Relocation

Check out my new blog at:

http://web.mac.com/nursemellyb/iWeb

A new name, a new life, a new beginning so why not a new blog!

Enjoy!

Honeymoon!!!

Yay! We leave tomorrow, bright and early at 3:30am. Our flight isn't till 7am but that's what sucks about living in Canmore (the only thing btw) you have to drive an hour to get to the airport and then be there 2hrs before your flight.....it's going to be an early morning. I wanted to stay overnight in Calgary tonight but Travis wants to drive so I guess we're driving.
This morning is the pancake breakfast at the firehall to kick off Fire Prevention Week. Travis left at 7am and I should be showering and going down there myself so off I go.......

*Sigh*

I love my life. I feel like I've finally found who I am and what I'm destined for and where I'm supposed to be and what I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I'm living my destiny, right now, in this moment, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. I've never been happier or more content. Everything in my life has brought me to this moment, to being a wife, to being me.

If I spent everyday doing what I've been doing the last two days I'd be happy for the rest of my life. Yesterday I cleaned the house a bit, did 5 loads of laundry, cooked dinner, Travis and I hung some pictures in our living room and I re-arranged all the roses I have scattered around my house from the wedding. Today I went to Calgary to pick up some stuff from our registry at the Bay. We are able to add stuff until our one year anniversary and anything we buy off the registry is discounted. I bought a ton of stuff today and was expecting a huge bill but nope, not for me! I was shocked at how little I spent for the amount of stuff I got. We completed our bedroom linens with a new duvet, duvet cover, bedskirt and another set of sheets and I bought a few things for the kitchen. Then I came home and cooked dinner and Travis went to fire practice. I'm cooking turkey dinner tomorrow for my in-laws (that still sounds weird), Travis's grandpa and Jenn so I went to the store to pick up a few final things. I came home and made the cranberry sauce, from scratch! I've never done that before and I don't like cranberries so I have no idea if it's going to be good or not but it sure smelled good. Then I made a few dozen chocolate chip cookies cause I was stupid and told my husband, before we were married, that I'd make him cookies whenever he wanted. I'm going to pay for that one. I mixed up some buttermilk pancake batter and it's sitting in the fridge with some raspberries as a special treat for Travis before he goes to work. It will be an extra special treat if I manage to get out of bed to cook them for him ;0) just kidding, of course I will. So I did all my prep work and pre-cooking I can for dinner tomorrow, I organized my recipes and figured out when things need to go in the oven and when they should be done (we watch a lot of the Food Network on TV), so I should be set for my first big dinner as a wife. I'll be sure to take pictures and post them tomorrow...if it's a success.

Yay, my husband is home.

I now pronounce you....

husband and wife! Yay! It's all over and we're married and the day was even more perfect than we could have ever imagined.

The whole week was great. We got to spend some time with my family and our families got to meet and get to know eachother. Everyone arrived on Wednesday and we had a huge family dinner at Susan's restaurant, Caramba, in Banff. On Thursday the girls all went for pedicures in the morning and the boys went to Calgary to pick up their tux's. Then Thursday afternoon Travis took all the kids to the firehall to see the trucks. That was probably one of the highlights of the entire week. Sophie is a firefighter in the making.







Thursday evening Travis's parents hosted a BBQ for all the family. It was great that everyone had a chance to meet before the wedding. Friday was a busy day of final preparations. We were all at Sue's bright and early doing all the centerpieces and flower arrangements. It took a little while to get them perfect but once we had one under our belts we went into prodcution mode and they were done. Everything for the reception was transported to the golf club while Sue, Niki and I checked into our hotel.





Friday afternoon we had a small rehearsal of how the ceremony would happen and then we took off for dinner at the Crazyweed. Then Travis and I parted ways. He went to Todd and Jenn's for the night and I went to the hotel with the girls.





The morning of the wedding I was up bright and early at 4:30am. And guess what I saw when I looked outside??? SNOW!! The first snowfall of the year to hit the ground in Canmore. Unbelievable.



However, as I have learned, when it comes to weddings, things always have a way of working themselves out and the snow was probably one of the best things that happened that day. Our pictures are going to look amazing.

I spent the morning of the wedding getting my hair done and hanging out in the hotel room with my girls, my mom, dad and grandma. It was the perfect way to spend the morning. My knees didn't start shaking till Dad and I were standing at the end of the aisle waiting for the music to start. Our ceremony was perfect and then we were married! We made our grand exit, went to get pictures taken then the reception was underway. I don't have any pictures of the ceremony or reception yet so check back in a week or so. I'll post them after the honeymoon.

Travis has gone back to work today and I'm home all week playing house wife. I think my first task will be organizing our gifts and getting our house back in order. Then we leave for sunny Mexico on Sunday!!!

Today is a big day

Everyone arrives today!!! In a few short hours this wedding is going to seem very real . Everyone is asking if we're nervous yet and we aren't quite sure why cause the only thing we're nervous about is giving our speech at the reception. But ask me tonight if I'm nervous and you might get a different story. Seeing everyone and knowing that they came all this way just for me and Travis....maybe I'll be a little nervous. Now the real preparations are starting. Picking up flowers and tux's and getting pedicures and going to rehersals. It's overwhemling at times but I think I'm holding it together pretty well. I'm not a bridezilla but my stress comes out in the form of tears not yelling. So far I've had 2 wedding meltdowns and I fully expect to have one on Friday as well. That's pretty normal though, isn't it?

Nearly there...

I realize that all my posts lately have been all about the wedding so this time I'll try to break routine and find something else to write about.

The most exciting thing for me lately is starting my 8hr position at the hospital. I've said goodbye to night shifts and 12hr shifts and now all I'm working is 8hr, day and evening shifts with some on-call during the night. So far it's been awesome. I sleep in a bit, get up and putter around the house (lately doing wedding stuff) and go to work at 2:30pm. I don't get home till 11pm so it doesn't give Travis and I much time to spend together but I try to come home on my dinner break and hey, we get to spend the rest of our lives together I don't think a couple evenings a week is going to make much difference in the long run. So far I've only done evening shifts, 3pm-11pm, and that is the majority of what I do but I do get a few day shifts as well which are 7am-3pm. The only crappy thing about the position is the on-call shift from 11pm-7am. Some of my evening shifts are acutally, evening on-call, so I work my 3-11 shift and then go home and hope that the phone doesn't ring for me to go back. The only reason they'd call me to come back is if there's a major trauma, a couple births or it's just really busy. It happens every now and then but not regularly. We're having a ton of births lately! We only have 2 labor rooms and already we're getting into trouble with space. We've had a few instances where there have already been two ladies in labor and a third comes in and we have to find a room to put her in until someone delivers and we can get into a labor room. It's only going to get worse as our population increases and we're already getting more and more overflow from Calgary and Cochrane so the hospital is going to need some major reno's in the next few years. It's going to be very interesting.

Yesterday I was working in emerg and we had to intubate and send a really sick patient to Calgary. I realized that I'm so much more comfortable in the labor room than I am in the trauma room. Give me a sick baby or a scary delivery or a delivery without a doc and I'm good but don't give me a trauma patient. I told the doc afterwards that I think I'll stick to maternity patients from now on. He laughed and told me I was fine but I guess it's just my experience and comfort level. I am in no way an emerg nurse yet, that's for sure. Give me another 10 years and then maybe I will be but for now I'm still calling myself a maternity nurse more than anything. The scary thing is that most of my shifts are in emergency so I guess I'll have to start feeling more comfortable in the trauma room. That the beauty of rural nursing. We are the jack of all trades and masters of none, you have to do everything and know everything and be ready for anything. It's exciting and I'm really, really lucky because everyone is so helpful and I'm not afraid to say 'I don't know what I'm doing' or 'I've never done this before' and someone is always there to help. Nurses are known for 'eating their young' but not at the Canmore hospital.

Travis is waiting to hear if he's going to be one of the new lieutenants at the fire hall. We're really excited about that. It means that he'll be sent to fire school to finish all his courses, fully paid, and he'll get more responsibility at the hall and a bit of a pay raise. He'll be sort of a liason between the part-timers and the captains. People will come to him with their issues and then he'll take it to the captain or the assistant chiefs. The new position is being created partly because their long time chief is going to be retiring in November so they're trying to create more structure within the department. There's going to be a lot of changes happening over the next few months.

Only 10 days till the wedding!!! Today is Sue's birthday too!!! My little sister is 23 today. Only 7 days till people start arriving. Dad, Candace, Jeff, Fiona, Kaia, Sophie, Tim, Karen, Abby and Ben (whew!) all arrive next wednesday and then Mom and Grandma arrive the next day. Yay!!! I can't wait till everyone gets here. It's going to make the wedding seem that much more real, I know it's only 10 days away and it should feel real already but sometimes I feel like 'is this really happening?' Silly I know but the fact that it's MY wedding feels kinda surreal sometimes. If you had asked me a year ago if I thought I was going to be getting married within the year, I'd have told you that you were crazy. Only cause a year ago, I hadn't met Travis yet. The day we get back from our honeymoon will be our one year anniversary.

My coffee is done so I'm ready to get my day started now. I have to organize all the decorations for the reception and I have my make-up trial at 3pm then I'm going out with Sue for her birthday celebrations tonight.

Dress day!

Today's the day I get to bring my dress home!!! Sue and I are going to Calgary in about an hour or so for my final dress alterations. The first appointment is at 10:30 and the seamstress makes her adjustments and then at 3:30 we go back and if all is well, I get to take it home! The last time I tried it on it didn't need anything done except the bustle so hopefully it's still the same. I've been trying to avoid icecream as much as I can but when I'm stressing over wedding stuff all I want is icecream. Yesterday was the only day that I've been feeling really stressed out over all the things I still have left to do. Everyone says "don't stress over the small stuff" yeah, easier said than done people. We're meeting Allison, my designated VIP, for lunch to go over reception details. She's agreed to be in charge of decorating the room since we can't get in there till 2:30pm on the wedding day! Yikes. She's going to do an amazing job though and I trust her completely.
I'd better get into the shower so I'm ready to go when Sue gets here.

We're back!

Well we've been back for 10 days now and I'm just a little slow with the update. We had a fantasic holiday in Penticion and Sicamous. Watching Jenn do the Ironman was probably the highlight of whole trip. It was amazing and she did amazing. Travis has all those pics on his iTravis website...hmmm...how do I put in the link??...... http://web.mac.com/travispinet/iWeb/Site/iTravis.html There that should work. Pentiction was kind of rainy and cloudy except for 1 beach day and we had one awesome beach day in Sicamous. We were home on the 2nd and since we've been home it's been all about the wedding. We're on the home stretch now, only 16 days to go. I'm picking up my dress this weekend. Travis has his stag this weekend. Everything is pretty much under control. I still feel like I have a lot to do and I'm trying my best not to stress about it. I havn't turned Bridezilla yet and I'm trying not to now.
I've started my 8hr rotation at work. I had my first shift yesterday and I'm working evenings again today. So far so good!
Here's some pics from our holiday, Travis has some more on his site....

Good news for us.....

It's good news for us that Hurricane Dean missed the Mayan Riveria and other tourist spots but not so good for the local Mexicans since it hit one of the poorest areas in Mexico. I'm pretty happy that we live in an area that is pretty well protected from natural disasters.
We're leaving tomorrow to Pentiction!!!! We're so excited. It's cold and rainy here and apparently it hot, hot, hot in the Okanagan. I'm excited to spend lots of time on the beach and go to Kamloops and see some old friends too. It's going to be a great vacation.

Hurricane Dean

We have been tuning into the weather lately and anxioulsy watching Hurricane Dean get closer and closer to Mexico. Travis is now a hurricane expert after doing some internet research last night. Right now it's a category 5 (worst you can get) and our resort is under a hurricane warning and tourists are being evacuated. We're hoping that it stays on it's present course cause then it looks like the eye of the storm will miss our honeymoon resort. Although it is 200km wide so it wouldn't take much for it to shift just slightly north and wipe out all our honeymoon dreams. Cross you fingers for us and our honeymoon!!!

Johnston Canyon and the Inkpots

Travis and I went on a 12km roundtrip hike yesterday through Johnston Canyon and up to the Inkpots. It's probably one of my favorite hikes so far cause it's got lots of people which minimizes the chances of a bear attack and it's beautiful.






Today we are going to get our spare room organized and ready for painting, that is if Travis ever gets out of bed.

Vacation starts TODAY!

Yay! I am officially "on vacation" I don't have to go back to work until Sept 4. To make things even better....yesterday was my last 12hr day shift! When I go back to work in September I work 4 nights and then I change to my new 8hr position. That is so exciting. I'm going to spend my first week of vacation getting our house back in order, finishing off a few wedding things and getting ready for our trip next Friday. We're spending 5 days camping in Pentiction and watching our friend Jen do her first Ironman Triathalon. That is going to be very exciting. Then we're going to spend some time with mom in Sicamous hanging out at the beach and floating on the lake. We are going to need some relaxing time cause when we get back it's going to be wedding crunch time, just over 3 weeks to go when we get home. I'm getting so excited for the wedding. I had my first dress fitting last week and it fits perfectly. I have to go try it on one more time before the wedding and then I get to bring it home. I picked up the flower girl dresses last week and they are adorable. I can't wait to see what they look like on the girls. My wedding band is finished. We're getting them custom made by a goldsmith in town which is a little expensive but so worth it. My ring is better than I could have imagined and very unique. Travis tried on the wax mold of his ring and it's going to be pretty spectacular too. So everything is falling to place for the big day and now I just want it to come!! I can't wait to see all my family and friends who I havn't seen in ages. It's going to be great. I'm going to go and be lazy on the couch for a bit, I am on vacation after all ;0)

Camping

Travis and I went out camping at Deadman's Flats a few weekends ago. We had a great time. Here's a few pics! The best part of the whole weekend was the hammock and having a latte in the morning. Thanks Jeff and Fiona!!

My Future Husband, My Hero

Travis was "savin' lives and breakin' hearts" all over the place on Sunday. There was a big fire in Canmore. A house near completion in the Three Sisters, worth $1.8 million went up in flames. No one was hurt, except for some minor heat exhaustion in one of the firefighters. When Travis gets a fire page and runs out of the house I always turn on his radio and listen to what happening for a bit just so I know he's ok. On Sunday I was listening to his radio when they said there was a firefighter down. I swear my heart stopped for a second then panic set in. It was the worst feeling ever. They were pretty quick to say that their status was "green" meaning they were stable and not badly injured but I wasn't totally at ease until Travis called a few hours later. Every time he goes out to play with fire I'm naturally a little worried but confident that he'll be ok. This was the first time someone was hurt and it's changed everything for me. It's going to take a little while for me to feel at ease again when he leaves the house. Here's a few pics from his exciting day.

The Zoo!

We went to the zoo in Calgary last Saturday and it was awesome. I love the zoo! We felt a little out of place since we were one of the few couples without a stroller or small children running around but it also looked like we were having way more fun than those poor parents. We saw lots of children on leashes or harnesses which made them look like they were supposed to be actually IN the zoo. I'll never understand, and hopefully never feel the need to put a child on a leash. Weird. Anyways, the zoo was awesome. It was really hot so a lot of the animals were sleeping in the shade. The tigers weren't out so we didn't get to see them and I was really disappointed cause they're my favorite. We did get to see the hippos though and they're my favorite too. The monkeys were entertaining as usual and there was a little baby monkey too that was so cute. We walked right past a wedding ceremony in the gardens. How cool would it be to get married at the zoo!
We also arranged tuxedo's for Travis and the boys so that's another thing we can cross off our to do list. They're going to look so good. I wish my dress would hurry up and get here. It's so easy for Travis we were in and out in an hour and everything was done. I have to wait 5 months for my dress to even get here, then have fittings and alterations (hopefully not) and find shoes and decide what I'm going to wear under my dress and find jewelery.... It's fun I just wish it was a little easier and I didn't have to wait so long to see my dress again! It should be here within the month!

Bridal Shower

I can't believe it was already two weeks ago! I was a great day. Susan, Mom, Niki and Ryan did so much work and everything turned out beautiful. Mom and Sue spent all day Friday prepping the food and games and then they were all off early on Saturday morning to set up. I slept in and had a lazy morning at home and then made my grand entrance to the party. The morning had started out cool and cloudy and was threatening to rain but as soon as the party started the sun came out and it was hot, hot, hot. We started out playing a game. Everyone was divided into teams and had to designate one person to be the 'bride' and then we got a roll of toilet paper and had to make them a wedding dress.



After the game we had some fantastic lunch and then opened gifts. Mom got her chance to dress me up since the theme of the shower was that everyone had to bring me their favorite cleaning tip to help me in my new life of domestication.



It's a good look for me but the hat isn't too comfortable, imaginative but not made for comfort. Good work mom, it was fun!

Gift opening took forever. Everyone was so generous and we got alot of really great stuff. Thank you everyone!!
When I finally finished we mingled for a bit and spied on the wedding photos being taken around us. It was the most popular day to get married that day, 7/7/7, and two wedding were getting their pictures taken in the park around us. I decided that my dress is definately prettier than the other brides dresses who were there. There was one really cute little flower girl wearing angel wings! I wonder if Leslie would oppose to her girls wearing angel wings at the wedding?? It might be a little over the top for us but she sure looked cute. Once people had gotten enough sun for the day the group started to head home but the day wasn't over yet. After dismantling the tent and getting everything packed away in trucks the real party started. Nine of us girls headed off to Banff for the bachelorette party!
Once again Susan and Niki did a great job. We started at the hotel where all the girls received their matching t-shirts and I got my special "Game Over" t-shirt. My "maids" also got their french maid aprons. I love it!!! We definately stood out in the crowd all wearing pink. We went for dinner at the Elk and Oarsmen, one of my favorite restaurants cause they have yam fries. Then we did a little shopping on our way back to the hotel where we played some games and had a few drinks. My favorite game was pin the hose on the fireman. Once we had all received our 'chores' for the night we headed out on the town.





Susan's chore was to perform I'm a Little Teapot for a tall man. For some reason Susan's chores were the only ones we captured on film.



It was a great night with a great group of girls, we all had a blast.
The whole event has made the wedding seem that much more real and approaching very quickly. I am so excited!!!!! Only 2 months one week and one day away!

excited!

It's going to be a fun weekend! My bridal shower and bachelorette party are tomorrow!!!! Yay! Mom arrived yesterday and Niki arrives today. We're cooking a big dinner tonight and the festivities start tomorrow!! I'll be sure to post some pics on Monday.

Looking for ideas!

Ok, everyone I need your ideas for the wedding reception! Travis and I don't want to listen to glasses clinking all night and kissing every 10 seconds. We want our guests to have to work for it. Send me your ideas for what you think our guests should have to do to earn our kiss.

time is flying by

It feels like it was March and now all of a sudden June is almost over. It's going to be September before I even realize it. I can't wait! Wedding planning is going well. I'm feeling more in control now. The bridesmaid dresses arrived last week so they're hanging in the laundry room ready for alterations. I ordered the flower girl dresses last week and they're so cute I can't wait for them to arrive. My veil has arrived and is in Calgary waiting for me to pick it up, probably tomorrow. It arrived almost a month early so I'm hoping my dress will be the same since it's not supposed to be here till the middle to end of August when we're on vacation. All the flowers have been ordered and I'm so happy and excited about them. Invitations have gone out in the mail and the rest of them will be hand delivered tonight so now all I have to do is sit back and wait for RSVP's to come rolling in. Our wedding bands are being designed as we speak. We're getting them custom made by a goldsmith in town and they're going to be beautiful I can't wait to see the models. Other than wedding stuff our life has been fairly quiet. Travis is done with fire courses for the summer, yay! On his last course he was the superstar, as usual. It's so funny, I remember telling my friend Emma probably a year before I met Travis that the next boy I dated would be a firefighter. Well he wasn't exactly the next boy I dated but I still think that on some subconscious level we were meant to be. My psychic sense told me so but it made his pick up line at the bar perfect! Anyways, Travis is done his fire courses for now but has been saving lives all over the place. I was working all weekend and got called down to the ER cause a trauma patient had come in and there's Travis in his blue inch-too-short (it makes him look even cuter in his too short pants) lifesaving coveralls saving the life of a rather large man who almost fell through his patio railing. He got more action in that trauma than I did. I got booted out of the trauma room to cover the rest of the ER while everyone else got to save lives. Not fair. We didn't get anymore major traumas over the weekend but it was still really busy. It down poured rain all day yesterday. Actually, it started Saturday night with thunder and lightening that knocked out the power for about an hour and the rain didn't stop until late yesterday afternoon. The parking lot at work was like a swimming pool, actually most of the roads around town were like swimming pools. Everything looks like it dried up overnight so hopefully we've seen the last of the rain for a little while. I have a week off work now and I'm going to spend it getting our house organized again. I'm not sure how it happens so quickly but we're living in a disaster zone right now. Actually, Travis did some cleaning yesterday and it looks much better so I don't have much left to do today.

Tagged again! 5 things.....

Liz tagged me again....at least I have something to blog about now...thanks Liz, I was looking for inspiration.

What were you doing 10 years ago? (five things)
1. First communion with the Grade 2 class.
2. Writing gr.11 final exams.
3. On the verge of failing physics and math 11, although I pulled through and passed them both in the end.
4. Losing the year end cooking award to a Allen Brigden, so unfair....maybe Liz and I shouldn't have broken so many dishes (or was that grade 9??)
5. Getting ready for my final summer vacation as a highschool student.

Five snacks I enjoy
1. Candy of any kind
2. Ben and Jerry's icecream, specifically Half Baked or Oatmeal Cookie
3. Cracker, pepperoni, cheese and pickle towers
4. Nachos
5. Cookies

Five songs I know all the lyrics to
1. I Know a Weinie Man
2. I'm a Little Piece of Tin
3. Boom Chica
4. "Once an austrain went yodellaying on a mountain so high...."
5. "french friend eyeballs swimming in a pool of meat, and I forgot my spoon..."
(I spent a lot of summers at camp)

Five things I would do if I was a millionaire:
1. Pay off all my stinkin' student loans
2. Buy a big house and hire a maid
3. Give money to people who need it more than I do
4. Find a nice retirement home for my parents (ha ha ha just kidding!)
5. My own personal masseuse to come to my house everyday

Five bad habits:
1. Cutting the tops off bags and leaving them on the counter
2. Procrastinating
3. When I turn the light on in the bedroom at night and forget to warn Travis
4. I eat too much candy
5. Leaving the lights on

Five things I like to do:
1. Lie on the couch with travis, even though he ends up sleeping most of the time
2. Rent movies, which he never lets me do
3. Cook
4. Have people over for dinner
5. Shop

Five things I will never wear again:
1. My wedding dress, even though I technically havn't worn it yet
2. My t-shirt that says "Not everything is flat on the praries" Seriously, what was I thinking when I bought that, it's just an invitation for everyone to look at my boobs. I think it was only $5 and that's why I bought it.
3. Those terrible heels I wore in Vegas that killed my feet
4. My smurfette Halloween costume but only cause it doesn't fit me. It was probably the coolest Halloween costume ever and I was only 4, too young to really appreciate it.
5. My awful Aspen neck brace that I lived in for 3 months. Yay!!!!! I never have to wear that again...fingers crossed anyways.

Five Favorite Toys
1. My Kitchen Aid mixer
2. My espresso machine, a daily necessity
3. My computer
4. My ice cream maker
5. Monopoly! I win every time.

I tag......Fiona, Jen M and Jen D, Travis and Carrie

My herb garden

My herbs are growing!!! Last week I planted oregano, basil and parsley and they're actually growing. Look!




I also bought some parsley, basil and lavender plants that I'm going to transplant into pots tonight.