Drew is 17!

I thought I should mention, yesterday was Drew's 17th birthday! It's hard to believe. We had some friends over and we ate this really delicious blueberry cream pie. Yummm... It was fun. After me and Sarah went outside and stomped designs into the icyish snow (that's the best way to describe it, lol). I made a peace sign to bring out my inner hippie.

My Christmas

WOW, a lot has happened since I last blogged. We have been really busy this Christmas. On Christmas Eve Drew and I flew from Saskatoon to Edmonton and our flight was only a little delayed (which is shocking, planes were usually really late due to weather). Then in Edmonton we were supposed to have a four hour layover there and get to Abbotsford at around 10ish. Edmonton airport had a really cool fireplace that you could lean up against becuase it wasn't extremely hot. It was the perfect temperature. We walked around a while and I was like, "Wow, I wish there was a Starbucks." As soon as we found the only Starbucks they were closing the gate. So everything was closed and we were bored again. We ended up going to Tim Hortons (a Canadian donut shop) and that closed too shortly after we got our donuts. So we decide to wait and read magazines at this gate that was going to Victoria and everyone there was mad becuase their plane was late or something. The poor airport employees. While we were there we heard shouting so we turned around and police were tackling this lady to the ground and handcuffing her. She was yelling at them the whole time. They were saying the whole formal, "We are arresting you..." and they were arresting her for like being a public disturbance or something. It was so funny. She was like, "I am not disturbing anyone!" Then she looked at this lady across from me and she said, "Am I being a disturbance? Am I disturbing you?" Drew and I were cracking up. This lady was either high, or crazy.

Our plane was two hours late and we ended up having a six hour layover. When we got back Dad picked us up and took us to Harrison Hot Springs for the night. Mom and Lainey were there sleeping (Dad came early and dropped them off, he didn't know he would be waiting for us at the airport until 12 in the morning, lol). We got up at 7:30 and went swimming with Lulu. She had a blast. This is a picture of Dad and Drew in their swim trunks in the snow. After this they jumped in the pool.

We drove to my Aunt's house in Seattle and got there about 2 or so in the afternoon. We ate a ton of food and we went sledding that night with all my cousins. It was so fun. Most of my cousins are "adults" and the fact that I had to put quotes means that they are still young enough to be fun:) We had a snowball fight and I am not really sure who won in the end, I am sure we all got snow to the head at least once.


On Sunday we went to church and watched the kids(it was our childcare week) and then came home and ate a delicious brunch ( is brunch at 2 considered brunch?). It was so good. Drew made bacon and we were all very proud of him. The picture is just off the top layer, there was a lot more than four pieces. One of Dad's gifts for Christmas was a Texas hold 'em set. So we all learned how to play and I think I may have an addiction.... jk

Yummy Stuff

The other day me and my mom made rice crispy squares. They were so good. I had no idea I liked them that much. I think that I may be addicted. The melting butter and marshmallows smelled so good but it was EXTREMELY sticky.

Today we also made gluten-free microwave chocolate cake in a mug (wow, that's a lot of adjectives). It took like 5 minutes and was really simple. The white stuff is marshmallow icing, mmmmmm....

It's a tad chilly

Yeah so maybe that's a bit of an understatement, it's been -26 Fahrenheit. Drew and I have only been actually sledding once and that was for maybe 10 minutes. Yeah it's cold.

This is a picture of me after I had my snow gear on. It took more time and effort to get dressed for it than it took to play in it, lol.

Another cool thing: Doug built an inversion table (A table thingie that goes upside down and what not depending on where and how you shift your weight). This is a picture of me attempting to go upside down. I wasn't quite heavy enough for the setting so I had to go up and swing all my weight backwards, quite terriffying actually, lol.

Marvin G's, Tenessy, and St. Chucks

It is a tradition that we play Monopoly every Christmas that we are here in Canada. This year I had my turn of winning! The title of this post (Marvin G's, Tenessy, and St. Chucks) are just nick names that we have given to certain places. That is few of many we have come up with, lol.
So yeah this time I won starting out with my favorite places. I love the orange squares (New York Ave, Tennessee, and St. James Place) and I also love the railroads (they don't cost much and they are scattered throughout, what's not to like?).
Some people say that Monopoly is too long and a waste of time (you all know who you are), I say you get to rule the world for a couple of hours, how could that possibly be boring?

Heart, Tom Petty, Food, and My Puppy Hat

This morning my mom made bread and then we made lasagna for dinner (we are on top of things, lol). It was fun. I love cooking. After that we listened to an assortment of 80's tunes and ate cookies. Yeah, that was fun...

So this is the puppy hat I got at the airport in Calgary. I couldn't resist. They were actually for little kids but this one must have been for like some chubby kid with a big head or something. It makes me happy. I still don't mind if I get a hat for Christmas, you can never have to many. Hats are like shoes.

Since we are on the topic of Calgary airport, I wanted to show the pictures of the delicious food that we got with the vouchers. Me and Drew got a ton more than we needed, but why not? It was free.

Home to Me

The things I love at home:

-when Dad and Kynsie and I stay up until midnight on a school night debating Calvanism vs. Arminianism (I am leaning towards Calvanism, btw)
-when Lou goes to bed and Dad puts on NCIS or Monk
-when Mom randomly prints pictures for me and Kynsie to hang in our room
-when everybody leaves and I can do my school while watching Corner Gas (shhhh...)
-when people come over and the parents say, "Well, we had better go..." and, of course, they don't for another 30 minutes
-the days when I am stressed out, I love to go on walks and take random pictures of signs and stuff
-when it's raining and only a few lights are on and it is completely quiet except for maybe the coffee maker. It reminds me of when we first saw the house and I thought, "I want this house just for the sound the rain makes on the roof."

These are a few things I love at my house. I also love the tv and surround sound, lol.

I used to love airports...

Well, like I said, I used to love airports. That is until yesterday when I had to be in one for much longer than inteded. Let's start from the beginning...

Wednesday 17, 2008, 5:00 am- So I got up and took a shower and what not. Then we spent half an hour trying to decide if we could make it to Abbotsford, BC in time for our flight at 9. Abbotsford is about 2 hours away from my Aunt's house that we were at. We left and made it in plenty of time although the weather was pretty snowy and nasty. At the airport they told us that our plane still hadn't left so it would be about 30 to 40 minutes late. When it finally did get here me and Drew went into security to wait to board. It took a while for everyone to get as soon as Drew a off the plane and do all that crap, as always. It was finally time for general boarding. As soon as Drew and I got to the front and the lady was checking our ID this other employee came up and whispered that there was a security breech and they needed to unload all the people they had already boarded and re-board them. She told us to go back and sit down for a while. It turns out that someone forgot their shoes on the plane(do NOT ask me how that happened, lol) and ran back to get them. That was the big security breech (keep in mind this is a small airport and that's probably all the excitement they get). So when we finally did leave the plane, it was 11. Only a couple hours late.

So off we went. When we got to Calgary they told everyone that the connecting flights would have to be changed (they all had already left) so we were to go pick up our luggage and talk to someone at the West Jet desk. We did all that and they told us that we couldn't get on a flight today and we would have to stay at a hotel. I started laughing a little, for some reason it seemed hilarious. I was like, "God? Are you joking?" I think He was. I needed a little lesson in patience I guess. They gave us a ticket thing to give to them at the hotel and $90 worth of food vouchers to use at the hotel and airport. So I was like this is kind of cool, we can think of this as an exciting experience. It was not that exciting. Quite the contrary, really.

We shopped a while, got a bite to eat, and headed for the shuttle. Drew called and they said they would be there in 20 minutes. It was freezing outside and it ended up being more like 55 minutes, but we met some people that were in the same situation as us. It was actually pretty cool, becuase each voucher was worth $10 bucks so at a restuarant you had to use it all becuase you don't get change. Do you know how much fast Chinese food you can get for 10 bucks?

That night we watched pointless tv shows about parking tickets and fell asleep. The next day our plane was at 1 pm (it was 25 minutes late, of course) so we got to just hang out at the airport. I got this awesome puppy hat!

The pilot on the plane was really funny. His fiancee and wife were both flight attendants so he said, "If you have any questions please direct them to my ex-wife because she thinks she knows everything." All in all, it was a good experience and I am glad to be here.

Christmas Baking

We had to do so much Christmas cooking Friday and Saturday. We made Spritz cookies, macaroons, fudge (my mom and sister had to make it three times becuase the first two didn't turn out. We have decided that Martha Stewart doesn't know how to make good fudge), chocolate dipped pretzals, peanut butter balls, and I tried to make caramal corn (I won't go into that...). These are the steps it took for the Spritz cookies:

It was very exciting....

But yeah, we had a lot of fun. While we baked we watched Holiday Inn and sang along. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire, can't get much better than that. lol.

Ode to Duct Tape

I like duct tape. It only seems right that I should mention it in my blog. Duct tape is an affordable and reliable quick fix to any problem. Just a few ways I have found it handy: my wallet, my boots (I don't know how but I got a hole in them, is that normal?), my camera case, repairing my book covers, making purses and my travel bag, etc... It is amazing and truly an art.
















































I hope these pictures of my duct tape jobs will inspire you to not waste your time like I do. lol.

Go Bananas?

I have to admit, these bananas really freaked me out at first. A suicidal banana? Weird. I may make fun of bananas sometimes, but I didn't think that it would come to this.

The End of Little Houses

OUR HOUSE IS DONE. It is still hard to believe. It started out as a two bedroom bowling alley and now it has four bedrooms and an office. I love it now. When we first moved in my mom decided that our family theme song was "Love Grows Best in Little Houses." She wrote it on our kitchen blackboard. My brother later changed it to "Love (for big houses, freedom, etc...) Grows Best in Little Houses." I have to say that for once he was right. I really like having my space.

My dad just got the shower and bath tub done in the master bedroom.

I really like it.

Christmas is Coming...

I am so happy!!! Christmas is coming! I have a Santa advent calendar and I am counting the days. We have our lights up, our tree decorated, our stockings hanging, our presents are wrapped(except for the ones for me of course, lol), and we've made a very pathetic gingerbread house. It is so hard to make ginger bread houses stay up! After about two minutes I was ready to admit defeat, but Mom insisted on finishing. The little one(I won't use names, lol) ate off all the candy so that's why it looks a little bare.

Our fireplace doesn't have a mantle, so we had to get creative with our stockings this year. So we decided to hang them from the loft. They are really cute up there, but I am afraid of them. The stocking hook thingies are really heavy and I am sure that they are going to attack someone soon. It's only a matter of time.....

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