Pictures v 3.6

Oy. More pix. They take forever to upload on here, but it is easier than resizing so I can upload on flickr without going over my monthly limit in 6 pictures.















16. This is a pic I took of Chris hand surfing out the window. It turned out really funky, and I like it better than the ones that did turn out!















The trip home from Cadomin was gorgeous. Even with all the smokiness.

Anyway. Gonna go get some sleep.

Get to go job hunting later! Yay!

ttyl.

Pictures v 3.0

Whew. More pictures...
















11. Another picture of Wildhorse Lake. It is much more breathtaking when you're there. Chris and I might go there weekly to have dinner. We'll see.















12. This is a pic of Kinky Lake, which is right next to Wildhorse Lake. Not much to see unless you have a camper. And/or a boat.














13. We went exploring southbound on Highway 40. Towards Cadomin, the coal mines, and an abandoned ghost town called "Mountain Park" where Chris' late grandfather was born. We didn't go as far as the ghost town because it started to get late.














14. A deer on the side of the road. She was obviously enjoying the yellow flowers she was eating, devouring them hungrily. There were another 5 deer behind her, two of which looked as though they'd been born this year!














15. A view of the cement or coal mine near Cadomin. We couldn't figure out which it was, there was a lot of signs for both, it was unclear.

Just a few more pix.

Pictures v2.0

Here's more pictures















6. Once we got all of our stuff in and started to unpack...















7. This sleeping angel is actually a bit of a monster. He takes every opportunity to hiss at me. He also is wreaking havoc on my system. (allergies).














8. I just love that sign. It's hilarious to me.




















9. There were a few families at Wildhorse Lake while we were there on Sunday. It was cool to watch the kids playing (these were only 2 of the many that were there). Isn't it gorgeous?



















10. Chris was putting out our campfire, and as I was trying to take a picture, the shutter was stuck partially closed. I think it made a pretty funky picture. :)

Probably more to come...

Pictures v1.0

Here's some pics of our drive to Hinton, plus some others...
















1.Driving through Edson, the last part of it before out of town limits.
















2. View while driving. (I barely look at my camera if I take pix while driving. I just kind of aim in the general direction of where I think it is, and hope to get a good shot. I never really know until I look later!)
















3. More views. Closer to Hinton. Mountains visible.
















4. The sunset was fantastic on Aug. 31. Just about the best I could have asked for, while driving to my new home.
















5. More absolutely incredible sunset. This was in the town limits! We were 3 minutes from home when I took this one.

More pix in next post....

We're home

We've made it to Hinton. We managed to get all our stuff off of the truck in record time, with very little help from anyone else! (We planned it that way. Not only does it seem to go smoother, but then we can organize the boxes into rooms as we unload the truck.

I've had to start using my athsma inhaler regularily, as I am supposed to, because of the kittyness of the house, which is minor. Sid (ze kitty) is mostly an outdoor cat. He comes in to eat some kibble, drink a little water (if he can't find any outside) and sleep. Oh, and he seems to prefer his litter box which is indoors, to the great outdoors where he can do his business wherever...

Yeah, so besides all of that, he's out terrorizing neighbor's animals, I imagine. (Or being lazy and smugly laying in the shady grass watching us unpack the truck for 2 1/2 hours). His excuse for not helping? "I'm a cat." I know, pretty lame excuse, hey?

Anyway, the Reactine seems to be working, besides the occasional sniffling and mostly non existent other symptoms: throat itchy-hasn't yet happened- and ears feeling itchy deep inside where it's not safe to stick mini cotton balls on a stick...

So, besides my sinuses working overtime, and taking my athsma meds as per docs orders, life is normal.

Oh, and I went from 100mg to 75mg of my antidepressants today.

That's how good I am feeling, and have been since the first morning here (yesterday). The second Chris or I notice a difference in anything, I will go back to normal. Oh, and if we notice nothing, I will stay lower...

So far, this move has been totally different from any other one I have had. In what way? In all of these ways:

- There was more than enough room in the U-Haul truck.

- Loading up the truck was easier than we expected. (Especially the emptying of our rented storage space. Only took Chris and I about an hour and a half, and that's with slacking. That was about half of our stuff.)

- The drive was nice. Long, but nice. Towards the end, the last 2 hours or so, I started getting really tired, and so kept myself loaded with sugar (bad) and stopping every half hour or so to stretch my legs and breathe in some fresh air (good). Oh, and get a hug from Chris. (good)

- When we pulled up the U-haul, Jason and Kellie were at the house, and immediately helped us to get the car off of the trailer, get the trailer unhooked from the truck, back up the truck, and then start off loading stuff from the truck.

- We stopped unloading after we had enough stuff unloaded to survive the first night. (Bed, clothes, bathroom kits, valueable/breakables from the cars.) Jay and Kellie were offerring to help unload more, but we decided to quit while we were ahead. We relaxed and chatted together over beer, and we learned a LOT about the neighbourhood.

- We were somehow motivated enough the first night to get a lot of stuff unpacked or at least a little better organized, and basically, all of the boxes that had filled the kitchen area were gone.

- In the morning when we started unloading the truck, we managed to keep it somewhat organized, and kept the more important things to the side.

- Everytime we needed something, or went looking for something (ie: vaccuum bags/ shelf for a glass topped A/V stand that was stored away from one another), we found it almost immediately. Seriously, it has started to creep us out a little, in a good way, I guess, that things are going so smooth.

- We were motivated again last night, and we somehow managed to unpack almost all of the kitchen stuff. Anyone who knows me knows that's a lot of stuff. We went through almost every box we had in here, and of course the ones we didn't go through had the stuff we were wondering where it was.

- By about 9 p.m. today, we had all the kitchen stuff (minus the HUGE box of plastics we still need to sort) organized, cleaned, put away...

- Jay and Kellie left a lot of their stuff here until their house is finished, including the satellite receiver/satellite and their internet modem and cables. (That's how I am here right now). All we have to do is switch out the receiver with ours, and get internet hooked up. Surprisingly, we haven't sat down and watched any tv yet. Well, not me. Chris was watching some discovery channel while I had a shower this morning. I've only been listening to music, thank g.o.d. for satellite and the like 40 channels of music. Most with no commercials. PLus I can get Edmonton Radio stations on the tv, too.

- As a result of the discovery that we had about 8 large-ish boxes of dry pantry type foods to unpack, and not much in the line of places to put it all... we went out and bought a pantry from Hell-mart. There isn't that much available for shopping here in Hinton, and Canadian Tire didn't have any. We don't have enough cash to go to the Brick, the Sear here is appliances only, and the Liquidation World (1st choice) is closed. Paper on all the windows. I assume renos, but there's absolutely no signs saying what's going on. Not even store hours. Just a "Help Wanted: Apply Within" sign posted on locked doors. No wonder no one works there. Can't apply if they want to!

- Whew, we got the pantry home and set up in record time, and unpacked the food boxes and organized the food in even better time. We've got almost the entire kitchen done.

- Considering we don't have access to one of the bedrooms, and the addition/den, plus there are a few other things left here we kinda have to set up around, the place is starting to take shape pretty quick.

- The other room, the one we want to set up our computer(s) in, is full of our stuff, because we need a place to put it until Jay and Kellie are able to move their stuff into their new place.

- Jay and Kellie came by today to clean out the fridge/freezer of their food so that we could put stuff in there. Kellie was apologizing for having all of their stuff here, and I told her it's no big deal. I think she felt bad mostly because she saw we got a lot of stuff done already, and she thought she was restricting our unpackingness. Which isn't true. We are more concerned about the kitchen stuff and our bedroom (lots of clothes and 3 dressers) than we are about setting up the guest room (will take 15minutes) or the computer(s)-maybe an hour- and the den-25 minutes.

- It won't take us very long to set up the other stuff. Today was a good day. So was yesterday. Tomorrow will be a good day. So far, we plan to go buy some smokies and buns, grab some packets of mustard and relish (from sev) while we find out what time Chris has to start work on the 4th.

We're going to go to Wildhorse Lake. So. Freaking. Unbelieveably. Gorgeous.

Everyone who comes to visit will be personally brought to Wildhorse Lake at least once per visit.
Hint. Hint. It is so gorgeous out there, I will refuse to let you leave without having seen it.

I am going to go now. Tired. Hungry.

Happy Anniversary to Chair and Jason! Hope you happy many many more! (I know you will!)

Congrats to Craig on getting your own class! Hope your first year goes great!

Hope you all do great in Red Deer!

Love ya, will miss ya, you better come visit.

:) T.A.K.

Made it to Edmonton

Without much trouble. Sitting at Willy's place, awaiting Jarrod, so he can visit briefly before we have to say goodbye.

Leaving within an hour(?) to drive another 3 hours to Hinton!

Sounds like we're going to be alone the first little while, which I think might have been a good decision. It might have been pretty stressful to all be in there, especially with Miss Heidi. She's in charge, don'tchaknow... She's 4 months old, almost 5.

Anyway, better get going to hang with Jarrod.

Will talk more when we get computers set up in the new place.

33.5

Hours to go, that is...

Until I leave this house and move to Hinton...

Starting to freak out a little bit...

And it's prohibited me from packing.

Like I told Chris I would.

... I really should go, but I am not sure if I will.

Okay I will.

You talked me into it.

I am just worried about how homesick I will get living this far away from my family. (Not to mention anxious. But that's more of a medical problem...)

Anyway.

Gotta go pack 'n'stuff.

Moving

So, not only is it a reality, but we are moving in 6 days. Five if you read this on Saturday.

We are picking up the u-haul on the 30th, loading it up and staying one last night.

The 31st, we plan to get up early... we'll have a 6 hour drive ahead of us.

We, so far, plan to sop in Edmonton, to help my brudder set up his wireless network, if nothing else. We might hang for a bit, go for dinner or something, but most likely we will stick around his place and hopefully leave by... 2 ish? We will have the whole next day to unload more, but still.

Nice to get it done and out of the way.

So yeah, I probably won't respond to any comments left on here, or any emails I get, because we already took apart our computers and they are packed up (one less thing to get distracted by).

I do have access to my parents computer, but, I have lots of other stuff to do.

If anyone really needs to talk to me, they'll just have to use the old-fashioned way: telephone. At least we can try to keep it modern, you can call my cell phone, if you have the number. It won't be changed until I get organized in Hinton.

So, until I set up my computer again in Hinton, see ya later!

Blaine

A picture

Hey look. It's me.

What's new?

Do you think people can be friends with turkeys?*

Hey, wow. Been awhile. Been busy.

If you are reading this, and you are my sister, stop reading now, bacause I will be talking about something that you aren't supposed to know about yet. Later. But, still, just please stop reading, I want it to be a surprise.

So... what are you waiting for? Go away. Go to ebaumsworld.com or something.
______________________________________________________

Whew. I am in Meadow Lake. Came out here tuesday morning (8th). Chris is helping out the store out here. Staying in a Super 8 hotel. Kinda nice, actually.

I got bit on my outer left thigh by a spider the first night I was here. I woke up with a huge swollen red spot (swollen over an inch across). It was really itchy, and had two red dots in the center. I never saw the spider, but assumed.

Listening to: Fort Minor "Where'd you go?" Good song.

Basically, I have been sitting in the hoetl room while Chris is at work. A few times I drove him to work, so that I would have the car to run to Extra Foods to get something to eat. (No microwave here, but there is a small coffee machine for hot water...) Bought a bunch of packs of noodles, some cutlery, a couple of mugs and 2 bowls. (They were cheap, really cheap). Bought stuff to do: the reason why Joy can't read this!

Since Joy and Mat became engaged on the 25th of December 2005, I have been planning things. (It's what I do). I started collecting stickers for scrapbooking, and glue and double sided photo tape, and all sorts of other stuff.

Chris has a Canon Selphy Photo Printer, and I bought some paper and ink cartridge for it (It uses a film ink, it's really cool. It prints yellow first, then red, then blue, then a clear protective coat!) The kits for it have 36 sheets of paper, the backside of which has postcard like printing on it. You can send them in the mail! It comes with enough ink to print the 36 sheets.

I have basically spent about 30 hours in the last week working on the scrapbook I am making, and it isn't even close to being done. I have all the wedding pictures on Chris' laptop, but all of the bridal shower, bachelorette, assorted others, are on my computer at home.

So, whenever I get home (leaving to go to Edmonton on Monday with Willy to help him to get his apartment set up a little more. Not sure when we will be back.), I have to search my computer and do a bunch more work on it. I want it to be done by the time I move...

I have a lot of stuff in it. I hope Joy will love it. And Mat, too, of course, but it will most likely make Joy cry, and Mat smile. And probably me cry.

Yeah.

Oh yeah, I should probably explain the title...

* I have a long history of half asleep mumblings that make no sense to the person I am talking to.

ie: while I worked at McDonald's, I (more than once) woke up in the middle of the night, after dreaming about working, and said things like "what are you doing? we need another drink!" and giving someone shit for having made too many McFlurries. It made complete sense to me at the time, but he was so confused... and now I've done it to Chris.

I had some sort of dream involving people and turkeys (!?!) and a discussion where we were trying to figure out if people could be friends with turkeys. (Don't ask, I don't know). I remember dreaming it, and thinking that I should ask Chris, because he would know. Then I was kinda half asleep, and I asked him. He said "what?", as most people would expect. I repeated the question, "Do you think people can be friends with turkeys?" and he, still trying to grasp that I was actually asking the question, said, "I don't know. Maybe?"

Then, of course, because I was thinking that he would think I am crazy, I decided I needed to tell him that I was thinking straight. Oh, and not crazy. So I told him that I was thinking rationally and not crazy, and he was all "are you sure?". I rolled over and I remember smiling to myself, thinking, it's okay, he's just half asleep. He will realize that he wasn't thinking clearly, when he wakes up later. I was content and satisfied that I had asked the question.

Later, when we woke up again, he asked if I remembered what I had asked him. It came back to me, and we just about pissed ourselves laughing.

Now that is a good way to wake up. Laughing so hard it hurts.

Oh, yeah, that was yesterday morning. Great way to start my birthday: being weird when I am half asleep!

I had a great day, actually. I was just relaxing, watching the food tv network (one of my top five fave channels). I worked on the scrapbook a little bit, added some awesome quotes from the actual basic marriage ceremony. I love working on this scrapbook. It makes me feel all warm inside. It's still a little weird to think I have a brother in law. And that Joy's last name is different than mine.

Anyway, my Mom called to say happy birthday, and then passed the phone to my Dad, and then my brother.

It was cool. I think it was the best birthday I have had in a long time. Really relaxing. Well, okay, two years ago on my birthday, I was working at RadioShack, and Chris felt bad I was working on my birthday and tried to buy me lunch. (I told him no, and said we'd just go for coffee sometime... *giggle*). That also was a good day. I remember my pregnant Auntie Chair came over and She, her belly-spud-Theya and I shared some amazingly rich chocolate cake. Which, by the way I have never had better...

By the way, Chair, you coming over totally helped with the homesickness. I was sad. I felt pretty alone in the city, on my birthday. I was sitting on the window ledge looking out the window a lot. (That was my favorite place in that apartment. There was a 10-12inch ledge along all the windows, and with a corner apartment, there was a lot of them. I would sit up there and stare at trees, or watch traffic. The first night we lived in Edmonton, it was stormy out. Jarrod and I stared out the window watching the lightning. Wow. I miss that place. A lot.)

Anyway. That took one heckuva turn.

Pause: watching music video: "Far Away" by Nickelback. This was Joy and Mat's First Dance song. Everytime I hear it, I almost cry...

Chris and I had an amazing birthday dinner last night: Subway. It. Was. SO. Good.

I had a 6" Chicken Bacon Ranch on whole wheat with lettuce. Wow. The best meal I have had in awhile. I loved it! I also had some cookies, and a root beer. Score!

Then, as if my birthday wasn't good enough, just before we were going to go to bed, Chris was checking his email, and played some music. I asked him to play Nickelback's Far Away, and when he did, I asked him to dance.

So my birthday was cool. I woke up laughing, relaxed and talked to family during the day. Went out for a great meal, and danced with Chris.

Yay!

Here's a pic of the newly wed Joy and Mat.

I was following the photographer around snaping up pix! She pissed me off a few times, and I am sure I pissed her off a few times, but well, that's life. I think we'd both have had a better day if we'd just understood from each other's point of view.

After thinking about it, I realized that she was just trying to do her job, trying to get the best pictures, including candids, for Joy and Mat to have for the rest of their lives. Pretty important job.

I just wanted to do the same. I got one fantastic picture, I don't want to share it quite yet, though. I have some surprises I am doing with it.

And I want to see Joy and Mat's reaction when they see it.

(It's the first pic in the scrapbook.)

Oh, When the scrapbook is done, I will post pictures of it, either here or on my flickr.com page.

I am hoping Chris will let me take his laptop to Edmonton when I go, and if so, I hope there is someone around Willy's apartment with an unsecured wireless network that I can leech off of for a few hours. Hee hee.

Here's a good one of Chris and Charity, just kinda hanging out. I was taking as many pictures as
I could, catching a lot of candids, and when I was to be in the pictures, Chris would take my camera and take a bunch. He did a great job, and got a lot of really good pictures.

Chair was trying to put ribbon back on her bouquet. It fell off at some point during the day.


And Here's one of the pix Chris took. Joy is looking at the photographer. Me and Chair are looking at Chris.

Will post more later. Hopefully, at least.

Hoping to somehow upgrade my flickr account to pro, so I don't have to resize all of the pictures I want to post. It takes forever. That's why I don't post many pictures...

Anyway, I have tea and cookies to get to. My favorite of each.

Twinings Earl Grey Tea and Dad's Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies. I could live off of these.

But I won't.