blog. I know that there are many super cool free WordPress themes available on the net, but designing one myself will give me so much more satisfaction in the end, and also skills to build on.

Speaking of designing and skillz, we’ve not shared this photograph on the blog and I think we should because it is absolutely beautiful. These are our Oma’s hands as she works on Kate’s wedding dress – she hand-stitched thousands of beads, crystals, and sequins onto the dress over the summer! I like that the photo highlights her own wedding ring. She and Opa will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in January – and we’re having a big party to celebrate next summer!

Oma’s Hands

Filed Under: environment, erica, Family, furniture, internet, life, personal, photography, thoughts, university, writing

I’m a Winner!

October 10, 2007 By 3 Comments

This morning mom called my office within the first five minutes of me getting at work.

Mom: “I checked my email this morning and there was an email from your prof Owen, want me to read it to you?”

Kate: “Sure, I guess” (thinking that this will be about a course that mom was interested in and wondering why she would want to read the email to me)

Mom reading the email: “I have some good news, and because I don’t have Katelyn’s email address I’m contacting you hoping you will pass this on to her. Katelyn’s
“Dairy Days” video won a bronze award ($100) in the Canadian Farm Writers Federation annual writing and broadcasting awards last weekend”

Kate: “Woo Hoo $100!”

Well I guess the rest of the conversation doesn’t matter because woo hoo I won!

The Canadian Farm Writers Federation (CFWF) is a group of ag journalists, which includes reporters, editors and broadcasters in business and government, specializing in agricultural communications. The CFWF represents over 350 members who belong to organizations all over Canada. In conjunction with their daily reporting, they put on a competition annually, which includes categories such as “television, radio, and daily, monthly and weekly press reporting; media release; press column; press editorial and press feature.”

I won the bronze award in Television News Reporting. I made the video in my Agricultural Communications course at Guelph in my last semester there, it was one of the assignments that we had to complete. The topic assigned to me was ‘Dairy Days’, which is a program put on for Oxford County students in grade 4 to get a first hand look at dairy farming. I did research before the event (there was not very much information!), contacted people to interview, attended the event with our production team who get footage of the event and edit the video, interviewed people at the event, put together a script, taped voice overs (my fave part!), and then got to watch the final video.

My prof entered a bunch of videos from the class and amazingly enough our classes work came in 1st 2nd and 3rd! The must make him feel good as the prof.

So I’m guessing you want to see the video now right? Ok no laughing, I do look kind of silly… but here you go! And feel free to take a look around at other videos on Youtube added by “AgriComm” that our class produced, I do have another video on the site, see if you can find my other one.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hNbBYT_Oig]

If that does not work please go here DAIRY DAYS

Filed Under: agriculture, farming, life, money, university, writing

Tunnels…

October 9, 2007 By 3 Comments

Okay, so at Carleton there is a tunnel system that has apparently won awards in magazines. I’ve been in these tunnels and frankly I hate them. They smell, are humid, and are really busy on rainy days when my friends force me to walk with them because they don’t want to face the “horrible, cold wind and rain”. I like rain, usually my classes are hot anyways, so it’s nice to get outside and feel cool before going into those crowded hot theatres. There are also these annoying little cars that drive around in the tunnels with workers on them. Think Austin Powers when he gets stuck trying to turn around and has to reverse and go forward and can’t do it. Anyways, I found a piece on the tunnel system on Wikipedia, so here it is:
*The entire University is connected by an elaborate five kilometre network of heated(thats the bad part) underground tunnels adorned with murals created by student groups. Students are encouraged, within reason, to create their own works of art.(usually they’re vandalized anways) Each floor of the nine residence halls paint a tunnel mural near the end of each school year. It is not uncommon to see students wearing pajamas in class, having come directly from bed in residence. Sky-lit or windowed student lounges and snack-shops can be found at various points along the tunnel system.(I think this is a lie. Haven’t seen it yet) Students often hold competitions to determine who can remain “submerged” in tunnel-life (that is, moving about using only the tunnel system), especially during the frigid winter months.*
Okay, so…
1)Its not a good thing to stay out of the sun for too long. Vitamin D deficiency causes rickets(softening of the bones in children potentially leading to fractures and deformity), and even Seasonal Affective Disorder(a sort of depression that happens between September and April when the days become shorter and there are less hours of daylight in a day).
and 2) It’s not nice to see people in class with their pajamas. It’s just ugly.

So I guess the point of this was to encourage myself to get some good winter boots, and an umbrella!…and find my black Old Navy jacket at home. Has anyone seen it?
Lauren

Filed Under: lauren, university
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