Getting ready!

Wow, only 17ish days until I'm on my Christmas break, and I am SO excited! Plus, less than a week left of lectures. Times flies so incredibly fast!

I quickly made this calendar for December, because I'm really going to have to budget my time properly so I can do well in all my classes, get all my assignments done, and also make it to my basketball games! Right after we're done our finals we're going to do our Christmas shopping (last minute? Yah, we're crazy). Now that the semester is winding down (only 3 assignments left!), I can start breathing a bit more. Of course once lectures are over I will start studying for my finals and my stress levels will rise a bit, but that's manageable. Done it many times, and after a few years you get used to the stress of finals, and get a system.

(P.S. ^that was yesterday's 365 picture, if you're curious.)

Branden and I are constantly doing homework (well, except for now, I just finished my math assignment, and he's taking time to keep himself sane and playing video games), but we do like to play scrabble throughout the day, with our phones. It adds some relief, and I think it exercises our brain a bit :D The iPhone was one of the best purchases we ever made :D

This weekend we're going to the country, our last chance to go before settling in to the apartment for finals, so hopefully I get some good pictures. I do like how pretty winter can be, and the snow makes me feel all holiday-like (wait, there's hardly any snow here in Edmonton, how weird is THAT?? I couldn't believe it when it rained the other day and melted the snow)...where was I? Oh, I was going to say I love Christmas, and how the snow makes me feel, but I really don't like being cold, and I REALLY dislike how quickly it gets dark! It's so unbelievable. Especially when it's an overcast day, it's practically dark at 4pm. I'm missing the sun already and it's still November!

"22 While 22"

So, as you may already know, I am a lover of lists! And to-do lists especially. This year for my birthday I wanted to do something different and instead of having a new years resolution list in January, I instead decided to make a (as realistic as possible) list of things I want to do before my 23rd birthday! Pretty exciting. I can imagine how happy I will be as I cross things off.

Don't worry, I know I may not get everything done! But it's nice to have things like goals. I know I may change during the year and some of these things may lose their importance, but overall, these are my goals for myself while I'm 22:

More Birthday Fun!

So, on Saturday Branden took me on a birthday date! So nice. We went out for dinner at our favorite low key empty restaurant, ordered some delicious food, enjoyed each others company. Afterward he bought me a cake! You have no idea how happy this made me! I love cake, and I didn't get one on my birthday, so it was super sweet of him!

Okay, so I logged in with the intention of doing some super cool news sharing and blogging, as a treat for getting so much homework done today, but I have the most horrid cold! So I think I'm going to curl up with a book and eat some soup. I have a basketball game today so I hope I'm feeling a little better by then!

Goodbye 21, Hello 22!

So November 23 was my 22nd birthday! So odd, how quickly time flies. Here's my 365 photo for that day, a self portrait :)

So, on Wednesday I woke up, went to school (pretty proud, because often I convince myself that skipping school on my birthday is justifiable, hehe), then went home to clean my apartment (the idea of coming home to a messy apartment after birthday fun didn't appeal to me).

I then "got ready" to go out for dinner with my wonderful, loving family. First, I video-chatting with one of my best friends, and a cousin of mine, Naomi. Naomi lives all the way in Calgary so I don't get to see her often, but, thanks to technology and the iPhone, I was able to video chat with her! So nice to talk to her and her gorgeous little girl (her daughter is 3). It really made me super duper happy!

We (my mama, one of my sister's, Nicole, her son, Ashton, the mister, and I) went out to dinner at Red Lobster! Nothing like some fishy food, to celebrate a birthday! I originally planned on another restaurant, but schedules and last minute things made me change it to something easier to do.


After dinner it was back home to rest a little (I didn't get much sleep the night before), before more adventures. Two of my wonderful very best friends were taking me to a movie! My awesome friend, Daniella, picked me up and first we went to visit our cousin Kayla (we're both cousins to Kayla, me through Kayla's father, and her through Kayla's mother :D). Then it was off to the amazing Lori-Lei's to pick her and another friend up to go out to the movie. We watched Happy Feet 2, and I LOVED it! So much. I was so happy watching it, and I don't like movies with too many songs, but a lot of the songs on here had me tapping my feet.

After the movie it was back to home-apartment. I thought I would get home and conk right out, but first I face-timed with Nicole, and that ended up turning into me telling her to get Skype, and then me skyping with her, my mom, and my mom's dog (slash our family dog) Princess! I love princess so much! When we were face-timing she would cock her head each way when I'd say her name. Such a cutie.

It was a good day though, and I got the best presents ever for my birthday! Books, iPhone, and camera stuff, what more could a girl want? Branden wants to get me clothes, but I think I'm going to decline, and if he insists on wanting to spend more money on me then I would get a ND filter for my camera before clothes :P

I liked turning 22. :D I'm so grateful for my family and my best friends who made this day extra super duper special for me! Oh, on a funny note, my sister ordered me a drink for my birthday, I don't drink all that often but I said yes because it was a celebration, we ended up accidentally ordering non-alcoholic drinks. I liked it better that way anyway ;)

More posts coming! One of the posts being on my to-do list of being 22 ("22, While 22" or "22 Before 23"). OH, and on my birthday I had my camera with me all day long, I just didn't take it out and ended up using my phone to take pictures :\ sorry about that!

iPhone Photo Dump

Hello

So life in the homestead is going to be pretty crazy, school-wise. Finals are coming and we are going to have to buckle down and get our butts into gear! A lot of my free time will be spent studying and doing homework, so that's kind of not fun, but it's necessary if I want to do good in school! :D

Oh, by the way, tomorrow is my 22nd birthday! That's pretty exciting. 22 whole years on this earth! Not too sure what the plans are tomorrow, I set it aside though so that I don't have to do any homework at all. I think I'll be heading out to dinner with my family and Branden. I can't wait!

Places

This year I am grateful for all the pretty scenery I was able to see. The world is truly a beautiful place.

Julie's Birthday

So last week on the 17th my gorgeous friend Julie invited me to her 22nd birthday! It was great because I was able to take some pictures of her, sometimes I forget that not everyone has a dslr for their life pictures, haha.

We went to a place called Sou Kawaii (or the Zen Lounge) and it was...different. I haven't gone out here in Edmonton since my 20th birthday (and I'm turning 22 in a few days, so that was a couple years ago!) and I was pretty excited! Not only that, two of my best friends, Chesare and Roseanne, were also going so I was super duper stoked!

En route we picked up some energy drinks and we were ready to go! It was a pretty fun night, and I was glad to be there but do I ever feel old! I got tired pretty quick (doesn't help that I had school that day and the day after), and the music wasn't all that great. After I got home (and after I told mister about the evening) I just couldn't fall asleep! I tried and I tried and ended up staying up until after 3 am. Ah, oh well. :)

Even though I only had one energy drink, I felt a bit sick and hung over the next day. I was aching, with a headache, which kind of makes me not want to go out again for another two years. Am I getting old? Haha, maybe. Here are a few pictures from the night:

Me, Chesare, Roseanne, Julie. I have some of the most beautiful friends, inside and out.

Birthday girl Julie dancing up a storm! She's adorable.

Okay, probably one of my favourites from the night! Just because that woman's hair reminded me of David Bowie from Labyrinth, I'm jealous of her volume! 

Again, us girlies :D 

life pictures

Hello Horse

Hi, spent last weekend at the farm. Here are some horses.

Photo Dump!

Little Visitor

Last night my 9 year old nephew came and spent the night for a sleepover! I was happy to have him for company. I'm not a big person on going out to the clubs and all that jazz (haven't gone "out to a club" here in Edmonton since my 19th birthday I believe, and I'm turning 22 this month...wow), and my plans for this Saturday included staying in, so yay for a little companion (not that mister isn't one, but he had rodeo watching on his agenda already for the evening).

We stayed up super duper late (pretty sure I pulled old lady on Ashton and suggested sleep time first, I was so tired) watching movies! We watched some Ben 10 episodes, and some of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

This morning it was more cartoons (for him) and breakfast (cooking for me). Ashton is awesome because we both adore Pokemon and Digimon (we have a playlist of the Pokemon and Digimon theme songs that we listen to hehe). I hope I have things in common with my future kids!

Photodump #2

Photo Dump

So I haven't been posting much in the past couple of weeks just because so much has been going on, so here's a photo dump of the pictures that have been building up on my phone (in kind of random order)!

A picture of a picture. This was grade 12 (2008), a bunch of us skipped school (heh) to go fishing. R-L: Levi, Jesse, Kris.

Some scenery, and a night at Mathew's place. Being with friends.

Branden got a new phone and phone case. And the lake where we released some balloons for Jesse last week. And the boys.

Halloween 2011

Please Note: Although I do mention it later I just want to first say that these are all cell phone pictures and I regret to the max forgetting my camera at home! Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year to photograph and I really missed out (well, not really, because I had a camera, just a crappy one). Hope you enjoy anyway :) I'm happy I did get some pictures.

Didn't blog Halloween yet! Been all busy with stuff.
Mario - my nephew, Ashton, who you may see a lot of.
The other children are a family/friend's children, they're all adorable!
Anyway, here are some pictures:

This is what I wrote for my 365:
Okay, I actually had plans for great pictures this day, of course in the hussle bussle of the day of just had to go and forget my camera at home! I was pretty choked about it :( Again, phone pictures only :( Halloween! This halloween was different than all our others. Usually we go into "town" (St. Paul, AB) to trick or treat, and the time schedule is 4-6pm. Usually we end up starting late (parents don't get off work until 4:30 then there's the 20 minute drive into town), and although the kids get plenty enough candy, it feels like they don't trick or treat as much as they can. Also, it's corroded with children! Like, line-ups at every house, because of all the surrounding communities around St. Paul and how tiny the town is. I usually go with my family (cousins and sisters and their children, as I have none), and I help them with their kiddies. I also have taken the liberty of taking Branden's two little sisters as well. So there's usually a ton of us out and about. This year was so different. Halloween fell on a monday so that meant no matter what I would be in Edmonton, thankfully my sister moved to edmonton last month so I had her and my nephew to trick or treat with. We went with my cousin and her 3 kids. 4 kids is a whole lot less than the 10+ I'm used to. It was so odd in Edmonton. Back home we're done at 6, here they go until 8! The kids actually got tuckered out before curfew! Also, there were barely any kids out! So odd. I'm used to there being TONS of people, and there were hardly any. Nonetheless I was pleased with how calm it was. It was a good halloween.

Ponyo