Five Things In July

July - beginings

I really do mean to check in here more than once a week.

It can get a little crazy.

That's my life, alternating between nothing to talk about and no time to talk about it.

Almost July!

The weather of late has turned warm and wonderfully soup-y.  

It's humid like you wouldn't believe,

but I'm so happy, it's like being on vacation!

Mexico, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the humidity is how you know you've arrived!

(and we've got central air in our place, which is a wonderful respite)

I made this weekend work

So, my week(end) looked like this:

burgers from the diner (delicious! will go back!)

strawberries, a lot of them

two kinds of jam:

strawberry vanilla bean jam (favourite ever!)

perfect strawberry jam (not perfect, too runny)

these almond joy cookies (they were perfect)

a seriously awesome dinner of empanadas and salad

June Update

 

We're in one of those slumpy June weather weeks where everything is cold (for the veggies) and rainy.

I'm always ready for summer in June, but it's never ready for me.

I fall for it every year, like a sucker.

My mom and I went for a rainy hike anyway, we were wet and sweaty,

because even though it's wet it's still 17 degrees.

Coat+heat=sweat.

We went to my waterfall and once again the green of the rainforest took my breathe away.

It always will.

Summer Adventures #2

This past weekend Shane, Steph and I went for a grand adventure.  We packed our bags with sleeping bags and tents.  We carved walking sticks, and laced up our boots.  We drove into Hope and then 40kms into the Skagit Valley until we finally reached our trail.  The hike was magnificent, the forest inspiring.  It was the most beautiful hike/walk/sight I'd ever seen.  It took 11.5kms and 3.5 hours of bushwhacking, balancing, shimmying, gawking and general traipsing through incredible (and incredibly diverse) forest before we reached our campsite at Delacy Wilderness Camp.  We were lucky enough to see the wild rhododendrons in bloom, and wildflowers galore throughout our hike.  We spotted snakes and harlequin ducks and two very rowdy dogs.  We heard no cars/trucks/airplanes/trains/boats for 24 glorious hours.  Some of the best hours of my life.  

An Epic Begining

We have had the most ultimate start to June.  If these past ten days have been any indication to how our summer is going to go, it might just be the best ever.  

Best of May

Oh what a wonderful weekend

May Date Day

Oh, we had the best day.  

It was our May date, kayaking for the two of us.

We picked what might have been the only Tuesday of the entire year we were both home to take advantage of Tuesday's two for one deal.  

It was a cold and very wet morning, dark as can be when we set out on our first adventure kayaking.

The ocean water was salty and and calm in the inlet at Rocky Point.  

We paddled to the seals who floundered about on a pad of logs and swam in and out of the water.  

A little puppy face popped up right near Shane's boat and tagged a long as we rowed away.

We glided through the rain a few kilometers past factories of sulphur and shuffling trains.

We used our two hours to enjoy our perspective from down on the water.

When we got back to shore my hands were very cold.

May 17

This weekend was:
a full day and night of sleep
laser tag!
homemade Pad Thai, so good
a lemon macaroon pie
bowls full of ice cream (with chocolate shell of course)
moose tacos
short walks between the rains
lots of visits with family
very stressful exam week for Shane
a rip in my favourite jeans!

Whoa!

This week:

Marathon Recap

I ran in,

trained for

and completed 

a marathon.

And damn, now I'm proud.

May 2

Howdy folks!

I'm gearing up for an insane weekend at the moment.

I've got two more nights of work before the madness starts.

Real: April 26

Real talk.

It's a three day weekend for me.

I'm so jazzed!

It's spring! 

I'm so happy.

I had a good night sleep in my bed. Can you tell?

(Not a complaint)

What to say...

I’m exhausted

These night shifts are too much

It’s all consuming work, all the time.

My body obsesses over sleep.

I’m chronically tired, even with seven hours a night (day)

The days blur together.

Six long nights, six crappy sleeps, six fuzzy evenings.

Then one lone day off.

The highlight of my week, where for 24 glorious hours I don’t have to be at work all day.

Anniversary + (late) February Date

Shane and I celebrated our third year of marriage on Saturday past.  We did the things that were perfectly us and combined the celebration with February's date.  In summary: we slept in(!), ate mallorca, took our dog for a walk and then headed to Abbotsford.  Shane bought me a mug (I'm a huge lover of coffee mugs) and a sports bra (it was about time, how sexy right?) and bright pink running socks.  Our official February date was bouldering at the gym.  We didn't do all that well, it's much harder bouldering (climbing without ropes to a hight of thirteen feet) than rock climbing (with a harness), but we had a lot of fun anyways.  (Must do that again!)  For dinner we tried to get a table at a local Italian place, but it was packed and not really our speed anyway.  We defaulted to Cactus Club, like we usually do, but as always the food was great, so we won in the end.  Almost as soon as we got home I had to leave for work, and that was the end of a great day.

Spring!

It’s officially here, Spring. Rarely do I remember feeling the change of seasons so strongly. It’s typically indistinguishable from winter, possibly rising a few degrees, always with rain. This year was different. The rain stopped, the sun came. The temperatures are especially warm during the day and even with a clear sky the nights are not too cold. The flowers have taken a special shine to all the sunlight. Day by day I watch the tulips grow and the daffodils flourish. Overnight the magnolia came to life. Now the air smells sweet, of flowers and dirt, of fresh cut grass and smoky grills. Children run at the parks, everyone leaves their houses. Oh how different our communities would be if weather didn’t keep us inside.

Puerto Rico Journal Day 10 & 11

March 18:

Our sleep was terrible with a capital T. The air conditioner has the most terribly loud rattle, like a slowly imploding car. It was hot as hell (I imagine) and the bathroom was down the hall. The hallways are like saunas, with all the air conditioner exhausts pouring into them. I was up around 630 (pretty common on this trip), enjoying the views from the patios. The city was alive, drying off after a quick morning shower.  

Puerto Rico Journal Day 9

March 17:

We were already packed and ready to leave when we woke up the next morning. I made a papaya and banana frappe to use up the last of our rotting fruit. We gathered everything into Charlie and went to breakfast at a neat little place called Aromas. It sits in the heart of Luquillo, which is densely packed with cars. Cars everywhere, every spot on the street, corner to corner (and some around the corners). It sounds odd to describe it by the cars, but that’s all I could see!

Puerto Rico Journal Day 8

March 16:

The game plan for today was simple: snorkel. We stopped for breakfast at Erik’s gyro and deli. The food was pretty decent, but it took nearly 30 minutes to get our very simple breakfast. We drove to the Fajardo marina for a snorkeling tour with Spread Eagle Catamaran tours. We were the first to get there, and we started drinking pina coladas right away. (They had such little rum in them it was pitiful, no chance of getting tipsy here).

Puerto Rico Journal Day 7

March 15:

Our sleep the night before we terrible. I’m not sure if it was the fear of cockroaches or the loudness of the air conditioner, but we were awake a lot that night. I turned off the air conditioner and opened the shutters and light poured in. The air is so wonderful first thing in the morning. I sat on the patio to write.

Aaaaaand, I'm back.

Hello World.

It's been forever, but no time at all.  What is time really?  I'm baking cookies right now, they're these ones.  I haven't made a duplicate of any recipe from the book in the year and a bit I've been baking from it, but I wanted these.  And so I made them.  The batter is on my hands, it tastes great.

Puerto Rico Journal Day 6

March 14:

We finally have a good breakfast on the island at Tradewinds. There are beautiful views of the ocean, a sea breeze and endless cups of coffee. After a plate of huevos ranchos, we’re satisfied. We were a little sad on our last walk back up the hill. After a far too short time it was time to leave the island. A taxi whisked us away for a nauseating ride to the airport.

Puerto Rico Journal Day 5

March 13:

We spend another day at Sun Bay. Stocked up again on beer and plantain chips we walked to the far end of the beach. The walk took a long while, luckily with the clouds in front of the sun. It came out again just as we reached our resting spot and set our towels in the sand.

Puerto Rico Journal Day 4

March 12:

After a calm, low key morning spent on the patio of our guesthouse, writing and enjoying the breeze, we squeezed into our swimsuits and set out for our first day at the beach. The sun was strong and Max walked with us from the house, down towards the beach. We filled a borrowed cooler with ice and beer, which went down especially well under these conditions.  

Puerto Rico Journal Day 3

March 11:

We had our first breakfast at Cafe Mallorca. As predicted we ate mallorca. Breakfast was perfect, fresh squeezed orange juice and great cafe con leche. Mallorca is two slices of a sweet brioche, cheese and ham, grilled then sprinkled with powdered sugar. Eaten with a knife and fork.  

Puerto Rico Journal Day 2

March 10:

Our flight was tight. Five very long hours on a turbulent red eye. I felt awful, I could barely cross my legs. I know I shouldn't complain, I'd never give up the convenience of air travel, but could the not do anything more for comfort? While everyone was asleep around 2.5 hours into the flight, the worst possible thing happened; I threw up. I’m blaming it on the constant turbulence, as I am prone to motion sickness, but I’ve never actually vomited from it before. Shane was amazing, and I had had some serious food in my stomach. He held a makeshift bag (a paper bagel bag inside a ripped piece of plastic bag, no sick bags in our chair pockets) over his lap as it got heavier and warmer. If the noises I was making on the almost silent plane weren’t embarrassing enough, the stench sure was. No napkins or water to rinse my mouth. Totally awful, and mortifying. I love my husband, he kept his cool. The rest of the flight was agonizingly slow. And smelly.  

Puerto Rico Journal Day 1

We went to Puerto Rico! It was fabulous in so many different ways, but I nearly had a breakdown when we returned and it was 4 degrees and pouring rain. Each day was balmy, humid and beautiful. The food was delicious, the scenery gorgeous and the people wonderful. I wrote a daily journal, some days more thorough than others, but I thought I’d share.

On a Jet Plane

We leave on our trip for Puerto Rico tomorrow.  The hours are dragging by very slowly, that much is true.  We're almost totally packed, somehow everything fits into our carry on luggage. But of course we're taking way too much stuff, as per norm.  I always dream about traveling light, but realistically I can't seem to get by on less than 5 pairs of shoes.  Five dresses, three shorts, numerous shirts, you know right? I call it packing light when I can't fit my hair dryer in my purse.  (Like this time. Drat!) Hopefully everything goes smoothly, because if we end up having to check a bag I'll be pissed.  I didn't spend all this time and energy "packing light" if I could have packed a whopper of a suitcase.

Shane's Birthday & February Date Night

So it's been a few days already that Shane turned 29.  Let me tell you, he wasn't to thrilled about it.  We made it low key, just a special blip on the calender.  I made him a nice breakfast that he brought to school (blueberry muffins and glazed bacon). And I drove to Burnaby for lunch at Fatburger.  He lost his wallet and we went out for dinner.  For dessert we had ice cream cake.  All and all, fairly uneventful. Just how he wanted it.

Dear March

From last year

MARCH! MARCH! MARCH!!

I'm shouting.

I'm very excited.

Good bye February and your hard to spell name,

and good riddance!

I'm glad to see you go.

Right Now: February 27

February 23

Wow, this night shift thing is kicking my butt.

come on money money!

the hardest part of working night shifts is feeling too tired to run,

and when running, just feeling like fainting.

on the plus side, I have every evening to hang out with my family!

that part is awesome!

In the deep green forest

“Trees're always a relief, after people.”

Greetings from Mission Episode 2

We've been in Mission almost six months now.

To me that is crazy, six very speedy months.

We like our tiny house, 

Shane can do dishes in the kitchen and I can curl my hair in the bathroom while we have a regular decibel conversation about LOST.

The floor is swept and vacuumed in three minutes.

And the bedroom goes from clean to dirty as soon as Shane sets down his backpack.

But it suits us well.

V-day

Yesterday was Valentine's day, and we played it pretty low key. Shane got up early and made me the most adorable breakfast ever. Do you love it? I sure do!  We spent the day in Chilliwack, I gave him a book he had asked for, and these brownies.  We had dinner with Chris, Shane's brother who was visiting from Edmonton.  We bought chocolate on the way home and when we got to our front step we saw a package of cookies and a potted flower. (from our secret admirer maybe?)  Of course we just came home to watch four episodes of Lost. And done.

February Catch-up

Oh. my. 

How can it be the 13th already?

(I'm both shocked and very pleased)

What can happen in 8 days?

A lot apparently.

Chocolate Bundt Cake

I think I have chocolate fever.  Chocolate fever, can that be a thing? Or is that just February?  My mind has been a confusing place, I tell you.  I'm due to be bikini wearing in 32 days, but my delirious fever-y brain is demanding chocolate.  And my will power is questionable at the best of times!  I'm a giver-iner.  Poor Shane, I'm the finest example of a can't-win situation that ever was.  With my mind demanding chocolate I decided to make the chocolate-iest thing I could and it came up to this, which was, as it happens, very good.  It's a nice light chocolate cake.  My favourite part is definitely the glaze, I could eat spoon after spoon of it. (I'm not admitting to anything, but I must say, being the baker has it's perks).  Thankfully for everyone in my house I made only half this recipe, (which still made a huge cake!) and we're three days later with still a half a cake (body over mind! Only one slice a day!).  Go us?

February weekend 1.0

We started February on a good note this time around.  

The first beautiful sunny day of the month was Saturday.

We strapped on our snowboards and headed up the lifts with Kevin and Kim.

It was a very warm and beautiful day.

I'd call it a success even though we left after the power went out and the main chair was down.

Now we can go back with our free afternoon passes!

We had beers with beautiful views and a very overzealous server at Rowena's,
It was all lovely.

Dear February,

End of February 2012

Hi there February, I'm pleased to see you today.  I'm just wondering though, why I can't spell your name right, like ever.  I mean it's been 22 years and I still can't spell it, which probably means I'm saying it wrong.  I'm always glad to see your face after January's long 31 days of darkness, I really appreciate how short you are, I mean really.  That might sound like an insult, but I only sorta mean it that way because you see, who I really want to see is June, every other one of you is just in my way.  January though was something else, he's a penny pinching, calorie stealing, good for nothing joy suck.  Sure February, by contrast you're pleasant, you've got chocolate and flowers and birthdays, that's a huge plus in my books. But you are dark and cold and there are way more than 50 shades of grey out there.  Try a million.

Big News!

Hey!  I've got news: we got a new bed.  More news: it looks ridiculous!  Part of the settlement money we received from ICBC we spent on a new bed.  We so desperately needed one, ours was a very cheap ikea set I bought before I met Shane.  That means it was a piece of crap bed that was seven years old, so wonder Shane's back was always so sore.  The reason our bed looks ridiculous is because it's up to my waist, we both have to jump to get on.  And yesterday morning I fell off of it.  The frame we have sit about 12 inches off the ground and provides very essential storage for us under the bed (we live in 450 square feet, remember?), which makes the bed about 8 inches higher than it should be.  We're going to have to live with it until we move to a new place (next summer?), and maybe invest in a step stool.

The Weekend

Mom, Hunter and I spent the weekend in 100 Mile House (weird name for a town or what??).  Our reason for going was to see Natasha, (she drove down from Prince George) our reason for staying was the snow!  We had an amazing time playing in the snow and drinking in the sunshine.  There was plenty of great food and delicious treats, fun music and awesome kids.  Mom, Tash and I stayed one night at Spring Lake Ranch, in a two bedroom log cabin with a wood stove and amazing light.  We tried snowshoeing (awesome!) and cross country skiing (need to try again) and even some tubing (totally didn't work), all in the space of 20 hours.  We drank wine and gabbed, it was a much needed breath of fresh air.  

Our second night we spent with Mom's friend Andrea and her kids, who live in 100 mile.  The light in her house was incredible and overnight we were blessed with a thick layer of snow!  We relaxed and drank coffee and cuddled with their new Malamute puppy.  We gave Natasha her birthday gifts, ate cake and baked chocolate chip cookies.  Before we left we squeezed in a heavily snowed walk through the woods behind her house.  Talk about an awesome weekend.  I do believe I found my new happy place. (Sorry for the picture vomit!)

Mountain to Desert transition

January 23rd

I took a break yesterday.  A very intentional internet break.  I don't mean that I didn't use it, I couldn't do that, but I made a point to do only what was necessary.  Things like sending emails, looking up recipes, banking.  It came to me as I spent my second hour of the day sifting through pages of material for anything that caught my interest, that this wasn't a productive use of my time, it was a waste in fact.  I wrote this "I need to feel that I am right here, today."  I was January 23rd, the whole darn thing.  So I shut the computer and did all those things I always do, shower, run, drink coffee, clean, cook, but in a relaxed way.  I didn't rush through anything only to find myself back on the couch with computer in lap.  This was January 23rd (until work):

Ballin'

Since we last spoke, specifically about our car, a few things have changed.  We received our ICBC settlement, and they gave us a good deal more than we thought they would. Thank goodness for that!

January 14

We've been very lucky with some wickedly beautiful weather lately.  Very cold and very beautiful, I absolutely love it!  Here are some snapshots of our gorgeous January winter.

January Date Night

January 7

Oh my it's raining.  

A downpour all morning.  

"It's just rain" I told myself as I walked the dog. 

I was very wet.

Now my pants are drying, the floor has been mopped and my fluffy wet dog is napping.  

Adventure?

I can officially say the new year has started off with a bang.  Literally.  A very loud bang.  It all started on Friday evening, at 6pm, while we were sitting on the couch, immersed in an episode of Lost, quietly minding our own business, when we heard a loud bang.  Now we live on the backside of a house in the basement, so we figured the noise was from upstairs, them having children and all.  Five minutes later there is a knock at our door and our landlady is telling us that our car was just smashed by a van that took off.  We flew out the door to see the damage and were horrified to see our car sitting 90 degrees from where we parked it with the front quarter smashed in and the axel bent.

Right Now: January 3