Changes

Things have changed quite a bit in the last 6 months. Some of them have been pretty great, and others... not so much.

In April I got the news that my position was being cut in half at the end of June. While part of me jumped for joy at the though of a relaxing summer, the half that pays the bills was not impressed. I can't say I jumped into the job hunt, but I kept my eyes open. A very appealing opportunity presented itself, and I found myself getting excited at the possibility of returning somewhere that felt like home. Apparently 'home' didn't feel the same way. Being a girl was not in the job description.

Don't fear! Far better things have come my way. I LOVE my second job.

It's time to celebrate!

I'm ready for Christmas, who's with me? Oh don't worry, not ready in the "I've finished my shopping, baking, decorating, wrapping...." kind of way. I mean the "Is it time for a break yet?" kind of ready.

Things have been going really well. Work is great! I was able to baptize 2 of my Jr. High girls this weekend :) KIDstuf is chugging along.

I do have the majority of my shopping done, or at least ordered. There a a few people I'm still stuck on, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

I think the two things I look forward to most are Decorating and Baking! I put up the tree (fake :() this weekend. The stocking are up, mistletoe, garland, random animated trees and snowmen. It's pretty, but I miss the smell. I grew up with a real tree every year. I'm going to see if I can find a pine scented car freshener and hide in somewhere in the tree.

I haven't even thought about baking yet this year. Last year I had just started my job in October, and had almost 2 weeks of vacation time to use before January. I used that time to do all my decorating and baking and wrapping and shopping. It was a great year. I don't even know what I'm going to bake this year! I always like to try something new each year. The things that turn out really well turn into a staple. If they aren't so great, I pass them off to co-workers and family members to inhale. They are always tasty, but some make me happier than others. I need some ideas for this year. I have 4 days left of vacation time this year, so I'm using them between Christmas and New Years Day so if feels longer :)

Beautiful Weekend

This past weekend was preciously looong. I usually work Sunday to Thursday so I have Friday and Saturday off. With the Holiday on Tuesday I decided to switch the next week around a little as to have Monday and Tuesday off as well. It was almost a 5 day weekend, but I still had to be at work Sunday. Oh well. It was fantastic regardless.

Friday started off as usual. I didn't get to sleep in because Layla was ready to get up as soon as the Hubby did. Not too bad. I watched Grey's Anatomy from the night before ( thank you Hubby, I love to Tivo!) and then did a little work, but only of the e-mailing in my pj's sort of work. I was planning on driving out to my parents in the afternoon so I took a nice long shower, took my time getting ready, and then made the drive to my parents house by 2. They are trying to sell their house (great timing :P) so there was a showing at 3. I had to be out of there during the showing, and they were still at work so I went to the 'mall' I used to go to as a kid to browse the bookstore and kill some time.

Wholly crap things have changed. My little mall is now a shopping utopia. There were more shops than people, ok, that's not possible. There may have been a million people shoved into that mall. I used to whine and complain about how much I missed my city life. I grew up just outside Vancouver. When I moved to 'the city in the country' I was miserable with the slow paced, laid back crap. I wanted the buzz of the city. I still miss it, don't mistake my rant here. I love to sit back and watch people make fools of themselves when they think no one is looking. I love the sound of a busy road. I love the smell of a sidewalk vendor.

Simply put, I can't believe it changed without me :( I'm stuck in the booneis where the smells are cow crap, the sounds are dulled, and the people: well let's just say there's enough stupid to go around. And I don't even live in farm country! "The city in the country". Ha! We're getting there, it's not as bad as 8 years ago when I moved out here.

Aaaanyways. Back to my fabulous weekend. I wandered Chapters, bought a 'small stack' (we'll use my definition here, it was small... really!) of books and made an attempt at wandering the mall. It's difficult to wander when you either move with the flow of traffic or get run over. Since I had no specific destination in mind, I retreated back to my car and read until the friend I was meeting was done class and we could go for coffee. You know how good it is to spend time with someone you've known forever. Even if you don't see eachother often it's so easy to slip back into a rythym of conversation. We didn't even get to spend that much time together, but it was good.

I'm taking too long to write all of this, at this point no one cares to finish the rest. Quickly then. Saturday was a FULL DAY AT THE SPA with my mom. *sigh of contentment* It was amazing, and I have the softest everything. oh, and then I got to go out for dinner with some family for my cousin's birthday. It was good times.

Sunday I worked. woo.

Monday and Tuesday I sat around. That's it. It was beautiful.

California!

Alright, so here is the trip run down you have all been waiting for.

We took three days to make the drive down to LA. It was only 21 hours of driving time... the rest of those three days...shopping. Soo much shopping! I LOVE outlet malls! My husband loves nice clothes he doesn't have to shop for. It's a win-win situation.

The adventure all started when my SIL suggested we take a trip down to California to visit family and maybe check out Six Flags. It turned into an amazing all girls theme park, shopping, exploring adventure. It was fantastic. Four of us piled into my car and drove for hours on end. I loved it. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to strangle every one of them by the end of the trip, but I'd do it again. I love the three girls I went with. They made me feel old though. I was the only married one. I was the only one over 21. I was the only one without an N (driving restriction here in BC for all those far away readers). I was the only one without a $500 credit limit.

I may have been old, but I was no chicken when it came to theme parks! I have pretty severe vertigo that kicks in when I 'fall' or do the straight drop rides, so I avoided the Tower Of Terror. Everything else was game though. X2 at Magic Mountain was great, gave me a massive headache though.

More later!

I know I know Whatever

I'm so glad October is almost over. Don't get me wrong, I love Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving (Canadian remember), but this was the October from you-know-where.

September was AMAZING, which I promise to update you all on eventually. October was.. well... ridiculous. First of all I worked an average of 55 hours a week.... For 4 Weeks! I only had one weekend in town, the other three were held hostage at various other locations.

Week one was good, it was out youth leaders retreat. I had a great time, other than the fact that only 3 of the 10 leaders showed up. I wouldn't call it wasted time because I got to know those three quite a bit better, but it would have been nice to be home.

Week two I was back in California (yes back, I'll tell you all about it when we talk about September). This time it was for the National Youth Workers Convention. Amazing. I had a fantastic time. The only downside would by my 5 year old travel buddy. No, he isn't actually 5, but you could've fooled me. We get along just great at work, but NEVER again will I travel or spend any length of time trapped with this guy.

Conversation on the plan home:

Jon: We're sitting in the emergency exit seats
Me: Yup
Jon: There are pictures that tell you how to open the emergency doors, but they are going to tell us anyways.
Me: That's their job
Jon: It says port
Me: yup
Jon: Port
Me: *sigh*
Jon: Sortie haha
Me: I know you can't tell, but my ears are closed now.
Jon: No they aren't
Me: Let's pretend. Even though you can't see it, my ears are closed. *starts reading book*
Jon: Bla Bla Bla - carries on for about 5 minutes or so
Me: You forgot my ears were closed didn't you?

Weekend #3 was great, I was able to attend the service at my old church to hear 2 friends of mine preach. The spoke on God as a father. That day was the one year anniversary of the day one of the girls' father was murdered. He was an amazing man, and an amazing father. Her goal was to challenge men to be like that. I was a total sobfest. So good.

Weekend #4 might have been okay had the circumstances come together a little better. Thursday night for youth we went to the corn maze. We has a good number of kids come out and it was fun. The next two days we had to be at a leadership conference 4 hours away. And we had to be there before the morning. Which means we were driving until 2am, and had to start again at 7am. What did I get out of the conference... not a whole lot. I was one of the 4 'young people' sleeping in the back. Ok, I only fell asleep once. And it wasn't even that day. I didn't hit me all that hard untill the second day when I actually did fall asleep in one of the workshops. Most of the content didn't really grab my attention except for one speaker. Donald Miller. If you ever get the chance to hear him speak, do it. That was the one redeaming thing about this weekend.

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, tune in next time where I'll go back to writing like a sane person. This is what stress does to me. I revert to a review of my month. Sigh.

I should be fired

I apologize to anyone who relies on my blog to stay connected to my life. Also, to them I say "pick up a phone and call me! " To everyone else, "Who wants to hear about my summer?!"

Things have been really good!

I spent 2 weeks at my parents condo.... yeah, the deck walks out onto the beach.
The view from my window :)

I went with family which was a lot of fun. I shared a room with grandma for a few nights..she swallowed a kitten. Either that or there was a small missile going off in her nose every few seconds.
She would breath in like a normal person, but every breath out sounded like " Meeeeeew". No joke.

I read something like 8 or 9 books. Got a very nice tan.

I also perfected my Cosmopolitan..

Iron Man vs Indy vs Hancock vs Hulk

After a short break, I have returned. Things around here have not been particularly busy, I've just been a great big slacker.

There are certain movies that the Hubby and I have decided are 'theater' movies. Having worked at a movie rental store for just over three years, we learned to wait for free movies. I could rent 2 movies a day for free, so the only time we actually paid to watch a movie was when we saw it in the theater. For the most part we could wait for a movie to come to DVD before watching it. We tend to stick to the same practices even though I no longer get the free rentals. I guess it's better to pay $6 to see a movie at home than to pay $10 + $1,000,000 in gas to see it in the theater.

That having been said, there is a list. The list is of the movies we just have to see in theater. These basically consist of super hero movies and action movies. They are the kind of movies that would lose their appeal on a 42" T.V. The ones that thrive on Dolby Digital. For these we will pay the $1,000,010. Summer seems to be the worst for these movies, I think we've already been to 4 0r 5. Iron Man, Indiana Jones, Hulk, and Hancock.

Still to come this summer is Hellboy 2 and The Dark Knight.

Iron Man - 5 Stars! It was fantastic. I loved all the foreshadowing and the comedic banter between characters.

Indian Jones and the Crystal Skull- 4 Stars. It was entertaining the whole way through. I was pleasantly surprised that the filming was done in the same format as the original Indy movies. The characters were classic. The ending was a little too far fetched for me, I like the ones that were based on historical events.

The Incredible Hulk- 5 Stars! Well done! Again with the alluding to future films with the introduction of other comic book characters. Just enough love story, and truly fulfilling action sequences.

Hancock - 3 Stars. I say meh. It was entertaining. The story line was lacking. There was no enemy, no bad guy, ni negative force. Oh, and all the 'surprises' were given away in the trailers. Will Smith made the show. He filled the shoes just right.