I copied this from Lisa’s site - thanks Lisa for the great idea!

1. What did you do in 2006 that you’d never done before? Moved off the island!
2. Did you keep your new years resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Um, well I don’t usually stick to them, so I gave up on making them
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? No I don’t think so… I know several people who have had babies this year, but no one who is super close to me
4. Did anyone close to you die? No, thank goodness
5. What countries did you visit? Just the USA. We went to Hawaii which was so much fun in May, then we drove across the border a couple times to go to Washington. Once was to go to a couple scrapbook stores, and once was to go to the CK Convention. Hehe, isn’t Brent great for driving me to the States just for scrapbooking stuff? (oh and we did make a special trip to the Sephora store in Bellevue that time. The traffic was so terrible it ended up taking us about an hour to go 4 blocks. I was not too popular that day). And next week we are driving to California to attend CHA!!!
6. What would you like to have in 2007 that you lacked in 2006? I would like to have my parents visit more often (hint hint, are you reading this Mum?)
7. What dates from 2006 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Jan 17, we moved to Vancouver and started a new life here. Feb 1 - our first anniversary! First week of July - I spent in Toronto with my sister and her family. August - I spent a couple weeks back home in Victoria with my whole family (my parents and my sister and her family). August 19 - my bunny “Buddy” died. October - Scrap Galaxy was born
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Scrap Galaxy!!
9. What was your biggest failure? Not getting to the gym as much as I planned to, or should
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Of course, who doesn’t have something wrong? I think we all have our share of problems especially as we get older. I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. I was diagnosed with it last July. It didn’t come as a huge shock to me though as I have been living with it for 10 years now and I had a sneaking suspicion that I had AS for the past couple years. It is just hard to get a diagnosis for it, especially for women. Yeah I shed a few tears when I left my specialists office that day, but then I thought, well I have it, at least I know what is wrong with me now, and there is absolutely nothing I can do that will ever take it away, so I just have to deal with it and live my life. It could have been worse right? There is always someone out there that has it way worse.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Oh probably our new tv - its a 48 inch plasma - GORGEOUS!
12. Whose behavior merited celebration? hmmm…. I’ll have to think on this one
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? Appalled and depressed? Well perhaps someone from my past, but lets not get into that …
14. Where did most of your money go? Probably to scrapbook supplies….lol
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Our trip to Hawaii!!!
16. What song will always remind you of 2006? Promiscuous Girl, by Nelly Furtado
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier, about 5-10 pounds thinner, poorer
18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I wish I went on more long walks with the dogs, went to the gym more, spent more time visiting with my family, written daily in a blog or journal
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Wasting time…
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Next year? I have no idea right now…
21. Did you fall in love in 2006? Yes, with Vancouver. LOL
22. How many one-night stands? I better not say. JUST KIDDING
23. What was your favourite TV program? There are a few that my PVR is programmed for: Desperate Housewives (all time fave), Big Love (awesome awesome show - new season supposed to be starting soon), King of Queens (so funny), 2 and a half men (even funnier - the one with the big lips still makes me howl)
24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I can’t say that I actually HATE anyone
25. What was the best book you read? Oh my goodness, I haven’t read any books since the summer I think. Just been so busy lately. Actually not true. This last week I have read 4 books: The Ultimate Guide to Disneyland, Frommers Disneyland, Unofficial Guide to Disneyland and Anaheim, and Hidden Disneyland. See a trend here?
26. What was your greatest musical discovery? My niece! At only 4 years old, the kid has a perfect pitch! I actually took some videos of her with my digital camera of her singing - she has an amazing voice - future professional singer for sure!
27. What did you want and get? my website, hehe
28. What did you want and not get? A wishblade
29. What was your favourite film of this year? Well, that I went and saw in the theater, probably Devil Wears Prada
30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 29 in November. I went back to Victoria and one night I went out with my friends - we did the bar scene which I haven’t done in YEARS - oh wow, was it fun!! I didn’t get home until 4am. Fun times. The next night my parents took me out for dinner - very yummy and I discovered a new local restaurant there that is now a favorite!
31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? It was quite satisfying as it was
32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2006? Casual most of the time. The other time, I am in my gym clothes. Love that Lululemon attire.
33. What kept you sane? Sugar. Yep I know. How lame is that. But I need it, I crave it. Ever since Halloween I have been on one sugar high after another
34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? not sure about this one
35. What political issue stirred you the most? I’ll come back to this one too
36. Who did you miss? I miss not being close enough to my parents that I can just drive over to their house on a whim. Now I have to take a ferry and with my dogs, it turns into quite an ordeal.
37. Who was the best new person you met? I have met more people this year than I have every other year in my life I think!! I met a bunch of new people when I transferred here with my job last year - all my new coworkers and they were great! The 2 people that stand out the very most though are Jodi and Lisa. Jodi lives across the street from me and she rescued me my first day of taking the bus into the city - I was at the wrong bus stop. We can do quite the power shopping trips the two of us, well actually, the 3 of us! Me, Jodi and her 7 year old daughter Dasha! Lisa, I met online through ScrapGalaxy - although she is on the other side of the world, we are so similar it is funny! We have a blast chatting it up on MSN and we have talked on the phone too. I have met so many other great people too - the girls who are part of the scrapbooking meetup group I belong to here locally, and all the fabulous people I have met through Scrapgalaxy! You all know who you are!!
38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2006? Sometimes you just need to take a chance. If you want something bad enough, go for it.
39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. I will think about this…

What an eye opener today was for me. I did a ride along with Brent in the ambulance from 1:00pm until midnight. He was working right downtown Vancouver – the East Side, which is known as the “not so nice” part of town. That is putting it mildly. It was a relatively uneventful night – especially for a Friday night. We only got to drive Code 3 (lights and sirens) twice. That was the most exciting part for me. I loved being able to race through traffic and watch as all the cars moved over and stopped for us. So cool!!!However, the not so cool part was seeing things that I don’t normally see, and things I don’t normally think about. We drove down several dark alleys, full (and I mean full) of people, mostly addicts. From the safety of the ambulance (with doors locked of course) I saw drug deals taking place, and some other not so nice things. Each call we went on, and each person that I watched Brent attend to, has left a small impact on me in some way, some left a bigger impact. We first went to the hospital to transfer an 89 year old Punjabi man to a rehabilitation hospital. He suffered a stroke and still hadn’t regained the use of his right side. He also didn’t speak or understand a word of English. Apparently he has been living here for almost 20 years! How is it possible to live here for 20 years and still not speak or even understand English?? His daughter in law was there though and she translated to him, she also followed us to the rehab center so she could translate again to the staff there. Kudos to her, what a remarkable daughter in law! Next we went to a community sort of center (icky) to see a 50 year old schizophrenic who hadn’t taken his meds for a couple days and was thinking about hurting himself or someone. 2 cops were there with him and since he was a psych patient, one of the cops rode in the back of the ambulance with the patient and Brent, and I sat up front with Ian (Brent’s partner who was driving tonight). The guy didn’t get violent, but you never know with psych patients. We ended up waiting awhile with him at the hospital. The cop waited too and he was really nice. He tried to convince me that it would be more exciting doing a ride along with them then it would be with the ambulance. By the way the night went, I am beginning to think he was right! Next we got called to a “3 house fire”. Lights and sirens!!! 6 fire trucks were there on the scene – roads blocked off. How cool it was to be able to drive right through. It turned out to be a garage fire only and they had it out about 30 minutes after we arrived. Luckily no one was hurt, so we headed back to headquarters. The next call was a transfer from the hospital to a care home. We picked up this man who was about 72 or so (who had a hip replaced several months ago and was just in the hospital for a procedure) – he talked a lot but was friendly and harmless. He lived at this care home (which was more just like a hospital) but he seemed to be happy there. He talked about it fondly and said they feed them well there. We got there and it was not a great place. He shared a room with 3 other men and it was nothing more then a regular hospital room. No privacy whatsoever. Stark…bare….sad…. well, it made me sad. He seemed happy to be “home” though. The few other patients I saw there were simply sitting in their wheelchairs staring blankly at something. Lifeless. It made me wonder what kind of life this man had before coming here. If this seemed like such a great place to him, my goodness, I can only imagine what he has been through.

Onto the next call, to a skuzzy hotel. We were told to wait outside in the ambulance until the police who were on scene came out and gave us the go ahead to go inside. When it was ok to go in, we trudged up this dingy stairwell where all the stairs were uneven and sagging. I thought they might crumple right underneath us. 2 cops were with us and we went up to find a 62 year old man in the hallway. Drunk and had a nice big gash at the back of his head. Seems he got into a fight with someone. This was an odd one. He lived at this trashy place and had dirty clothes on. However at the hospital he took out a wad of cash from his pocket and had about $1000 on him! He wasn’t cooperating at first with Brent and didn’t want to go to the hospital even though Brent told him he needed stitches. One of the cops stepped in and told the man to be quiet and listen to Brent. Oh and they found a knife on him too. (Brent and Ian did, not the cops). He finally started to cooperate so we took him to the hospital. Next was a call for a 40 year old lady who was nauseous and throwing up. Lovely. We pick her up from another not so great building (although not as bad as the previous one) – she is all skin and bones. She was moaning that her head hurt and she was feeling sick and it was like pulling teeth while Brent was trying to get information out of her. She was trying to make herself throw up which was just disgusting. Then she admitted she did crystal meth earlier and then had a few drinks. Off to the hospital we go. We got called to check on a guy who was wrapped up in a blanket sleeping at the back of a parkade. Someone passed by and thought he was dead, so they called 911. He was just sleeping. Poor guy, he only looked like he was in his 20’s. He was wrapped tight in a blanket, had a couple sweatshirts on, and had a bag of chips beside him. Brent and Ian woke him up and just asked him if he was ok. He said he was so we gave him a couple emergency survival blankets, then we left. All this made me so thankful for what I have. I am thankful for my family, thankful that I have people who I love very much and that they love me back, I am thankful for my friends. I am thankful for my pets. I am thankful for my house and that I have a warm place to be every night. I am thankful for the clothes in my closet and the food in my fridge. I am thankful that I am relatively healthy (I have a disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis – it affects my spine and sacro iliac joints. There is no cure and I will have it for the rest of my life. But to look at me, you would never know anything is wrong.). I am thankful I can walk and take care of myself. I am thankful I have no addictions (well, unless you count candy or things with sugar….). I am thankful that I have a warm cozy bed to sleep in every night. I am thankful that I have a car. I am thankful for everything that I have. I don’t want to take things for granted anymore.

Wow, my own Blog. Finally I have joined everyone else and started my own Blog. Blog- what a funny name, I wonder who came up with it. Anyway, today is September 21, 2006. My Grandma’s birthday- Happy Birthday Grandma! It’s also Brent’s mom’s birthday too! Happy Birthday Suzanne! Oh- and isn’t it the first day of fall too? Or is it the last day of summer….. Its funny cause last week it was still scorching hot and now its so much cooler and rainy. The wonderful Vancouver rainy season has started.

Here are some pictures of us:

The first pic was taken in Victoria, the 2nd was taken at the Grand Hyatt in Hawaii

Now, back to my blog….

Never keep chocolate in the house. Actually never keep sweets of any kind in the house. I swear they call out to me until I gobble them all up. There is a bag of glossette raisins over on the table and I can hear it whispering my name. They aren’t even that good, yet I still find myself making a detour to the table everytime I get up. Bad chocolate. Is there really such a thing as bad chocolate? Yes, yes there certainly is.

I am so proud of Angus. He (and Zoey too) have been so good for so long now- no accidents in the house. They actually TELL us when they want to go out. What a concept!!!! Angus has a habit though of waking us up in the middle of the night (and it always seems to be me who ends up taking him out). He paces back and forth in the bedroom and then goes and scratches on the door. But at least he is letting us know!!! And its so much better then a year ago when we were in the condo and he’d just lift his leg on the corner of the bathroom door. Yeah, wasn’t that lovely. We have to keep all the doors in our house closed at all times because of Gracie the peeing cat. Yep, that is how I refer to her now: Gracie the peeing cat. She pees on beds. ANY bed. She especially loves ours though. She was doing so well for about a week and we were letting her sleep in the room with us. Then all of a sudden, I find a huge wet spot on the duvet. ERGH! I immediately threw the duvet in the washer. I know, its probably not good to wash the duvet, but it costs like $50 bucks to have it drycleaned. The other couple times I washed it, it was fine, but this time it must have gotten snagged on something in the washer cause there is a hole ripped in it. We didn’t even notice it until we found all these feathers and fluff all over the bed. hehe.

Angus is on the couch right now looking at me. He is so damn cute!! I just love him to bits.

Woohoo- tonight there are new seasons starting for good shows- ER, CSI, Grey’s Anatomy. Well, I don’t really watch Grey’s Anatomy. I wonder why I just said “don’t really”, its more like “not at all”. LOL. I think I’ve watched about 5 minute portions of the show a few times between channel surfing. I’m going to start watching it though, I’ve heard its an awesome show. At least now we have PVR (Like Tivo) so I can tape all kinds of things and watch them later.

I can’t wait for Desperate Housewives to start again- just LOVE that show, LOVE it.

So we went on a trip last weekend up North. A camping trip. Are we crazy??? Yeah, I guess we are kinda. I was so used to the nice weather we had down here that I wasn’t even thinking up North = COLD. I was so used to wearing shorts and tank tops at home, that I even packed capris and t-shirts to take camping. LOL. Its a damn good thing that I also packed lots of sweatshirts and fleeces, cause I was wearing 2 shirts, and 2 fleeces to bed everynight. The first night we woke up to find the tent covered in ice. Yes, ICE. We were sleeping in a friggin IGLOO.

We were also in the middle of nowhere at a campground we found down a logging road. It was beautiful though- right on Cariboo
Lake. I never even heard of Cariboo Lake before. We were 30 minutes down the logging road from the nearest town. If you can even call it a town. It had a population of 300. Town of Likely- consisted of one general store, and a pub located inside of the Likely Hilton Hotel. Certainly unlike any other Hilton I’ve seen. See the pic below.Ok, gonna sign off for the moment. Stay tuned for more stories of our Great Northern Camping Trip!!!

Those damn glosette raisins are chirping again……

posted by Jess @ 1:31 PM

Hmmm…the pic I posted of the magnificant Likely Hilton didn’t show up, so I’ll try posting it again. I just realized they have a gym at the hotel. Take note of the treadmill sitting outside the window. Now that’s classy.

 

Here is a pic of our igloo…er…tent.

Yesterday I had my eyebrows done- had them threaded actually. First time I ever had them threaded. I am cautious about going to new places to have them done as I have had some not so great experiences before- even at higher price spas. One time I got burnt- like really burnt. The temperature of the wax was way too high and damn did it hurt! The skin above my eyebrows and in between my brows was bright red- scorched- for days afterward and it HURT like mad.

So since moving to Vancouver I hadn’t ventured out to find a new eyebrow place yet. A couple of my friends recommended this place so since I was in the area yesterday I stopped in. I drove up to the salon and saw huge signs all over the windows that said “LADIES ONLY. NO MEN ALLOWED TO ENTER”. Hmmm… interesting. I briefly wondered how a business with the opposite signage would fare. (MEN ONLY- NO WOMEN ALLOWED TO ENTER). I’m thinking- not very well.

So I decide to go in and ask the girl at the counter if I need to make an appointment to get my eyebrows done. She says I just have to have a seat. I waited not even a minute before I got called. Not bad. The place was busy too. It was like I had stepped into
India. All the women working there were from India- as well as all the other customers except for me. And they had the Indian music playing quite loudly throughout. So I sat in the chair, the girl reclined it, and here I was about to have my first threading experience. It was different- wow, was it ever. It felt so odd!!! She was so quick and yeah it hurt. My friends warned me that it hurt more than waxing. But the pain was over instantly- it didn’t linger like the pain from waxing does. I was done in about 2 miuntes. Ok, maybe not that quick- maybe 3 minutes. And the best part- it was only $2.50!!!!!!!!!! How is it possible to find anything that cheap these days??? I used to pay $15-20 to get my eyebrows waxed at other places and they didn’t do as good a job as this threading girl did. I paid, then rushed out to the car to look in the mirrow. Amazingly, my skin was not all red and sore like it always is after I have my brows waxed. This was great!!! I will be back here for sure!

Originally posted on September 25, 2006

Ok, its super late, but I am loving this blog thing and I just had to come write something today! I realized I haven’t finished writing about our glorious camping trip from last week. Ok, where was I?

The first night: we stayed in the middle of nowhere. I may have already mentioned this once or twice, but this was a BIG deal! 30 minutes down a logging road to the nearest town- Likey, population 300. Remember the photo of the Hilton? Yep, I know. And then Likely was an hour away from the nearest city, or what I would call a city up North. It was still tiny, but they had grocery stores, a tiny mall, but NO Walmart. So I guess that really does show they are a small town. lol

So our campground- really beautiful- right on Cariboo Lake. Like RIGHT on the Lake- you took a few steps out of our campsite and you were on the beach. There were about 5 campsites in total, one of which there was another couple staying at - in their camper. Oh, I was so envious. They left the next morning though so we really had the place to ourselves basically. We were roughing it though. Pit toilets, no showers, no running water. Ugh.

It got SOOOO cold the first night. And to think I actually brought shorts with me- HA!!! What an idiot. I was wearing 2 shirts and 2 fleeces to bed each night, and when I wasn’t wrapped tightly in my sleeping bag with 3 blankets piled on top, I had my winter coat on OVER the two fleeces. And gloves and scarf too. I lost one of my gloves for a few hours and geez was I pissed.

We have this great tent- it’s high quality, light weight and meant for when you’re backpack camping, but its tiny. It is supposed to be a 3 person tent but I don’t see how the hell you could fit 3 people in there, its tight enough with us two. We can barely sit up inside it let alone stand. We have these mattress pads called Thermorests for when we hike cause they don’t take up much room and they’re light. Thats cause they are like half an inch thick!!! You can still feel every rock underneath the tent when sleeping on those things. So last time we car camped we went and bought a blow up air mattress to make things more comfortable. It does help somewhat. Must remember to inflate the mattress INSIDE the tent. Yep, made that mistake once. lol! The door to the tent is so small, we couldn’t fit the mattress inside it once it was inflated. It’s a double size mattress and it barely fits in the tent. It really is more like a twin size, seriously. So we get our stuff set up in the tent and it was really cold, so so cold. And to think the day before at home, it was still scorching hot. I went from sleeping under a thin sheet at home cause it was so stifling, to sleeping under 10 layers in the friggin arctic the next night.

To make things all the more lovely for my fabulous sleep, we had put the tent on a bit of a slope, a downwards slope, which happened to be on my side of the tent. All night long, I kept rolling off so I was awake trying to hold myself on this silly air mattress. It was so uncomfortable. Having to sleep on the double (I still swear it is a twin size) mattress was a pain too. We are used to sleeping in a King size bed at home, and with 2 dogs joining us, the King size feels too small sometimes. Yeah, they’re small dogs, but we all like to spread out. Oh and did I mention the dogs were sleeping in the tent with us? On the mattress with us? In the sleeping bags with us? All the more cozier. Actually they were like little hot water bottles for us. We both fought over who got the dogs, since there were two, we compromised and each took one. The poor dogs were cold too, when we got up the next morning, they got out of the tent long enough to go to the bathroom, then they climbed back into the tent and snuggled up under the blankets. Ah, such city dogs.

We spent that whole day in the campsite, not leaving once for the ENTIRE day. I think it was the longest day of my life. Brent had some fun fishing though, although he only caught a few small trout. I tried to read but didn’t get much done. We only had a certain amount of food with us, so we ended up having Kraft Dinner for lunch, and Pork and Beans, Instant Mashed potatoes and Chef Boyardee Ravioli for dinner. Oh yeah, it started raining too, right as we were making dinner. Then it poured. So we made a mad dash for the tent with our bowls of food. That was funny- all 4 of us sitting in the tent (practically on each others laps it was such close quarters), eating crap food out of our superior bullet proof dishes. At least if anything happens- the dishes will be safe! I don’t think we’ll ever eat instant mashed potatoes again. The highlight of our meal was the Ravioli.

So we ate then we sat there cause there wasn’t anything to do. It was either sit in the tent or go sit in the pouring rain. I chose the tent. We all did actually. So we sat there and played Uno. After 2 games of that, total boredom set in and we decided just to go to sleep.

Oh yeah, I forget to mention poor Brent’s lowlight of the day. While he was fishing, the hook got caught on a log underwater. The end of his fishing pole broke off and then the line broke and he lost his favorite hook. Or is it called a lure? Whatever. He was so upset. Well mad. No, upset. Ok, both. He stormed back to the campsite and had a bit of a pout. He was ok like an hour later.

We went back to the store in Williams Lake the next day - where he bought the fishing rod- and they exchanged it for another one. Then he was really happy again!

We continued further north to Quesnel. (Pronounced Quennel by the way. I kept saying Queznel and thoroughly embarrassed myself a couple times). But really, if its supposed to be pronounced like Quennel, why don’t they spell it that way? Why spell it with an S. Who uses a silent S?? A silent T or a silent P, but a silent S???? So we continue on to Barkerville- the old Gold Rush town that is now a tourist attraction. I had been looking forward to coming here. We made it 1 week before they were closing for the season so there weren’t many people there. Some, but not many. A bit disappointing in that some of the stores and businesses that were supposed to be open were closed. Oh well, we had fun anyway. We stayed about 3 hours then we went to this small hole in the wall town called Wells - to get something to eat cause we had a long logging road drive ahead of us. There was only 1 restuarant open in Wells, there were only 2 that we saw. It was like a roadhouse family restaurant, where all the locals hang out. Too funny. Totally old decor- it was stepping back in time. But the food was actually really good. The next journey was our drive back to the campground- this time all on a loggin road- 2 hours of logging road. Oh yeah, and in the pitch black. I thought Brent was driving quite quickly and it was freaking me out cause I was so worried some animal was going to jump in front of us and a) we’d hurt the animal and b) we’d probably get in a huge accident and kill ourselves. So it was a bit of a terrifying ride back. The road was very bad in some areas and really bumpy. Of course we got a flat tire. Wouldn’t you be surprised if I had said we made it without a flat tire? Brent didn’t discover it until we got back to the campsite so we’re not even sure how long we were driving on it like that.

Since it started raining once again, we left it until the next morning, when Brent put the little spare on. Then we drove all around with that silly tire on the car, hoping we wouldn’t get another flat cause then we’d really be hooped. We spent all morning trying to find a good spot on Quesnel
River (there’s that stupid silent S again) for Brent to fish. No luck. So we drove down another very long logging road to Quesnel Forks. It turns out this spot was our favorite of our whole trip. So secluded and so beautiful. It is an old ghost town so there are actually buildings still there. Small houses and stuff. Brent went fishing in the river and caught lots of fish! He releashed them all back into the water.

Ok, so that was our trip. It is super late here, so I gotta get to bed. I will post more pictures of our trip later.

posted by Jess @ 1:17 AM originally written September 26, 2006

Pictures from our trip!

 

 

This was a rest stop we stopped at on our way up North. It was a beautiful area and they had a hydro dam right there.

 

 

Angus and Zoey posing for a picture at the same rest stop.

 

Some scenery along the way

 

 

Beautiful
British Columbia. I feel so lucky to live here

 

Our campsite atCariboo
Lake - in the middle of no where (well it sure felt like it)

Our campsite again - yes that was thelake
RIGHT behind it!

 

 

Here is the lake…so peaceful…

…so beautiful…

 

…so cold!

 

Two little dogs sitting on the beach…

 

Here is Brent fishing on a little pier we made. This is also the spot where he broke his fishing rod. So this pier was never used again after that happened….

 

Brent trying to “make fire out of nothing”. Answer to the question you’re probably thinking: No, it didn’t work. But that was probably because it started to pour with rain only minutes after this photo was taken.

 

I found this cool little rock statue someone had made and left on the beach. There were several of them around.

 

Candyland!!! This store was on the way to Barkerville - so of course because of my love for anything made of sugar - we had to stop!

 

The Historic town of
Barkerville.

Here is a skit that took place in the middle of the town while we were walking through. All the people who work at Barkerville are actors, so they are always in character. It really felt like we had stepped back in time

 

Here I am trying to touch one of the horses in the Barkerville stable.

 

We wanted so badly to see a real wild moose while we were up north but sadly, this was the only one we saw - and he was mounted on the wall inside the Barkerville Hotel. So you know, somehow it just wasn’t the same…..

 

The Ghost Town of Quesnel Forks.

 

Brent fishing atQuesnel
River

 

My Zoey sitting on the beach

Here is Angus asleep in the car leaning against Zoey.

The car at the start of our trip. See Angus peeking out the window at us? He was wondering why we had gotten out of the car and left them in it. We had just stopped quick to get out to take some pictures of the mountains.

Wow, look at this filty car!!! This was the day after our long ride back along the logging road - and after the flat tire - take note of our lovely little temporary wheel on the back there - stylish isn’t it?

 

Blog Challenges

I haven’t done any of the blog challenges yet so I thought I better start on some.

What are 5 places you’d like to see/visit in your lifetime and why?

1. Definetly I want to see all of Canada. One day I’d love to drive all the way across it - all the way to
PEI and Newfoundland. I want to see everything!

2. Europe: Italy, France, Spain, and Hungary - where my roots are. My dad was born there but I have never been yet.

3. Australia: Always wanted to go. I want to see the koalas and kangaroos And Lisa lives there!

4. Africa: Another place I’ve always wanted to visit. Seeing all the wild animals such as elephants, giraffes, lions, etc in their natural habitats would be amazing.

5. Cook Islands - I read an article once on this place and ever since I’ve really wanted to go - it looks beautiful from the pictures I’ve seen.

Next Blog Challenge:

Blog about something you are looking forward to. It can be something tomorrow, next week, next year…..

I’m always looking forward to stuff, you sort of have to or life just isn’t much fun is it? How sad it would be to never have anything to look forward to.

I look forward to things on a daily basis. From little things like when I wake up in the morning I look forward to breakfast (cause I love eating! ) and eating in front of the tv while I watch one of my shows that I PVR’d the night before.

I look forward to seeing my family and friends when they come for visits or if I go there.

I look forward to sales at my LSS!

Things that are a bit further down the road that I’m looking forward to:

- Christmas of course and being able to decorate my house.

- The next time I will get to see my sister and her family (they live inToronto)

- one day having kids of my own

1. Where has your best ever vacation been at? What made it the best?

~There have so many actually. We went on a lot of fun vacations when I was a kid and they were all really great. Since then the only real vacation I have been on was last May when we went to Hawaii - that was a lot of fun too.

2. Do you have a yearly vacation that is always at the same place? If so, where?

~Nope. But we did go to DisneyLand and Disney World a lot when I was younger. Those were awesome trips!

3. Did you and your family take a “family vacation” every year when you were growing up? If so, where was it?

~Yes but they were usually to different places. Like I mentioned in the above answer, we did do a lot of Disney trips but we also went to other places in between - and sometimes we went to other places on the same trip- either on our way to Disney or on our way home. Some trips that really stand out were ones to YellowStone National Park, Mexico, and once we did a road trip through the Eastern US States - New York, Massechusettes, Vermont, Pennsylvania (and we went to Amish Country!!), etc. I have a lot of wonderful memories from that trip - and some funny ones too

4. Do you remember any vacation disasters?

~There were some, like my dad getting severly sick in Mexico while we were there. And once when we were in Florida, the airlines lost my luggage. I was 12 at the time and all I had were the clothes on my back. They did find my bag but not until 4 days later!

Recently though, I think the biggest “disaster” of our trip to Hawaii was when Brent got sunburned real bad. We went snorkling all day and he went way off for hours just bobbing along in the water and he had FORGOTTEN to put sunscreen on his back.

Later when we got back to our condo, he wasn’t feeling so great - I had noticed he wasn’t quite himself on the car ride back - he was acting strange - like giddy almost. :bounce: He said he wanted to lie down and I left to get a pedicure. When I got back he looked terrible! He got up and said “I think I got a sunburn” and he turned around and his back was BRIGHT RED!!! As in LOBSTER red! I rushed to the drug store to get some aloe vera skin recovery lotion. We had plans that night to go to a nice restaurant for dinner but we didn’t make it. Brent had sunstroke as well and was sick to his stomach all night. I ended up going to pizza hut of all places and getting a pizza and spent the night watching tv by myself while Brent was passed out on the couch. His sunburn was so bad though, that the next day he couldn’t even wear his backpack cause it hurt so much to have it on his back. Even having a shirt on was painful for him.

Where do you get your inspiration from?

Everywhere. Magazines, books, tv commercials, people, songs on the radio. Sometimes just watching my dogs play even!

What memory do you treasure most?

There isn’t just one memory. There are lots of memories that really stand out from my childhood. I had a really happy childhood, I thank my parents for that. They worked very hard to give us what we needed and more. I think they probably sacrificed a lot for us. I remember going on fun family trips, having great birthday parties, and happy times at Christmas together. And then all the in between everyday stuff - like my dad and I building cages and outdoor heated structures for my menagerie of guinea pigs and rabbits.

And my mum and I making frequent trips back and forth between Victoria and Whistler while my parents owned a restaurant there. There are lots and lots of great memories, thanks Mum & Dad

Here is a rather sad memory that I also hold quite close to my heart. Almost 8 years ago now my Grandpa died - we knew it was coming but it was still difficult. The year leading up to his death I was still in college and for several months I was taking some day classes and some night classes and one day a week I had a 2 or 3 hour break around dinner time between classes. I went over to my grandparents house for dinner every single week during that break between classes. It was just me and them and I loved it. I remember them being so good together - such a great couple - and very loving towards each other. They would joke back and forth and they made me laugh but I could tell how much they loved one another.

Then my Grandpa started going downhill pretty fast. I remember the exact days that I last saw and spoke with him before he fell into a coma which led to him dying only days after that. The thing is, I know he was very sick and in a lot of pain, but whenever he saw me, he would smile and be happy and he’d never let on he was in any pain around me. He’d hold my hand and tell me he loved me. A couple days later I got a new job that I really wanted and I went over to my grandparents right after I found out. I was so excited - I went right into the kitchen where my grandpa was sitting at the table and I blurted out “Grandpa! I got the job!”. I remember his whole face lit up and he said “Did you sweetie! That’s wonderful!”. I don’t even think he knew what job I was talking about but he wanted to be happy for me cause he saw that I was happy.

That was the last time I got to speak with my Grandpa, he fell into a coma the next day. He died on Valentine’s Day. I really miss him a lot and I’m sad that we lost him so soon. I think about him often and treasure the memories of him that I have.

Ok, now for the last Blog Challenge I’m going to do tonight.

Think back to 5 years ago….was your life very different than it is now? Did you think then you would be where you are today? If you could do anything over again to do it differently - would you?

5 years ago my life was VERY different than it is now. There isn’t much actually that is the same. Back then I would never have thought I’d be where I am today - for many reasons. First of all, I never would have even imagined living anywhere but my hometown where I lived my whole entire life.

5 years ago I was living with my parents still. Since then I have owned a house, a condo and now a townhouse and I have moved to another city.

If I could do anything over again would I? Probably not. And I say that because I believe that things happen for a reason. For a few years I had some very difficult times, times that I wouldn’t wish on anyone and there is no way you could pay me to re-live some of them. Those are times and memories that I try hard to bury away but they still haunt me occasionally. But I keep thinking to myself that there must be reasons that I went through them - obviously I have learned from them. And if I hadn’t lived my life the way it happened, and gone through the things I went through, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I might not have met Brent or moved to Vancouver, or lots of things. I am happy with where I am in my life, so I’ve just gotta leave the past as the past.

 

What a day!! We have gotten majorly dumped on with snow over here on the West Coast. I just had the dogs out in it and I tried to take some pictures but it was dark, snowing still, and I was getting pulled in 2 different directions by the dogs so it was difficult. I managed to get a few but they aren’t very good.

Angus and Zoey LOVE this snow - it surprises me actually cause they hate the rain and getting wet. They love bounding around in the snow bluffs but then as soon as we come in, they try to dry themselves off on the towel and then they are right in front of the fire on their big pillow. Lol!

Here are a few pics:

Me and my best friend.

Brent took this one a couple nights ago: I fell asleep on the couch with Angus.

Angus and Zoey wearing their fleece hoodies

 

One of the trees next to our house

 

More trees

 

Angus happy to be back inside – warming up by the Fire