Happy New Years

The end of a year... So much has happened...

I spent so much time getting ready for the wedding in September, and it seems as though I've spent so much time getting used to huge changes. Not only getting married, but there's been a ton of changes at work too, and just when I think I'm getting used to one, they toss another at me.

Life is so much different. It was odd to be away from home over Christmas. It felt so strange to not be doing all the things that I'm used to doing. I had a good time at Duncan's parents, but it wasn't home.

I didn't have a good time breaking down on the way home. I did learn to pay more attention to road signs though. Sitting by the side of the highway for almost 2 hours while we waited for the tow truck to find us was not fun. Thank Heaven for Kurt and his shop, though, who got us fixed up and on the road again so we could get home that night.

As it's new years, I find myself thinking about all the people, both friends and family, that aren't nearby. I miss you all dearly. Those in Ontario, in Vancouver, in Japan, in Saskatchewan. I do wish the best for you in the new year. Peace and blessings to you.

To loved ones in Ontario, a big hug, and I'll talk to you soon. I love you so much! I'm always here if you need to talk, you know.

To friends in Vancouver, I hope things are going well for you, and you really do need to visit next time you make it into town! You've got the number!

To family in Saskatchewan, we'll talk to you soon, as always.

To absent friends a long way off in Japan... We miss you, and you are in our prayers. God bless you, and lead your pathway. We're always here when ever you need us.

This year brought many changes... I only wonder what the next year will bring.

Happy New Year To All, And To All A Good Night!

Christmas Eve!

Well, we're here in Saskatchewan, and it's Christmas Eve. We're having steak tonight and then going to a Christmas Eve service at the church. I'm not sure how tomorrow is going to work though, cause I understand that there's a service tomorrow morning too around 10 or 10:30. Then another dinner. I'm going to be very full.
So far the time out here hasn't been so bad. I've been a little homesick, but not really as much as I thought I might be. It still doesn't feel quite like Christmas Eve though... I guess cause I'm not doing any of the things I'm used to doing.
I'm a little stuffed up right now. Steve was sick, and I think he's passed it on to Susie and I, and maybe even to Duncan a little bit. It's not too bad... He's still coughing really bad, and the three of us are all just stuffy. Hopefully it won't get worse and I won't have to take any extra time off work.
Anyways, lots to do today, so I better go.
Talk to you all soon!

Doesn't it just figure?!

Well, we leave in two days, and I'm just not really impressed.

I'm seeing a doctor this morning cause I think I have a bladder infection. I've been feeling it for about a week, but didn't really know what it could be until I talked to mom on Saturday.

Now, the thing about bladder infections is that the doctor usually wants to confirm it with a urine test, but I don't think that's really a feasible option right now. I don't really want to go into it at the moment, but lets just say an extra friend came to visit. Not only does that get in the way of the urine test, but won't that be great for travelling?!

On the other hand, we've got packages all wrapped (except the ones that mom is helping me finish tonight), the laundry is all done, and we're going to dad's tomorrow to get the shrimp ready. Basically, we just need to pack, I think. I just have this horrible feeling that we're going to forget something that we'll wind up needing. I'm going to try and make a list of all the extra things that we need to take other than the clothes and packages. Things like my recipe box, and our card games... *sigh* Hopefully we'll remember everything.

Anyways, this seems like a good time to wish everyone a Merry Christmas (or whatever other winter holiday you may happen to celebrate). I hope the season is a time of peace and joy, and that you spend time with the ones who are truly important to you!

Merry Christmas!

(but don't worry, I'll be back on to post at least once more before Christmas day)

As time passes

Well, it's getting even closer to Christmas... Only 9 days... We leave for Saskatchewan in 5. It's been really busy trying to get everything ready for Christmas, not to mention how busy it's been at work, and there's still so much to do! We still have to do most of our shopping, do our laundry, and I still have some work to do on a few of the Christmas presents that I've been making! Not only that, but we have to pack!

I've heard that the roads in Saskatchewan aren't necessarily all that great right now. We had thought about getting winter tires for the car, but didn't really have the cash or the time. I think we'll be okay though as long as we take our time and are really careful. We have a whole day to get there, so I think we'll be okay.

Shopping should be fun, though. *please note the sarcasm* We're doing it at West Ed this Saturday, while we're over at mom's doing our laundry. Usually we probably wouldn't, but there's some stuff that we can only get at West Ed, so we don't have that much of a choice. Thankfully, I think we know almost exactly what we need to shop for, so we shouldn't have to spend too much time in the mob of the mall.

Monday night mom is helping me finish off the last of the gifts I've been making. I'm busing over to her place after work, cause Duncan is using the car to do a little shopping on his own. I think he might be shopping for me that night. I think mom is going to be giving me a ride home after, but I need to double check. She might be a little too tired or sore, cause she goes back to work that morning. She's been off for a week since she hurt her ankle at the dog run. It's not broken or anything, but she says that she almost wishes it was. It's just badly injured tendons and ligaments, not torn, but close to it, and that takes longer to heal than a break would. Not only that, but it's harder to take care of. A break is casted, but a severe strain is still free to move so you can reinjure it fairly easily.

Tuesday I think we're probably going to dads to drop off a key. He said that he and Aunty can check on our place while we're gone... Make sure the mail gets in, stuff like that. I'm gonna water the plants before we go, so they should be okay. They only need water about once a week. You know what's really great?! I've never been good with plants, especially not with Christmas Cactuses, but I've got two Christmas cactuses and an umbrella plant right now. The umbrella plant was a wedding gift. Anyways, the umbrella plant and the Christmas cactus that I bought (the other one I got from Grandma...she started it from cuttings from her cactuses), both have new growth on them! It's great! The umbrella plant has a few new branches, and the cactus has a bunch of tiny new leaves starting! That's really exciting! Now lets see how well I do with the three poinsettas that I got as housewarming gifts. So far two of them are doing okay, but the other one is pretty droopy and I don't know why. The soil is wet (it was when I got it) so I don't want to water it anymore, but I don't know what else to do with it! *shrug* Oh well. I guess that pointsettas are mostly a Christmas-time plant anyways.

I still think that it's gonna be strange to be gone for Christmas, but I'm starting to think that it's gonna be a lot of fun too. I like having younger brother-type people, and I always have lots of fun with Duncan's family. I'm sure that I'll still have my sad moments, but I know that Brian and Susie will let me call home whenever I need to. It'll be weird, and I'm still pretty nervous about being away from my family, but I think it'll be okay.

Anyways, I have to leave for work soon, so I better go. Merry Christmas everybody!

Closer to exhaustion...

Wow. There's only like 13 days to Christmas, and only 9 or so until we leave for Saskatchewan. The closer it gets, the worse I'm sleeping. I totally destroyed the bed last night with all my tossing and turning. Nothing was tucked in any more and I actually managed to turn the duvet so it was sideways on the bed.

I haven't been this bad a sleeper in a long time... I feel bad for Duncan... He's never seen me like this, and I'm sure that I must be keeping him awake too. He says I'm not, and I know he usually sleeps like a rock, but I've been tossing and turning A LOT these last few nights. I can't imagine how he can sleep through it.

Don't get me wrong... I'm excited about going to Saskatchewan for Christmas, but I'm really nervous too, and it seems like the closer it gets to the day we leave the worse it gets. And of course, the more nervous I get, the worse I'm sleeping.

I'm gonna try using one of the machines that Duncan builds at work tonight, and hopefully that will help.

Oh! Lindsey's coming over tonight! Today is officially her last day of school, so she's gonna come over and have a drink with us to celebrate.

Countdown to Christmas: 20 days...

Well, it's officially started; Christmas parties and all the rest.

We went to Duncan's staff Christmas party on Saturday night, and got a VCR as one of our gifts! It's kind of a long story, but they do this thing where you pick a gift at random from under the tree and open it, and then the next person can either pick a new gift from under the tree or steal yours. Not only that, but we go through this twice, once for new gifts and once for "regifts." The VCR we got was actually a regift! I thought that was kinda cool.

One of the other regifts we saw, wasn't actually a regift at all, just something someone thought would be really funny. It's this doll, kinda like a Barbie, and she's dressed up like a Christmas tree, and has a Santa hat on! It's really strange! I guess that the person who brought it picked it up at HomeSense! It looked like a really vintage thing, but it was actually new! It was hilarious!

I really need to get Christmas shopping soon. I mean, there's only just over 2 weeks before we leave for Saskatchewan, and we don't have anything for any of Duncan's family yet. We've got a few ideas, but haven't bought anything yet. Actually, we haven't really bought anything for anyone yet... Being farther away from West Ed makes Christmas shopping a little more difficult I think.

It's coming back!

I thought I heard them say something about it on the radio, but I wasn't sure, so I looked it up online when I got home from work.

Phantom is coming back to Edmonton!

I am SO excited! My older sister took me to see it a long time ago, and now it's coming back! She's lucky, she's seen it a whole bunch of times, but I've just seen it the once, but now I might get to go again!

I guess it's coming in August, but it looks like tickets go on sale April 1. It would be really cool to go! I told Duncan that's what I want as a first anniversary gift!

Christmas coming! Closer and faster!

Well, December 1st! Wow! 24 days to Christmas!

Duncan and I got our Christmas tree up last night. It looks pretty good, but it was really weird to look at it before I went to bed and know that it's MY tree, and not the family tree. Really weird.
We just used a few colors of ornaments; red, blue, gold, and a few white ones. The lights are red, blue, and green (they didn't have ones with yellow). We got a nice star for the top, just wire framed, with curlicues in the middle. Duncan isn't too fond of it, cause it's not lit and he says you can't see it, but I like it. Most of the lit ones are really tacky. But to each his own, right?

We bought a pair of stocking hangers tonight. Each one is a great big ornament sitting on a base, and there's a bit of a hook on the base that hangs over the edge of the mantle for you to hang your stocking on. One of them has a blue ornament, and the other one has a green ornament. They're kinda nice.

I miss my Christmas stuff... Like movies and tapes and things. Almost all my Christmas movies are on video, and I don't have a VCR, I can't find my Christmas Eve on Sesame Street tape (found the case, not the tape), and my Chipmunks Christmas is a record and I don't have a turn table. Duncan has some Christmas music, but a lot of it is really strange stuff... Arrogant Worms should never have done a Christmas album.

I made unbaked cookies tonight. It's a recipe my brother and sister and I used to make together a lot. It was always kinda fun. I never realized until tonight though, that I've never made them on my own! I think they turned out okay, but I haven't had one yet. I've been waiting for them to harden. Big thank you to my big sister for the recipe!

Anyways, I guess that's about it... Duncan's staff party is this weekend, and Dad's giving us a ride there, and we're taking a cab home again. We'd take our car, but then Duncan can't drink cause he's still on the graduated lisence.

Our open house is next Saturday... I wonder how many people will actually be able to make it.

Christmas is coming!

Well, tomorrow is the first of December, and that means it's almost time to start counting down for Christmas! I remember when I was a kid, and I would have those chocolate advent calenders... I used to love those. When I took German in high school my German teacher showed us a few advent candles... Ones with 25 marks on them and you burn down to the next mark each day. Those were pretty cool too. There was a few years that my mom made an advent calender for us. We each had a santa with 24 pockets, and then Mom would fill the pockets with different stuff; pencils, an ornament, chocolate, stuff like that. Those were cool too.

Duncan and I bought our Christmas tree last night, and a whole bunch of lights and ornaments. We got it all at Walmart. The trees not the nicest tree in the world, but it's nice, and it wasn't $200 like the ones we looked at at Sears or the Bay. The decorations are nice though, and so are the lights. We're gonna put it up tonight. We decided to go with just a few colors for the tree, so most of the ornaments we got are blue, red, and gold, with a few white ones tossed in. I think it'll look really nice, and I'm really excited about putting it up.

Duncan's staff Christmas party is this Saturday. We need to go shopping for a few things to give as gifts... We each have to take a new gift and a regift. I don't know what to give as a regift. I think we might still have one of the regifts that we got last year, but I have to find it... It was the UGLIEST Santa-shaped pump bottle for liquid soap. The UGLIEST. I know I've seen it since we moved in, but I don't know where we put it.

3 weeks until we leave for Saskatchewan. I'm not really sure how I feel about it. I mean, I'm excited to be part of Duncan's family's Christmas traditions, but I really will miss my own family. I'm sure things will all turn out okay, though.

Home sick and can't sleep!

I'm home sick from work today... And feeling absolutely miserable. My throat hurts, my chest is tight, and I feel like I'm having problems breathing. I slept on the couch for a while, and then tried to go back to bed, but I couldn't sleep cause I kept hearing noises. You know, bumps and creaks and stuff; all the noises that make you wonder if someone else is in your house, even when you know no one is.

So I'm up and on my computer on the couch.

Hopefully, if I can't get back to sleep, I'll get some writing done. I've got a great idea I've been working on, and it would be nice to get some more done on it. It's just a short story for now, but it has great potential to turn into a novel one day.

See, it's about this girl who has never fit into her town. The townsfolk and the nobility that live near by are all very set in reality, and have no use for anything different or mysterious or fantastical. They're all very superstitious, and won't let moonlight touch them, and they won't go into, or even talk about, the forest on the very edge of town. This girl is different, even though she tries to hide it. She prefers moonlight to sunshine, and likes to walk along the edge of the forest. One day the village witch (cause every village, no matter how superstitious, has to have an old crazy woman who's actually a witch), explains to this girl that she's really not like the others, that she was found as a baby on the edge of the forest. She's different because she's fairy-touched, and she has magic and mystery and the forest in her blood.

That's about as far as I've gotten so far. I have ideas for where it's going to go from here, but I have to figure out just how to get the first stuff down on paper first. Maybe I'll do some of that today if I can't sleep.

Wish me luck, and hope that I get better soon. I can't really afford to be off work... It's too busy!

Some days...

I wanted to write something today, but now I'm just not too sure about what to write. It's been one of those days where I just feel totally floored.
This morning I got some really shocking news that I wasn't really prepared to deal with. Nothing about my dad or anything else really close like that, but something that I really feel shook me. I feel... I don't know how I feel.

This is always kind of the mood that I've written best in. Maybe I'll get something done on that tonight... I almost feel bad for saying that, but it's the truth.

I think that Duncan and I might get our Christmas tree and decorations sometime this weekend, and we'll more than likely spend most of Saturday working on getting our Christmas lists together. Everybody has been asking for Christmas lists.
I don't think they'll be too complicated. Books and movies, mostly. Maybe some more of the towels off our registry lists, I'd like some new sweaters...
Something I'd really like is a digital camera, but I'm sure that won't happen. Digital cameras are just too expensive. Maybe we'll get lucky and get a VCR though. Those aren't that expensive now, and Grandma Taylor knows we want one.
*shrug*
I guess it doesn't matter too much.

Anyways, best to all. First advent coming up... A month to Christmas!

Not too bad so far!

Well, what do you know!
Second day, second post!
It's Wednesday, so I'm home from work for the afternoon. Gotta love time off! I've got big plans for this afternoon! I'm gonna have a bath, work on either writing or thank you notes from the wedding, and get dinner started! Hopefully, I might get even more than that done, but I'm not making any promises.

I get my stitches out tomorrow! For those of you I haven't told yet, I cut my hand last Thursday while I ws cutting apples to go with our pork roast for dinner. The knife slipped and I got 3 stitches in the palm of my left hand. Nice neat ones. The doctor who did them would be more than willing to do any mending I might have! *laugh* Thankfully they come out tomorrow, and I can go back to a regular life of washing dishes and taking showers once I don't have to worry so much about keeping it dry. Believe it or not, I'm really looking forward to being able to wash dishes again!

As for my writing, that's something I'm really trying to challenge myself to do more. There's so many ideas in my head though, and sometimes I have a hard time keeping them seperate from one another. That's where I've had problems before with stories... I'd just keep adding ideas as I got them until the story got so big that it either a) didn't make sense any more, or b) got so huge that it died a painful death suffocating under its own weight.
Hopefully now that I'm a little older I'll be more disciplined about that, but there's still the whole matter of actually writing. I've got a great idea right now though, and it's started, I just have to finish a draft and then round it out. It's not a novel by any means, at least not right now, but it has potential for growing into one eventually. I just have to keep at it, and not let it get too far ahead of me.

Oh well, best be off or none of this stuff is going to get done!

First time for everything...

Okay, so here we go! I've never done this before, but I'm going to give it a shot!
I plan on using this as a place to vent a little, think a little, brainstorm a little, and be myself a little.
I should warn you that I've never been very good at journalling, but since I spend time on my computer almost everyday anyways, hopefully I'll get better!
Feel free to leave comments, and I'll try and e-mail everyone more often!
Thanks and WISH ME LUCK!