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.

Bridal Shower info

Bridal Shower will be held on July 29th, at Joy's (Mat's parents' yard). 2 p.m.

Any extra lawn chairs that anyone has would be greatly appreciated.

There will be silly games, prizes, desserts, drinks, laughs and fun.

Bachelorette will be held on July 29th, at Starz, 8 p.m.

Please keep in mind that the bachelorette will probably be... um... inappropriate, at best.

Cool...

... I like Microsoft Office Picture Manager...

:) T.A.K.

Holy Freakin' Countdown, Batman!

Not much time left, that's for sure. Luckily, I guess, my seester never reads this, so any potentially pressure inducing comments I make about the wedding won't be known unless someone tells her.

This means you. The maybe four people who read this...

You, shush-y! Cause I said so.
______________________________________________

Well, I called in to work today, because of pill side effects that wouldn't normally happen, but that occurred as a result of work scheduling me to work a week of nights and getting used to it, and then all of a sudden, saturday I worked 1-10, and sunday I had to be in at 8. Now, years ago, I could have done this no problem.

However, lack of sleep affects me and my pills in very negative ways.

Since I couldn't sleep until 3 a.m. ish on Saturday night, I had very little sleep when I was at work sunday. Then, I couldn't sleep last night, and had a really bad allover headache, was feeling anxious and nauseous, had a really sharp pain frequently shooting through my head on the one side ( light, noise, whatever, triggered it).

You know how the doctors assess your pain by asking you to rate it on a 1-10, with ten being the worst pain you have ever felt? I explained to Chris last night that my pain rating 'schedule' goes something like this:

1-3 bruises
3-6 my bimonthly cramps (yes, it is now 60 days. Still awaiting call from gyno)
5- minor surgery I had on my toe where the doctor 'froze' my toe, and proceeded to gouge
out half of my toe nail on my big toe. (At least he was nice and sent me home with a Rx for
T4's w/ codeine.
5- pain I have in my calf from a too-long-unreported work-related injury (torn muscle in my
left calf. Not completely healed, keeps getting reinjured at work)
7-9 pain after waking up after having my wisdom teeth yanked a la hospital. (Was knocked out
to do it, and because I had such a small mouth the jacka- I mean, doctor, had to force my
mouth to open more than it should and caused a great deal of pain and swelling. (I ended up
missing just over two weeks of school)
10 pain I had last night in my head. It was like a nerve or something. I have had it before, and
am sure I will have it again.
____________________________________________

Oh, yeah, the countdown: 4 weeks, 5 days left until the wedding!

2 weeks and 5 days left until the bridal shower/bachelorette party I am supposed to be planning...

Not sure if there will be a bridal shower, it is getting a little late. At least the bachelorette can just be thrown together, kind of an impromptu theme party at the bar.

Don't get me wrong, I want to plan a huge party, have lots of people come, play games, tell stories, have great food and drinks...

BUT, here's my reasons to not do that:

1- Time. The entire timeline has been so short that I just got the list two weeks ago, and (most)phone numbers a few days ago. So, by the time I am able to invite people, they will probably have plans. Besides, over half of the guests to the wedding haven't gotten invites yet, let alone the ones to the bach./brid. party(ies).

2- Money. I don't have any extra cash to spend on this. And it seems very innappropriate to have Mom pay for it. That's why the bach. party will most liekly be at Starz, and if there is a bridal shower, it will probably be a casual get together. (coffee, tea and cakes?). Maybe some crudites, too. (Basically a fancy French word meaning veggie platter. (Traditionally, lots of large pieces of fresh veggies, with 3 dips).

3- The wedding is casual. Why have a fancy schmancy bridal shower? I can understand meeting in the middle, but it is still on really short notice for this kind of thing.

4- Location. Yeah, I can hold a bach. party at a bar, (the one the other bridesmaid basically co-owns). Where am I going to have a Bridal shower? My parent's house isn't a great idea for the amount of people who may be invited, and same goes for anyone else who may be a possibility for a request to borrow their house. Not to mention, I think it would be kind of rude to ask to borrow someones house in two weeks. Pretty short notice.

5- Guests. I don't know most of the people I might be inviting to whichever party, so if I did do the bridal shower, it would have to be family only, save for the other bridesmaid. And then, if we do it that way, the guest list could range from 8 to 28, depending on if I just invite my maternal side (mom, aunts, grandma, cousins) or both sides, and how far up the genealogical line do you go? If it's going to be a small party anyway, do you invite second cousins, great aunts that you barely know? Where do you draw the line and take the parties' focus from braidal shower to family reunion, especially if you're doing a casual affair?
_____________________________________________

That is my dilemma. What to do? what to do? any suggestions?

It also doesn't help that the person I am supposed to be planning this with has a schedule opposite of mine, so we are rarely available at the same time.

Oh, and everytime we set up our first coffee to discuss it, she cancels.
_______________________________________________

Supposed to go tonight, for coffee, so hopefully it happens and we get something figured out.

*07.07.06 update*
*coffee didn't happen that night. I had to show up at her work the next night to get her to sit down and talk to me. Even then, she had people coming at her from all angles and we barely talked... awkward...
* Chris is in Edmonton, on course, again!!! It is almost a weekly thing now... Argh.
*melted chocolate...
*I quit my job(*!). Hoping to get hired as a packer for the company Joy works for. They are apparently super duper busy and very short on people. The super busy part is wy I haven't gotten a call yet... Though you'd think 5 minutes would probably save them a few headaches... and get me money!
*! Lots of reasons. Several personal, some I don't think posting on a public web blog would be wise...
ttyl. tired.

My Favorites

Favorite wine: Deinhard Green Label Reisling (2003 was preferred, but 2004 is now more available). It's a German white wine, not sweet, not dry. I was 'introduced' to it @ Chris' brother and sister-in-law's wedding. I love it!

Favorite TV show: CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Favorite Doggie: Patches

Favorite Time of Day: Anytime I am laughing

Favorite item on my daily mental to-do list: Shower (love relaxing in the water)

Favorite way to wake up: With Chris, giggling and being silly, like normal.

Favorite way to go to work: on a day off!

Favorite place in the world: Wildhorse Lake, Alberta (Clear, crisp, water, surrounded by trees, lots of birds singing beautifully, mountain range in the near horizon. On a sunny day, it is Heaven)

Don't have time to continue, because I am currently distracted by CSI...

ttyl.

Oh, yeah, been referred to a gyno, awaiting a call from their office.

Patches had a seizure

And I feel like bawling like a baby.

I am so scared for him. I know that he feels better now, but I am still worried.

He was out on a walk with my mom and her friend noticed when he looked up at her and then started to walk kinda funny like he was going to fall over. Mom picked him up before he did fall over, and carried him home. I'd just finished loading up my supper plate and she got home, looking worried.

She asked me to hold him so she could move her truck, and he. was. lethargic. He just flopped down in my arms. I started to cry because I was so scared. I am going to take him to the vet tomorrow. Even though he seems better now.

Hopefully, it won't be a new, continual thing.

We are hoping that it may just have been caused by him either

a) eating weeds that were sprayed with weed killer (which we will keep him away from- it's in the garden so we never thought anything of it).

or

b) he may or may not have eaten an ant... that may or may not have been poisoned... and that miniscule amount of poison could have triggered it, (we had some ant-infested pieces of wood on the side of the house, and the ants started to come into the house. Mom sprayed the yard with ant killer and poison, and they have still been coming in the house, though more in the basement than the kitchen. I killed one when I went upstairs to use the washroom last night, and because I just got back downstairs and wanted to get back to bed, I left it there till morning. (Tired + LAZY = NO GOOD.)

When I got up, the was-definitely-dead-when-I-left-it ant was gone. I didn' really think much of it. Then, later, I saw a dried up yellow spot on Patches' bed in the living room, and washed his blanket. I never thought anything of the fact that he'd been sick. He was also really babyish today, more than usual. He was pawing at my leg, more of a tapping/patting than his usual scratch or stretch. He wanted to be picked up. A lot. I never really thought about it.

Back to the abc's,

c) it could be just about anything. Who knows? That's why I am bringing him to the vet.

Sigh.

Now both me and him have to go see our doctors tomorrow.

Hopefully we will both get good news.

TAK.