Special Delivery

Yay! Christmas time is here!! I'm so excited for Christmas. I thought at 25 maybe I'd be less excited, but I think that having Mr. A around has made this year even more exciting! I've been spending time with his family (from here and visiting) so much that they're really starting to feel like my family. It's been a great vacation. If I can't be home with my mama and papa in Ontario, I don't think I could ask for anything better than this!

Also, this wonderful package arrived from home :) with stockings for me and Mr. A!

The last few days have been great (I'll. give more details soon). I can't wait to see what the next few days hold!

Ps - sorry for all the exclamation marks! I'm just really happy!!

From Someone Special

I'm dating the best boy ever! I was home from work sick today and someone amazing brought these to my place after he finished work today. They are beautiful and they smell amazing and they absolutely did make me feel better. I am a lucky girl :)

Welcoming The Snow

Winter has arrived! Well... I don't know about the rest of Canada, but winter has arrived in Grande Prairie. The snow poured down, the roads are slippery, the temperature has dropped. True winter! Actually, the last couple of days have been absolutely beautiful. It wasn't windy so it wasn't that cold, and the sun was shining all day long. Lovely winter days :)

These couple pics were taken on my street yesterday at about 4:45pm. The sun is almost down, and the snow covers the ground. Joopers was enjoying the walk.

Just wanted to give everyone a picture of what they're missing up here in northern Alberta!

The crappy thing that comes along with winter is the colds and flus. I unfortunately have already caught a small cold... I'm now pumping vitamin C and NeoCitran into my body and hoping for the best. I'm guessing my early bedtime will be the most helpful of all :)

ps - tomorrow is suppose to be -24 degrees, with a high of -15. Lovely... Alyssa, if you're reading this, don't forget to bring a warm, warm coat when you visit!

Preparing for the Christmas Season

It may be a bit early for a Christmas prep post, but here are my reasons...

1. It's the next holiday

2. The first snowflakes fell in GP today

3. I love Christmas time :)

So... another Christmas season that I'm gonna be away from home and I'm already sad about it. Skype is a huge blessing in my life - I really don't think

I'd be able to live this far away if I couldn't skype my mama once a week. I'm already anticipating the hard times being away from my family for another holiday season. It's strange to join with other families and learn about other families' traditions. I am going to miss having eggs and bacon in the morning, and having big piles of "stocking stuffers", and sitting around in my pajamas for 3/4 of the day, and eating Christmas bon bons.

Things I am looking forward to as we enter a new season:

1. Making Christmas cookies

2. Buying gifts for people I love

3. Making Christmas cards (hopefully!)

4. Sending Christmas cards

5. Getting new boots

It is going to be a great season, and I'm grateful to be surrounded by amazing people to spend my holidays with here :) (One amazing person in particular...)

Hope it wasn't to early to grace you with some festive cheer!

Fall Leaves

Well, I've officially made it to my second fall in Grande Prairie. It has been a very full year. Some ups, some downs, some very exciting things. I thought it would be a huge transition... moving all the way to northern Aberta. But I find that I don't feel all that far from home. I guess I've made my own life, and found my own family out here. Having actual family out here helps as well!

It's the little things that make me feel far from home. I love the fall in Ontario. It's always been my favourite season. The colours are so beautiful and the leaves cover the ground so perfectly. Fall in GP is not the same. It only lasts 2 weeks. The trees turn yellow, the winds pick up, and then all the leaves fall off the trees. Its short and swift. The leaves are still beautiful, but it's not the same. I miss the red and orange. I miss maple trees in general. I miss sitting on the back porch drinking something warm, and wearing a sweater. I miss walking with my mama. It's funny how one thing I miss leads me on a string of missed memories.

I'm very glad that I've moved to GP. Wonderful things are happening in my life, and I am very happy. It's just different. Some days I miss home more than others. Hopefully GP will soon be the home and I miss when I'm away.

If you're in Ontario, try to enjoy the leaves for me!

Three Generations in Grande Prairie All At Once

This past week I was lucky enough to have some visitors in GP. Not only one, but TWO of them! My mom and her mom (my grandma) both risked the long layovers to see where their long lost daughter was hiding these days. It was a great week and I'm so happy that they were both able to come.

We stayed busy each day and I finally had the chance to show them around my world. I think we did everything we could have in one week, except maybe visit the dinosaur tours in pipestone.

I can just hear my mom on skype now... "Oh! Muskiseepi park? That's where we went right?" or "Beaverlodge! That's where we saw the giant beaver, right?" Oh she makes me laugh. But it really will be great to talk about people and places and to know that she actually can picture those things. It feels like they are much more involved in my life, even though they may be

4000 kms away.

So glad they came :) Here are some pics from our adventures!

Chillin' out with the giant beaver.

Standing in front of the roller coaster she conquered!

Some rickety old houses at the McNaught (mom's maiden name) homestead.

Hanging out by the bridge at Dunvegan

Waiting for our turn to lose at the horse races at evergreen park :)

Clearly it was a pretty great week!

Quality Girl Time

Girlfriends are SO important, no matter how old you are, and what stage of life you are in. I've have been more than blessed with amazing girlfriends in every town that I've lived in. GP is no exception to that rule!

These are a couple of my gorgeous ladies! I was blessed to meet these beautiful women at my church. We've only known each other for a few months, but already we've been there for each other through thick and thin. It is so important to have people in your life who will be honest with you, support you, and tell you what you need to hear (whether you want to hear it or not!). I believe everyone women needs other strong women in their lives for many reasons:

- Accountability

- Prayer

- Fun

- Venting (we all do it!)

- Wisdom

- Excitement

- Support

So far I think these women have been there for me whatever the reason. Hopefully they know how much I appreciate the friendship and that I gladly will return the favor whenever it's needed!

Here are some pics from our fun in the park:

Beautiful smiles ladies :)

Slacker

Wow, I really have not been updating this puppy! My bad. There's not much going on right now. Here are my updates in a nutshell....

I'm swinging nicely into my summer therapy schedule at work

I'm going camping this weekend with friends from church

Mosquitos are taking over Grande Prairie

Joop is incessantly trying to dig his way under my stove but I can't figure out why cause I can't find any food there

I will never go to a movie on a Tuesday night again in GP (insanity!!!!)

My mom and grandma are coming to visit me in one month exactly :)

That's about all. My life is good. Everything feels pretty mundane these days. It'll be strange when my entire office leaves for vacation and there are only a couple of us left. Luckily I've schedules myself to be fairly busy so it should be alright.

Later gater :)

Giant Queen Size Bed

I don't think that there is any better feeling in the world than returning home to your own bed after travelling. That's how I know that GP feels like home to me. Whether I'm gone for two weeks, or two days, I'm always excited to get back to my own space and my own giant queen size bed :)

Most people I know don't know a thing about Grande Prairie. The size, the entertainment, the people. Zip, zilch, nada. In fact, most think of it as a small town with a bunch of cowboys riding around and nothing to do for fun. In some ways they're right... lol. But actually GP is much more than that. I feel like I've been defending the town forever, trying to find good things to say about it and get rid of people's misconceptions. But recently I realized that I'm not just saying those things to stop people from thinking that I'm crazy for moving here. I'm saying them because I actually really love it here. I do have a bit of a propensity for getting sick of places and moving on after a few years, but so far I like GP (as the cool kids say).

I'm honestly happy to get back to town every time I'm away. And although the giant queen size bed has a lot to do with that, there is a lot more that pulls me in these days as well.

So happy to be home :)

Three Years Old!!!

So, when I moved out to GP all I knew was that I had a mysterious "second cousin" relative. She's actually my mom's younger cousin, but she's closer to my age. Anyhoo... we had never met before I moved here, yet she and her family were amazing at welcoming me to the city and helping me feel like I wasn't so far from home. She has a 3-year old, that I will refer to as Spiderman, and he is SOOO cute! I friggin' LOVE him! They invited me to come to his 3-year-old birthday party and it was great fun. Here are some pics of the big guy!

Spiderman is all grown-up :) Wearing such grown-up clothes too!

Blowing out the candle! He was very excited about this part!

The amazing Shrek cake! Seriously, isn't it awesome??

All his presents... this is just moments before the chaos began...

He knows that his picture is being taken, lol. Isn't he adorable!

I can't wait til my next sleepover with this kids. He plays and listens so well. Plus, I think he loves me as much as I love him, haha. And he's soooo cute!!!

Thanks for letting me be a part of your family GPers!

Worst Advice Ever

So... I broke my wrist again :( Obviously. People are offering me advice regularly, which for the most part has been positive. However, in my grumpy medicated state... some advice is not taken well.

"Be careful!"

"You should be more careful"

"Be careful next time!"

Oy! How is that advice! All I think is "great, thanks, if only someone had told me to be careful earlier, i've been running around carelessly". How does one be more careful? avoid going outside? avoid fun? let fear of hurting my arm consume me? argg... I'm so frustrated with hearing that I should be careful. Its not constructive advice, or positive advice, or comforting. If anything it makes me feel pitied - "oh, you poor girl, you should be more careful" - as though i'm the only person ever to break a bone or as though they are superior because they never would've been careless enough to let this happen. I'm sure everyone means well...

Ok, sorry. I had to vent. I'm such a grumpasaurus.

p.s. - I accidentally got a glow-in-the-dark cast, lol

p.p.s. - sorry, if you gave me this advice! I still appreciate you.... :)

The Running Game

Wow. It's been a longer than I thought. Sorry to my faithful follower. (That means you Nate)

Running sucks. Let's just say it how it is. I have friends that say they love to run, but in my head every time they say that I say "yeah, I'm sure you do. You probably love picking up dog poop too."

More than hating running, I hate training to run. Every other day on the treadmill. Working ever so hard to make it 1 minute past what I did the last time, or trying my hardest to run at 5.7 instead of 5.6, or trying desperately to make it to 2.6 km instead of 2.5.

ARGGGGG. Why am I doing this?!?

This truth is, deep down, l just wanna be hot. I wanna look and feel great about myself, so I'm torturing myself in hopes that I only have to do it temporarily.

The second truth is that I already feel better about myself. Every small accomplishment brings satisfaction and confidence with it. I'm proud of where I've come from and I'm proud of the 0.5 extra that I can run since a week ago. I'm hoping to join a free learn-to-run group that starts in a month. The idea is that at the end of it, everyone in the group will be able to run 10K. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that it can't hurt me to try. Who knows.. maybe I'll even like running at the end of all this!

Probably not.

Small Town Theatre

You may or may not be aware that I went to see a little show called CHICAGO last week!!

It was preformed by some of Grande Prairie's finest actors and actresses!

The thing is... I'm use to big-time Toronto showcases, and this lovely production really just didn't compare. Don't get me wrong, I fully enjoyed myself at the show, it just wasn't quite the same thing I'm use to for several reasons...

Caveat: It was preview night, so they were still figuring out some details

1) There were only 6 men in the whole show, and all but one of them was over 50! This provided plenty of entertainment: overexcited (in more than one way) men on stage with 20-something girls, laughable off-tune singing voices, hilarious costume changes, etc. Seriously, if you're under 30, you'd have a lead role, no problem!

2) I knew people involved. Everywhere you turn there's someone who was involved in the background crew, or volunteering, or acting. It definitely makes a show like this one more enjoyable when you can talk to people you know about their roles after. GP feels so small sometimes.

3) The audience was the size of a toothpick. Ok, slightly bigger. But honestly someone on the other side was laughing like a hyena and I could hear her like she was directly behind me. The plus side of this is that we were two rows from the back and could see everything perfectly!

4) Musical errors were rampant. Lines were forgotten. It was all crazy cakes! (although it was preview night... ). You'd think this would annoy me, but actually I think it made the show more enjoyable. I laughed everytime (not out loud though, cause I didn't wanna be like the hyena lady).

All-in-all it was a fun night. There are definitely occasions for big-city productions, but this was definitely worth the fun evening out.

Ps - sorry for the poor photo quality... my iphone can only do so much.

Winter Ass-Kicking

You guessed it! Winter kicked my little Matrix's ass today :(

We had a huge down-pour of snow over the weekend in GP that apparently was not ploughed at at ALL for the last few days. I tried to leave for work to day but my poor winter-tire-less matrix did not go very far before getting stuck. The first gentleman that helped me out while he was shovelling his driveway told me I "shouldn't be out in a little car like this!", but stubborn me (I get that from my dad), I kept trying.

I got stuck a total of 4 times. FOUR. The final time, I was stuck overtop of a foot high snow pile in the middle of the road... I was even on the street I work on, but with nothing even remotely close to a decent parking spot visible (you know, somewhere that wouldn't leave me permanently stuck in the snow), I eventually gave up and headed home.

I guiltily called into work and they told me to stay home (special leave day or something). I guess that means no reports to write today! I mean...oh, too bad... I'll have to stay home with the puppy and watch tv, and read, and write in my blog. sad times.

Snowboarding Fiasco

So, yesterday I got all geared up to snowboard. It was SUPER fun and I'm a pretty quick learner so it was going really well. The only problem was that I got a bit over confident.... I started going to fast and trying things and getting a little reckless. Winnipeg (friend nickname) and I were still only on the baby hills, but I was still able to be a little crazy somehow.

BEFORE: happy and innocent

AFTER: sad and defeated

I was in emerge for 5 hours waiting for everything. Oblique break in two spots of my ulna. Weak bones. Literally. I'm starting calcium supplements soon. Thankfully Winnipeg stayed with me. I'm sooo grateful for that! I don't think I could've gotten through the long long afternoon without her.

The craziest thing is that I'm totally going to go again! I'm just going to look into wrist guards, and better falling methods, haha. Winnipeg will take me whether she likes it or not! (I hope you read this Winnipeg, lol).

ps - this was a difficult and long typing process. stupid broken wrist.