New Year's Resolution 2010

In a final attempt to get my butt back blogging I have made it one of my New Year's Resolutions to try and post on a regular basis. A surefire way to fail, yet again. I am reluctant to completely stop blogging as I really enjoy it when I do get around to it. However, the guilt is causes when I get too lazy is the down side of it. So, I am throwing out the guilt and committing myself to blogging when I feel like it. I may not always have anything funny, or important or even very interesting to share, but if I am doing this for myself, I shouldn't care about the content and just write whatever I feel like.

I had some big changes in 2009. The most notable was finally, after 10 years together, getting married. We went to Vegas and got hitched on Nov 11th. We figured since it is Remembrance Day Mike should never forget the date. Also, I will always have that day off of work. We went down for a week. Some people will raise their brows at this but since it was my first time there and Mike had not been for about 15 years we figured we would have alot to see and do. We never did get bored or run out of this to do and see. I really, really love that place! My parents, my sistere and her husband and Mike's sister and her husband also came down to help us celebrate this momentous occasion. Mike's sister and her husband actually surprised us so that was pretty great. The ceremony was very nice and we had a fabulous meal at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant. Over the top, for sure, but we wanted to do something extra special to mark the occasion and to also treat the family that spent their own money and time to come down with us. We stayed at New York, New York Hotel and we really liked it there. I can't wait to go back again.

The downside of 2009 was that my Grandpa Glen passed away in April and then May, Mike's Mum passed away after a long battle with Pick's Disease. Pick's Disease is a horrible, horrible disease that is like Alzheimers but it strikes a different part of the brain and typically affects people much younger. Mike's Mum passed away in her early 60's and lived with disease for about 15 years. It was a long row to hoe for the whole family.

We have a couple of trips planned for 2010 and I am getting excited about them already. Mike and I are going to Victoria for the annual BCGOA convention. It is always a great time and I absolutely love that city, so March can't come early enough! We are hoping to take the kids to Silverwood in Idaho this summer. It is a huge waterpark and amusement park in Idaho. The kids won't be wanting to come on vacation with us very much longer so we want to make sure we do stuff that they will like. Entertaining teenagers is never easy. We also hope to skip the traditional Christmas next year and go somewhere tropical for 2 weeks. That is the only time we can take the kids in the winter months as they are not able to miss any school to go at any other time.

Here is hoping 2010 has great things in store for me and all of you, as well!

Suh-priiiiahz!

Hey! So I took a nap or forty. Get off my back already! Actually I've been lazy. Very, very lazy. I'm trying to fight the lazy, really I am. It keeps coming out on top though. In an effort to squish it down but good, I started jogging. Or Slogging, as I affectionally call it. I started last week. It was great. Running on the track with an awesome friend who got my ass out there in the first place. The track is made of rubber and very nice to run on, when your slogging, that is. When we would run, it would be hardly faster than a brisk walk. Very doable. Until today.....

Today, friend #1 stood me up and another came out to join me. Mother. Chucker! I'm totally going to call her by her real name, because she deserves it. Cara. Cara, almost made me die today. Cara set the pace and my head almost popped off. I thought you were supposed to be able to carry on a conversation while jogging. Today? Not so much. I was just trying not to vomit. However, I did appreciate the pushing. Maybe one day my face will return to it's normal colour. I'm going to stick with it. I'm sure my ass appreciates it. Wednesday we are going to do it all over again. God help me. See you Wednesday Track Nazi!

Merry Kiss My Ass!

Merry Christmas to one and all! I don't know about you but I gained a solid 10 pounds over Christmas (fuck), hence the title. I love Christmas, really I do, I just love Christmas a little too much if you catch my drift. Shortbread...mmmm, turkey...mmmm, gravy....mmmm, buttertarts....mmmm, eggnog....mmmm. You get the picture. Not to mention the fact that I probably drank some beer or wine every day between Dec 19 and now. Yikes. Me pants are a wee tight. I busted a zipper out of one pair or jeans. It flew about mach 1 - damned good thing there wasn't a cat in the way, is all I'm saying. Must have been a faulty zipper - what? a girl can dream, can't she? I got a pretty kick ass present for Christmas too. A 32" Sony plasma for the bedroom. Not entirely sure if it wasn't a "shelfish" gift on Mike's part, but what the hell. I wasn't expecting anything at all, so it is all gravy. MMMM Gravy. Where was I? Oh yes. I also got Mike a "selfish" gift as well. Mike is now the proud owner of a brand new electric razor. He was getting a tad lazy in the old shaving department (alas the honeymoon phase has worn off). The kids were totally spoiled too. Mom and Dad come up from Kelowna and instead of shoveling snow, they froze their asses off. Our furnace doesn't quite keep up during -30 weather, so needless to say we sat around downstairs (the warmest room in the house) under blankets with sweaters and slippers on. Brrr. We are headed up to the ski hill on the 1st for a couple of nights. I damned well better still fit in my ski pants or I'm going to be in big trouble. Merry Kiss My Ass, indeed!

So Where Was I???

I'm happy to see some people still check up on my lazy ass! I'm not making any promises, mind you, but I'm all settled in and relatively back to normal now (ha! I'm normal - now THAT's a good one!). We spent the month of August just moving in. We're still not completely moved. This should go on record as the longest move in the history of, well? moves! Our first night we slept in the new house was the weekend after the august long weekend (I'm totally too lazy to go and find a calendar to get the date for you) and we just moved the living room furniture over on Oct 11th. We don't like to rush into things at our house. Slow and steady wins the race, I always say!

So that is pretty much all I remember about August. Oh! My sister's visit was great and we can't wait for her to come back again. Also! we got two cats. A momma and a baby that we *thought* was a girl. Not so much. So now instead on Mia and Amber we now have a Mia and an Oliver. We love them. Furry little buggers! These are my kid's first pets! Very sad fact considering they are 15 and 13! Like I said. We take things slow around these parts!

September? Well lets just say September sucked ass. So much ass. Although, most of the suck fest also had a positive side as well. Mike left for the bush in early September to start his guiding season. He was gone from home from Sept 2 - Oct 9th. I once again helped expedite for him. Adding another full time job onto the one I already had! I'm much too lazy to have two jobs. It totally stresses me out. The upside was that we hired an awesome lady to help me with the expediting and I found a new friend in the process. You ROCK Lynn!

The next shitty thing that happened in September was that my friend Cindy Myers passed away from inflammatory breast cancer. She was diagnosed in January and passed in September. So very fast. She was a single mom to two beautiful teenagers. She was only 37. You just can't get more unfair than that. Remarkably, there happened to be an upside of this sad event as well. I was able to reconnect the old and dear friends that I hope I can do a better job of staying in touch with than I did before. I'm really bad a that. Actually its all about the lazy!

Then, to top off all the other shitty, my Grandma Ida went and died on us. So unexpected. Yes, she was 87 and yes she had been experience some health issues as of late, but damn! We were totally unprepared for it. Grandma was a remarkable woman who lived life large - went to the gym, had a boyfriend, and enjoyed her wine right up until the day she died. She was in better shape than most of the people I know and she had more energy than this lazy ass could stand. It is a blessing she didn't suffer. She had a massive stroke in her sleep and never woke up again. Really? Can anyone ask for a better exit than that? The upside to this one? I was able to see family and dear friends that I haven't seen in years. Although, I would take my Grandma over my visit any day.

Now October? October is looking to be a smashing success so far! October brought Mike out of the bush and back home with a very successful season behind him. I'm so glad to have him back. He is super ass skinny. I believe he lost close to 35 pounds in eight weeks. He looks like he is twelve. Little pencil necked twerp! Eat a hamburger or ten already! Just kidding honey! I actually love it when you weigh less than me, honest!

The next most awesome event that is taking place in October is that we are taking a trip! Mike's brother-in-law is turning 40 and him and his sister are hosting a fabulous 10 day vacay for all of their immediate relatives! We just had to get ourselves and the four ankle biters there. We were originally supposed to go to Nevis, West Indies and stay at the fantabuous Four Season Resort but that damned Hurricane Omar got a little too close to the island and the resort had to shut down during the time that we were supposed to be there. They recommended the Four Season Resort in Great Exuma (pronouced Zuma) in the Bahamas. So we are going there instead. I love it when plans change at the 11th hour! This is actually a very good thing. I am such a control freak that I had the whole trip planned out in my head - now I don't have time to plan or scheme anything. Well except maybe to explore the caves at 2:00 pm on Monday while I'm wearing my blue jean shorts and my new navy tank top paired with my Teva sandals. You just got a glimpse of the demons in my head, the horror that Mike has to live with. And yet? Miraculously? He loves me anyway!

Hopefully, I will have a billion pictures to bore you to tears, uh, I mean share with you.

On The Road Again, Just Can't Wait to Get on the Road Again....

Has anyone seen July? I think I misplaced it. Actually, I know where it went - in a freaking blur out the passenger window of our truck. The month of July saw us in our truck for a mere 80 hours. 80! Hours! Voluntarily I might add.

At the beginning of the month Mike and I drove to Calgary to pick up his boys and stopped over in Kelowna to enjoy some sunshine (cause the sun don't shine in Smithers in July - THAT"S for sure!). We headed home after the July Stat - can't say it was a long weekend because it fell on a Tuesday, so lame. Next year will be even worse. A Wednesday Stat - how charming! For the rest of the three weeks that we were in Smithers we stayed fairly busy. We camped with Mike's sister and her family at Moosehorn Lodge. A beautiful place on Uncha Lake. We had fun, but of course it rained. We hung out at our new digs ALOT. The boys road the 4 wheeler around, and around and a-fucking-round the property till I thought I'd go bloody mad. When they weren't being holy hell raisers on four wheels they spent their time shooting anything that moved with the BB/Pellet guns. A little redneck, you say? Hell ya! Girlie on the other hand, stayed in the barn and petted the barn cat named Tyler. Tyler! for God's sake! Who names their cat Tyler?? I'm planning on renaming it Bruce. Much classier - don't you think?

We then headed back to Kelowna (you'd think we live there or something!). We were able to spend some time with my sister AND my Mom and Dad. While we were all there, Mom, my sis and I all got matching tattoos. We got the tattoos to honour our little sister/daughter Darcie Kim who passed away 20 years ago this December. We had planned on getting a snowflake because not only was she born in December but she also passed away in December. However, once we had our consultation with the tattoo artiste my Mom put the kibosh on the snowflake. He would only go as small as a twoonie and she was having none of that! We decided to get her initials tattooed on our feet, near the top of our toes. I love it and even without the tattoo to remind me, I still think of Darcie every single day. She would have approved of our homage, I'm sure.

We then packed up our four stinky teenagers (why must they be reminded about deodorant? WHY? and usually we only notice once it is too late and we are stuck in the truck for a cursed six more hours!) and headed to Vancouver. We were blessed to have been able to witness the Symphony of Fire (I know it's not called that anymore, but fuck if I can remember what it is. I'm a gettin old). 25 minutes of fanatic fireworks. Sooooo cooooool. We did the Aquarium, Science World (we all LOVED that!) and hung out at Granville Island alot. I love that place. We picked up 8 crabs at the Lobster Market and brought them back to Kelowna to share with my parents. We all were in heaven. Tasty, tasty.

The next day we headed to Calgary to drop off Mike's rugrats and take in Calaway Park. We left the park early because it started hailing and besides, it was my birthday that day and Calaway Park just wasn't doing it for me. After we dropped the boys off with their Mom we went shopping and then decided to go and grab a bite at Moxie's. While we were there, we looked up and who should stroll by our table? That would be Mike's son's! They had decided to go to the exact same restaurant at the exact same time. Freaky. Just can't shake the little buggers! Joking, of course. We went out to the show that night and saw Journey to the Centre of the Earth. It was in 3D and we had so much fun. Much laughter when we donned the glasses and even more guffaws when I was the only one to scream when the yo-yo flew straight into my face. Good Times.

We headed back to Kelowna and bought some shit. A dining room table and china cabinet and a bedroom suite for the new digs. We blew the wad! They will look smashing I'm sure. If we ever get them, that is. Still waiting...

We came home and painted and painted and painted some more. I decided that was enough and went back to work early. My sister comes for a visit this weekend. I can't wait. Not sure where we are going to be sleeping but either way, I'm sure we will have a blast. They are heading to Stewart/Hyder for a couple of days to see the glaciers (awe inspiring I assure you - and only 4 hours away, hint, hint for all my prairie friends!) and the Grizzly bears. They have a special grizzly bear viewing platform and this is the perfect time of year to watch them fish for salmon in the river - albeit a little closer to humans than I am totally comfortable with, but they are well distracted with the salmon.

Happy summer everyone!

Klappan

I survived my trek into the wilds of Northern BC with nary a scratch on me. Mike and I drove, and drove and drove some more. 6 hours to be exact. At one point he stopped the truck and it still felt like we were moving. A very strange sensation, I can assure you. Thank God for Gravol is all I'm saying. We saw lots and lots of black bears but no grizzly bears.



We set up camp in record time, had some smokies for dinner, took a quad ride around to check things out and then sat around looking at each other. Mike's not much of a talker. Good times. So I up and offed myself to bed by 9:00 pm. If you know about the north, you know that it really doesn't get dark at night at this time of year. Though sadly, it doesn't stay warm at night. I gave up the warm toasty, minus -10 degree Celsius sleeping bag to Mike because he was sleeping in the tent and I thought it would be warmer in the truck. Yeah, I miscalculated a tad on that one. Thankfully the Gravol I took earlier helped me to fall asleep fairly fast. However, I woke up two hours in feeling a tad chilly. I found my hoodie and pulled it on. Two and a half hours in I added one more pair of socks. Three hours in I could no longer feel my toes. Three and a half hours in I thought that I had to pee, but fuck if I was going to go outside and freeze my ass off even more. It was a miserable, miserable night. Mike woke up in the morning and came out of the tent and looked at the truck. It was white with frost - enough said. He started the truck and turned the heat on full blast. I took a while but I eventually defrosted and even started to feel my toes again. I slept a good portion of the way home. I was a little weary. So not quite the exciting adventure I had envisioned.

Weekends Rock

I just had the most excellent weekend. It started on Friday with a round of golf. Mike and I had planned in the morning to go golfing Friday night and were packing up the clubs when my friend J phoned to see if Girlie could babysit. I quickly said yes, because Girlie is always looking to make a buck or two and said I could even drive her in because we were going golfing. She said her and her hubby were going golfing too and that's why they needed Girlie. We quickly came to the conclusion that a foursome was in order! It started out exceedingly well for us girls, who by the way, just spent 20 of the best dollars on golf lessons 2 weeks before. We both made it to the green on the first two holes with one stroke. We were PUMPED. The boys? Not so much. Their first two holes sucked. The game quickly turned around after that, but I'll never get their look of horror out of my head. It makes me happy. They usually kick our asses, in a really bad way.

Saturday was even better, if you can believe it. A bunch of us went quading out on some old logging roads near Topley. Mike couldn't go so I convinced The Boy to come with me. Mike loaded the quad on the truck the night before and gave us a quick lesson before we left that morning. We had to drive about 1.5 hours to get to the unloading spot, me and The Boy had a good time, singing along to the satellite radio and cracking jokes. I love the age my kids are now - too much fun. Another friend of mine, C, was also sans man and brought her son. We we all, "I am woman, hear me roar"! We did really good, but we made one of the more experienced riders (also a girl, I might add) unload our quads from the trucks. We spent about 6 hours driving through mud and puddles and having a jolly old redneck time. I can't wait to do it again. The Boy can't either, and right now, he thinks his Mom is pretty cool, which is a miracle in itself seeing as he is almost 15. We ended up very muddy and sopping wet. I briefly thought about driving home without my wet pants on but thought that would totally wipe out my cool status with The Boy, not to mention scarring him for life. No one needs to see my blindingly white thunder thighs!

Can you believe my weekend gets even better on Sunday? I know, ridiculous, isn't it. I mean one person should not be allowed that much fun. I went golfing AGAIN. Sillyness. We went to the "big" course with J and C and their husbands. The men golfed ahead of us girls followed along behind. It was the most fantastic sunny day and I scored my personal best on that course so far. I got 69 for 9 holes. For the good golfers, don't mock me. You have no idea how far I've come. The girls and I started golfing on the "little" par 3 course about 7 years ago and we would stop counting our score when we got to 10 for each hole. Now we regularly get 4's and 5's on that course with a healthy dose of 3's thrown in. We have come along way. We are still mostly in it for the beer, but the excitement of the really great shots has us hooked into improving our game.

I don't know if I can top that weekend of not. This coming weekend I am going totally out of my comfort zone and driving 6 hours into the middle of nowhere to help Mike set up his camp for his upcoming bear hunt. I'm a little nervous as I am fucking terrified of the brown (or black, for that matter) furry things. After much snivelling and whining Mike said I can sleep in the truck because I know I would be awake and paranoid all night if I had to sleep in the tent. Even the fact that Mike will be packing a gun doesn't really relieve my fears. Baby steps I guess. I plan on taking lots of pictures so make sure you come back and check them out. Also? Knowing me? I will have an adventure or two to share. Can you just picture it now? Me, peeing in the woods and seeing a bear not that far away and trying to run away with my pants around my ankles, or cankles as I fondly refer to them? Should be a great time.