Echo Roadtrip

As a precursor to this post, a week before this trip Dallas and I had a discussion about him going on a mission, about how he really wants to, but its hard, yadda yadda, and essentially we decided to cut back on the 'couple thing'...

So, last weekend Dan, Indie, Dallas and Myself took a trip to Dan's uncle's cabin at Echo lake. I know I am the queen of the marathon date(though I can't really call it a date because ...well its complicated?), but this was going to be the marathoniest of them all!

We left Lethbridge at 2pm Friday, We got back at 11pm Sunday. 57 hours? Possible longest "date" yet. I picked up Dallas, and lo and behold, the kid was sick again... you know for a guy that claims to have an extraordinary immune system, his kind of sucks. It was a solid ride down, the roads were fine right up until we got into Glacier... then my car was pretty much skating the entire way. It was a little nerve racking, but we made it there alive, which is a bonus. Dan's Uncle's Cabin wasn't right on the lake, but it was def close enough, it was beautiful, like what my house will look like one day. First order of business? Famous Daves...

It had been a solid 6 months since the boys were last down here, and they had gone to Famous Daves, and on the menu, there was a platter that included an "ENTIRE CHICKEN" ... for months I had to listen to them talk about the ENTIRE CHICKEN... it got old, real fast. So, we went to Famous Daves. And you know what? This platter fed the four of us. And it was delicious. I think this is tradition now... every time we leave Canada, we must find a Daves, and we MUST have an ENTIRE CHICKEN. You know what else? Americans know how to do their BBQ- the chicken, the ribs, the beans and coleslaw, and CORNBREAD MUFFINS to die for... mmmm.

Enough of that, we hit up the grocery store on the way back, I had the intent of stocking up on Cherry Dr. Pepper, cause that's the good stuff, but I found Mountain Dew White Out... That's the REAL good stuff... its my new favorite. It has more caffeine than Pepsi. Don't judge.

By the time we got back to the house it was getting late so we watched a movie and went to bed. All of us in our own rooms. Don't even worry about our chastity! We are good boys and girls.

I was the first one up in the morning. I tried to go back to sleep but to no avail. I went upstairs to read by the fire, and I did so for about an hour and a half until Indie decided it was time to get up. We decided not to wake the boys just yet, they need their beauty sleep. So we went on a little adventure! We walked down to the lake, it was gorgeous. The sun was shining, there was not a breath of wind and it was probably in the double digits degrees-wise. Then we wandered back up the road and found the volunteer fire department, they had on of those practice fire house things, we tried to get inside it... we failed. So we continued walking and found our way to a road that went behind our cabin, so we decided to go tromping through the snow to get back. I sunk in up past my knee a few times. We got back, and the boys still weren't up, we had had enough so we started calling for them, man they are pretty when they first wake up....

We took the truck that was out there cause we didn't want my lil ol car getting stuck anywhere and we went for a drive, sight seeing and such, we went to Costco. Mmmm, Costco in the states...SO good. So much free food. Samples are the greatest thing ever. We also stopped at Famous Daves to get more corn bread, cause it was that good.

We played monopoly and cards, ate pizza and watched movies, went for a moonlit walk to the lake, star gazed in the snow, had a lil snowball fight, it was a great vacation. As for our agreement to be less coupley... umm yeah... I guess this weekend didn't count... I tried to enforce said agreement, but the boy was little self control, and is very persistent. At one point in time I refused to let him anywhere near me, I had no idea I was that quick... It didn't last long though, speed is not my forte, so I turned to what IS my forte... In the matter of about 40 minutes, I had him in 3 different headlocks. He has an enormous head so this was no small feat, I thought a few times about just choking him out... staying away from him would be a lot easier if he were unconscious... ...I didn't.

Didn't get to watch the Superbowl, but its probably better that way... my Steelers lost.

The roads were better on the way back, I let Dan drive, I trust him with my car, I just wanted to chill. The trip back was fairly uneventful. We stopped in Magrath at Indie's house, visited with her family, which, was not as awkward as I thought it would've been. They are cool people. And funny.

Anyway, all in all, it was a good weekend, to bad though... this was the only picture I got of it...

Yeah...thats exactly what it looks like... taking a leak...

Blogiversary

Well folks. It's been one year since I started this thing. And officially, this is my 92nd post. I was hoping to make it 100, and I knew this day was coming... but...you know.

Some Blogstats-
Longest time in between posts- 13 days.
Most commented on posts- Tied- My Friends in Awkward Album Art, Confessional 1 and End of Sarcasm
Longest Blog- The Jerry Saga
Shortest Blog- New Month's Resolution

It's still pretty good. It's about one post every four days. We can look at it this way, it leaves a whole lot of room for improvement!

Bloggoals for this next year-
1. Be more consistent. I know I would go days and weeks at a time with nothing, and then you'd get a bunch right in a row...and you're right, it IS annoying.
2. I'm going to post 120 posts this year! That's a blog every 3 days. Totally achievable.
And 3. I believe you guys need more pictures, so a post with pictures at least every couple of weeks.

There you have it! What to expect from me over the next year. And to honor this past year, I've put together a list of my Top 5 Best Posts...

5. Running
4. Ethel/Re-Ethel
3. End of Sarcasm
2. Double Feature
1. Confessional 1

And just for a little more enjoyment...I give to you, the greatest things i've ever written, in no particular order...
"I blame the Industrial Revolution"
"Don't let racks distract you while driving in the snow"
"Stupid Dinosaurs"
"Mom= mood killer"
"Seriously, he cries ALOT for being a cartoon dinosaur"
"its like giving a penguin a gun"
"Sometimes I use smarties to make decisions"
"I practically made out with your hand...make out with my face"
"Hot dead fish"
"I've been feeling like a hobo this week... drowned hobo, wedding crasher hobo, stalker hobo..."

The Wagon. Or Lack Thereof.

So. Its confession time. Again. But not those fun little confessions like "I watch Spanish soap operas." It is REAL confession time...

I fell off the wagon somewhere along the line. I know you are asking yourself 'which wagon?' And the answer lies in the before and afters.

BEFORE: I used to be able to straight up quote scripture at the drop of a hat. I used to write and give talks on a monthly basis. I could give a spiritual thought/lesson with 30 seconds notice, and it was good. I used to be scripture chase champion. I never declined an invite to FHE, Institute or any YSA activity. I'd bear my testimony on a fairly regular basis. I held two pretty major callings, that I totally rocked. I used to volunteer to say prayers. I'd go out of my way to meet new people and make friends...

You get the idea. I was Ms. Molly Mormon.

Now(ish)... The confession part... I still read my scriptures everyday, but just for the sake of reading. There is no study involved. I've given 1 talk in the last 3 months. I don't carry my scriptures (almost) anywhere anymore, I used the scripture app on my phone. I constantly skip FHE, Institute and YSA activities. I (finally)got released from my callings, and the new calling I did get was disbanded by the 1st pres. And im in calling-limbo now. I avoid people and havn't done many super social things lately. ...again... you get the idea.

Well, over Christmas I had time to think about this low that I have hit, but didn't really care to do much about it. The weekend I went up to Edmonton, helped change this. See, I LOVE Edmonton... majority of my friends up there make me want to be better. Kiera, one of the girls I rode up with/was staying with set an example for me. She read her scriptures and said her prayers every night we were up there. I went and visited Becky, and she did her visit-teaching, and it was just a bunch of stuff that made me re-evaluate my current spiritual situtaion...

I signed up for an institute class, and i've been going. I hosted FHE at my house. I went to the YSA dance. I bust out some real scriptures, and im actually doing something with them. I got a new calling. I did my Visit Teaching. I volunteered to Pray and offered insight into a gospel discussion. I hung out with some old friends and we had a spirital discussion at a social gathering. Things are looking up. I just wanted you to know that I'm chasing down that wagon, ima jump back on it and hold on for dear life!

So....

Another side note- If I include this post, I begin 25.5% of my blogs with the word 'So'. I apologize. It bugs me sometimes, so I change it. If I never changed it, the percent would probably sit around 60%... Now that i've brought it up, it will bug you too. I'm sorry.

So. I was going to write about stuff. But I think my side note is a lot to digest right now. I've turned this post into an apology for how annoying my overuse of the word 'so' is. So....yeah. My bad.

Flames date.

Side note before I begin, my previous post was about how I hate my compuer... I rewrote that post, and its located previous to the Computer-hate post.


So, my sister-in-law Stef, whom I love and adore, works for the Calgary Flames. And as a perk to her job occasionally gets tickets to games. And when she and Jarett are unable to go, they are kind and generous and donate to their siblings' causes. AkA- I gots da tickets! So, this is totally a perfect date cause my ....man?...Dallas loves hockey.

Now, I'm the queen of the marathon-date. The majority of my dates last upwards of 7 hours. We drove up(2 hours) just talkin and laughin, havin a good ol time, got to the game, had GREAT seats! I had never been to a professional hockey game before(unless you count the Hurricanes....I dont.) So it was an experience. Flames vs The Wild. We had a great time. Sad the Flames lost. Dallas wasn't so sad... jerk. But it was really entertaining. The intermission entertainment was awesome! First intermission peewee aged hockey kids had a relay race. Super cute! Second intermission was HUMAN BOWLING. Totally sweet. Also, something that made it worth while- apparently ZZ Top are huge flames fans!

AND!!

TWO Zambonis!!! They dont mess around.

Anyway, after the game(2.5ish hours) we get back to the car, he leans in to kiss me, but he catches the eye of some dude walking past the car and gies him a thumbs up and a wink. Nice. Total mood killer Dallas.

We decided we were hungry so we stopped at BP's(1 hour ish) and then we had a great drive home(3 hours ish)

All in all, it was a fantastic date. I got home 2:30am and had to work the next day, but I didn't even care!

I Hate my Computer

So... its vent time. I just wrote a blog post about last weekend. It was about Edmonton and the concert and changing my life to be a better person. It was quite the blog.

MY Computer decided to boot me, and delete that post. I kind of feel like booting it back... With a nice pair of steel-toed boots. I HATE THIS! I'm going to go crazy, cause its never as good the second time around! And I'm not re-writing it tonight. I don't want to rewrite it ever! Argh! Stupid computer, you make things so easy AND so difficult.

PS. Don't worry.... It will get rewritten sooner or later.

Great Big Weekend

This weekend Myself and some friends of mine took a little trip up to Edmonton to see Great Big Sea in concert. Hence the blog title... if you didn't get it...

The drive up there was great, for the most part the roads were clear and dry. Awesome. Tacy tagged along for the ride, she was going up to see Ashley Steed. We went to drop her off and the minute we turned onto residential streets I knew it was going to be a tad more difficult than anticipated. Now, i've spend a solid amount of time in Edmonton... or so I thought... I wasn't aware that this was normal. There was about 6 feet of snow on people's lawns, and about a foot on the road, fluffy and just begging to get you stuck in it. most streets there was only one set of tracks in the snow on the road so if you met a car going to opposite way, you were hooped. Well, we stopped out front of the house to let Tacy out just as another car was pulling down the road. We tried to move, he tried to move, we both got stuck and wound up pushing each other out. Solid times.

We went shopping at West Ed, as per usual. But a new twist, we made a plan of attack! The gals looked up the stores they wanted to hit, we got a map and planned our route for maximum efficiency. Which is a good thing cause we still ended up spending about 5 hours there. Its ok, while they did some shopping I watched an entire game of ringette. Which was more entertaining than I had previously thought. I then proceeded to spent an exorbitant amount of money at Bath & Body Works... I do hate shopping, except when it comes to that. I'm going to smell very good, for a very long time. Mmmm.

I wasn't as excited about the concert as my buddies were. I mean, I like GBS, but they were practically giddy, and we listened to GBS ALL weekend... This concert changed that. I kind of love them now. They were fantastic! They really knew how to put on a show. It was funny, and I was impressed by how legit musically talented they all were, every one of them sang, and they all played several instruments. It was awesome!

Anyway, at the concert there was this couple looking for their seats, and it looked like they were separated by wouldn't you know it- us. I could see the dejected look on their faces as the usher pointed it out to them. They shuffled down the row heading towards their assigned seats, now, I wasn't havin none of that. We all shoved down a seat so they could sit togethr. It wasn't a big deal to us, but you could just see the gratitude in their faces. Precious moments. They sat holding hands for the entire concert. It made me feel good.

ALSO. This lady. Before the concert started leaned over to me and asked me if I was at Costa Blanca(store in WestEd) this morning. I was. Odd little moment... it got me thinking- I walked through that mall for hours, and if I was to see someone on the street, that I saw at the mall that day, I probably wouldn't recognize them. Or if by some miracle I did recognize them, I wouldn't be able to tell you where from. And this thought troubles me. It has for a while. When I meet someone, I make a note of their name and what they look like, so if we happen to cross paths later in the evening, I wouldn't look like a fool. But after we leave that situation, the night ends, any information like that gets filed in the cellar of my brain. This has to change. Cause I see these people days, months, weeks later, and I know I've met them, but thats all I know. And that makes me a jerk. If I don't make an effort to see people, it means that I dont care. And I DO care. So from now on, i'm going to make an effort to see people. Their details. Things that make them, them. And not just people I meet- people everywhere. If I don't notice people, hoiw am I supposed to know when and where I can help them?

This lady must've seen thousands of people that day. And i'm really impresed that she noticed me, and remembered where from. I'm not anything special, I look like everyone else. I want to be like her, I want to be able to see people, and remember them.

....So...the first time I wrote this, it sounded way better.... it kind of sounds stupid now, but you get it...right?