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.

Stupid TV Show

I watched this show yesterday called Wedding SOS and now it's got me totally overwhelmed thinking about the amount of stuff we still have to do. It's about couples who are planning their wedding themselves (just like us!) and everything starts falling apart so a wedding planner comes in 3 weeks before the wedding and grants the couple 3 wishes to save their wedding. It's a terrible show for people who are in the midst of planning their wedding to watch because it reconfirms all the fears I have about forgetting the little things or heaven forbid, thinking everything will just work itself out. So I'm watching this show in a panic, I'm breaking out in a cold sweat, my hands are shaking, I'm hyperventilating, I might start crying or I might faint I'm feeling so overwhelmed (ok maybe it wasn't that bad, but it was close!). So then Travis comes home from work and I'm on the computer freaking out over everything and nothing, and he just says "we have lots of time" and "we'll be fine." While in my head I'm screaming "WE WILL NOT BE FINE! DON'T YOU REALIZE HOW MUCH WE HAVE TO DO AND HOW LITTLE TIME WE HAVE TO DO IT! WHY DON'T YOU GET IT!" Good thing I was keeping it in my head or we could have had a real problem. In reality though we only have 2 full weekends off together before the wedding to make whatever decisions and do whatever needs to be done together. 2 weekends!!!!!! Ok, deep breath.....in......out.....we'll be fine....that's my new mantra, we'll be fine.

Seven

Elizabeth tagged me to do a "reveal 7 random things" about me and my life. Yay, something to blog about, I've been having a hard time finding blogging inspiration lately. I'm not sure I have 7 things going on right now but let see....

1. My bathrooms look institutional. We went to Calgary this weekend and bought new energy efficient, daylight light bulbs and they're so bright it looks like you're in an interrogation room or a mental hospital. The bright light against the light green walls, definately looks institutional but we're saving the world one light bulb at a time.

2. I wish I could spend more time with my "calgary friends" A bunch of us all got together for dinner for Allison's birthday on Saturday night. I was so great to see them again.

3. We need a good cat repellant. Hobo insists on torturing the birds and we havn't been able to find a way to keep him off the window ledge for good. He sits on the ledge and stares into the bird cage. He's knocked the cage over a few times until we got smart and anchored the cage to the ledge with pins and paper clips. He's terrified plastic bags, long story but he had a bad experience with a plastic bag, so we've got plastic bags lined up on the ledge so if he jumps up there he'll freak out. Anyone have any other suggestions??

4. I'm not a florist but I think it will be ok. I found some vases for our centerpieces at the reception and we bought some flowers to do a trial run. I think they'll be ok. I want to be able to do them myself since it would cost a fortune to have a florist do them and we don't want anything fancy just a simple arrangemnt. I think they'll be ok so now I have to go back to Calgary and find 23 more of them.

5. I'd really like to start a herb garden on my patio but I have no idea how to do it or even where to start. I don't have much of a green thumb and all our indoor plants are clinging to life. Should I start them from seeds or transplant plants into a large planter. I think herbs are pretty hardy so they might be able to survive my gardening skills...maybe.

6. I'm getting married in 4 months and 1 day!!!!!! The past two months have just disappeared so quickly. I keep having dreams that the wedding is tomorrow and nothing has been done or the photographer doesn't show up or we invited too many people for the reception space or I forgot to book an appointment to have my hair done..... We've got everything under control and I think we're doing pretty well with planning and staying on budget. We're just ready for the day to come!

7. I'm playing housewife today. I have a long list of laundry, cleaning and organizing to do but I'm not complaining because I actually enjoy doing it. I'd better get started.......

Sunny day!

It's hot out and it's only 10am. I'm sitting out on the patio drinking my latte in shorts and a tank top and I think I'm getting a sun burn. I was hoping to go out for a bike ride this morning but I don't have any sunglasses and it's too sunny to go without. I have a pair in Travis's truck and the other pair I think is at Sue's but they went missing last Friday. I'm going to be too busy around the house today anyways. Niki arrives tomorrow for a fun filled, busy, busy, busy weekend of wedding planning. I'm super excited to see her and get some stuff accomplished. I have to make some lists of all the stuff I want to get done this weekend and where we need to go in Calgary on Saturday. Have a safe May Long!

It's 1:45am

It's time like these where I really start to rethink my career choice. It's 1:45am and I'm working in emerg on a Saturday night and I'm playing around on the computer. I guess the only thing I can complain about is the fact that it's the middle of the night and I should be sleeping like most normal people because other than that it's been a pretty decent shift. Although right now I'm nothing more than a glorified babysitter. I've got a drunk guy here sleeping it off, a lady with a cough who's ride left her here so she's spending the night and a young girl who I think is a big faker and just needs some attention. Is this really what I went to nursing school for?? In the last hour I've had the priveledge of witnessing the drunk playing around with his hands down his pants. Awesome. At least he hasn't peed all over the bed yet, as the drunks usually do, but then he's been drinking for almost 3 weeks straight so he shouldn't have to pee till next Thursday he's probably so dehydrated. Maybe I should go work at Starbucks where it would be totally unacceptable, and probably a sure fire way to get arrested, for their customers to have their hands down their pants. Why is it acceptable at my workplace for my "customers" to act inappropriately? Why should I have to be a witness to that? It's so not fair and I'm soooo not getting paid enough to put up with it. I'm really starting to lose my patience with my patients especially for people with self-induced illnesses. I just don't get why people continue to make unhealthy choices and have an unhealthy lifestyle when they know that it is the cause of their pain. If you had gallstones and had been told to avoid fatty foods because it would give you excruciating abdominal pain would you go out and eat a bucket of KFC? People do it and why is that? are they looking for attention? or are they so unwilling to change their Saturday-night-bucket-of-KFC routine? or do they just not care about themselves? or maybe they just need to practice a little self discipline and will power to resist temptation. Right in front of me I am witnessing the decline of the human race. What's wrong with people? People come in when they're sick and we patch them up only to send them go home again to eat their bucket of KFC and when they come back the next day we're there to take care of them again. I guess the only thing keeping me going are the people who actually need help and are grateful for everything we do for them. I'm going to go give my drunk, sleeping beauty some mouthwash. If it doesn't make him feel better at least I'll be able to tolerate getting within 5 feet of him.

Whoops!

I mean it's been a month TODAY since we got engaged. I thought yesterday was the 5th. I'm working nights, my days are all screwed up. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;0)

A month already??

We've been engaged for a month today. Wow, that flew by. I hope the next 5 months fly by too, but not too quickly cause we still have a lot to do before the wedding. I have got a lot done in the last month though. I ordered my dress and the bridesmaid dresses, ordered invitations, we started our registry, booked the cake baker, DJ, photographer, reception and ceremony sites....I think that's it. Our invitations should be arriving in the mail next week so today I'm going to be making the information cards to go inside of them. I'm working nights all weekend and Travis is in a course all weekend so we'll be meeting as one comes in the door and the other is going out.

Our wedding website

We've created a wedding website will all sorts of fun stuff. It is password protected so I think I sent the password to most people (if I forgot you or you forgot the password let me know). Stay tuned to share in our wedding planning adventures.
PS- There's a link to the website on the far right side of my blog.

Snow?! Are you kidding me?

It's been snowing for 3 days. Thankfully it's still around 0 so only a little is actually sticking to the ground. If it's almost May and still snowing does that mean it's going to be snowing at the end of Sept too?? I really, really hope not. Rain on your wedding day is one thing but snow?? not cool. We booking our photographer yesterday. We're very happy that he was available for our wedding. We had to go a little over budget but photos are one of the most important things to me so we decided that if we were going to go over budget on anything it should be photos. I'm not going to tell you how much we paid but I'll give you a hint, it was more than my dress. Yipes. I have to be at the hospital in an hour for an inservice so I should probably get in the shower.

The date is set and the deposit is paid

It's official! We're getting married on September 29, 2007! We don't know what time or where the actual ceremony will be but we have a commissioner and a reception site so the basics are falling into place. The reception is going to be at the Canmore Golf and Curling Club in their dining room. It's a great room and the golf course is beautiful for pictures so I'm really excited that we were able to get it. It must have been the one and only place available in Canmore for the rest of the summer cause everywhere else we looked was either too small, too expensive or already booked. We totally lucked out! I was starting to get worried that we wouldn't find a place and we'd have to wait until next year which we really didn't want to do. I'm so relieved.

We're engaged!!!

I'm so happy I want to shout it from the rooftops and tell strangers on the street. Travis proposed on Thursday, April 5, and of course I said yes without a moment of hesitation. He had gone ring shopping in Calgary after work on Thursday so I knew what he was up to. I even had to go downtown that day and get my finger sized so he knew what to get. He came home and pulled cat toys and bird food out of his bags and said that was all he was able to find. I kept asking him all night "are you sure all you bought was cat toys an bird food?" and he kept with his story that it was all he could find. I was even starting to believe him even though he's a terrible liar. Then we were sitting on the couch looking through recipe books cause we were having his parents and grandpa over for dinner on Friday. I sent him into the kitchen to get the other recipe book and he comes out with the ring in his hand and drops down on his knee and asks me to marry him. He wanted it to be a surprise and I was kinda surprised just cause I wasn't expecting it right at that moment. We polished off a bottle of wine to celebrate and made a few calls just cause we were so excited that we couldn't keep it to ourselves. We made the rest of our calls Friday morning and I was surprised that no one else was really surprised with our news. Travis's mom said she almost fell off her chair but everyone else was almost expecting it to happen!
We looked at a bunch of hotels this weekend trying to find a reception site. We're hoping to have the ceremony outdoors either in his parents backyard, depending on the amount of people coming, or the park by the river. Oh by the way, the date we're hoping for is Sept 22/07. The weather could go either way, sunny and hot or a blizzard. So we'll have to have a backup plan for the ceremony but I really don't care if it's raining or snowing, we'll just get a tent and some heaters and everyone will have to bundle up. It's not going to be a long ceremony anyways. So we get engaged on Thursday and all of a sudden we have a million things to do and we're popular! Everyone wants to hang out with us now! Friday we ahd his parents over for dinner, Saturday Jen and Todd had us over for dinner then we met Sue and Ryan for drinks, Sunday we went out for dinner with his family and then went out for drinks with Jenn and Chad. Today my goal is not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary. I have a million phone calls to do and appointments to get and our house has been totally neglected for the last 3 days. Although, I'm probably going to spend the day cruising wedding websites looking for ideas. I've boguht my first wedding magazines and torn out pictures of all the dresses I like and ideas I want to use. Fun!!! We've picked out the music we want at the ceremony, we've looked at websites of potential photographers, we've set our budget and already increased it once, we've actually done a lot this weekend now we just need to find money to start buying things. I guess I'd better go call the bank and make an appointment!

Guests, glasses and a blue room

We have had a busy week! Mom was here visiting last weekend. We had a great time playing host and tour guide. We drove through Kananaskis on Saturday and got some great pictures. It was also Paddy's birthday so of course mom had to get him some special treats and Sue bought him a t-shirt. I never thought I'd see mom put her dog in clothes but his t-shirt is acutally pretty cute on him and he loves it.
I got my new glasses yesterday! So exciting. The prescription in my old glasses wasn't up to date so I would wear my contacts almost everyday but the winters here are so dry and my contacts dry my eyes out really quickly. Now I'm going to wear my fancy new glasses all the time!
We started painting last weekend. I'll post some pics when we're completely finished. I was going to do before and after pictures but the before ones would be pretty pointless because all you have to picture is white, white, white everywhere. All our walls were white. So far we've done the downstairs bathroom and our bedroom. We picked up the paint for the living room today and I think that will be our job for the weekend.

Pictures

I downloaded a bunch of pics from my camera today.
This is our first loaf of bread from our new breadmaker.









This is the view from our bedroom window.

Everyone change their clocks?

Did everyone remember Daylight Savings time this morning?? It sure felt early waking up at 5:15am even though I managed to get to bed early. It was sure nice to see the sun till 7pm tonight. It was raining tonight but we're going to start going for walks after dinner now. I love spring!
It was a busy weekend at work. I spent Saturday in the labor and delivery room with a laboring mom. She did amazingly well and labored all day then ended up with a c-section. Her baby ended up being 8lb 5oz and was trying to come out "sunny side up" (babies are usually delivered with their faces down) and it hurts a hell of a lot more to deliver a baby who wants to come out that way. It was a long, tough day. I also had a novice RN in the labor room with me and I was trying my best to teach her with my limited experience. We managed though and I think we did a pretty darn good job. I went to see the baby today and he's huge and chubby and adorable. I worked today but ended up going home early because my neck was in so much pain and making my arm numb and tingly. Yesterday was a hard day on my neck and I certainly felt it today. I can't wait for my massage tomorrow!!! It's going to feel sooooo good!
(this pic is actually of the lillies Travis got me for my birthday but they look so 'springy')

What's in YOUR favorites??

I'm stealing this from Jen's blog because hers was so much fun to read!! hee hee. Thanks for your favorties Jen, you have some good ones. I really liked the Bombshell site but I havn't been able to find any Sephora on it :(

Like you I also have the Campbells website in my favorites for those last minute dinner ideas. I love that site. The recipes are so quick and easy not to mention yummy! My favorite recipe so far is Spicy Salsa Mac and Beef. Try it!
www.campbellssoup.com

Then I have all the travel websites for vacations that I will likely never be able to afford to take. www.westjet.ca www.aircanada.com www.travelalerts.ca and a new one www.flyglobespan.com which has huge savings on flights to London! It would be cheaper to fly to London right now than across Canada. Crazy eh? It's almost tragic to have to pass it up.

Then I have www.websudoku.com because I'm addicted to that game. This is a cool site because you can play right online and enter the numbers in and it will tell you if you've made a mistake. You can also choose easy, medium or hard puzzles.

Of course all my friends blogs are bookmarked to my favorites. I also have all my banking websites because there's nothing easier than online banking. Other than that I just have some random recipes that I've used and that's about it.

Spring time!

It's starting to feel like spring! Today it was 10 degrees. I passed my course last week with flying colors so that's another one to add to my resume and I'm almost finished the obstetric program too. I still have to complete 4 preceptored days at the Foothills labor and delivery unit and then I'm done. I'm starting another obstetric course in April so I'll barely even be finished this one before starting on the next. I should find out about changing to 8hr shifts in the next few weeks too, yay!

Looooong Day!

10hrs is way too much time to spend in a classroom! It was the fist day of ENPC (Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course) today and it was a very long day although it didn't feel like 10hrs until the very end. It's a very interesting course so it's easy to stay awake and engaged in the lectures. This afternoon was all practical, hands-on learning stations so it wasn't too bad but I'm exhausted now. Tomorrow is lectures in the morning and testing all afternoon. I think I should do pretty well but I'm still going to get Travis to help me review tonight.
We had a very productive weekend. It was our first weekend off together so it was really nice just to get to spend time together. On Saturday we went to Calgary and managed to spend way too much money, well Travis did, physio and massage has been cleaning out my bank account lately. We went in search of two things...matching bedside tables and a breadmaker. We went to Ikea and managed to find everything except bedside tables and a breadmaker. We bought tons of little storage and gadgety stuff there. Then we went to Pier One and managed to get some things there and then to Best Buy for a new phone and then Home Outfitters where we found a breadmaker but we both thought it was kind of hideous so we decided to go to Chinook Mall to see if we could find a nicer one there. Well Calgary traffic on a Saturday is especially frusrating especially for us small town people but we had to drive around the parking lot for a good 15mins before finding a parking spot. We went to the Bay and ended up buying the exact same breadmaker that we saw at Home Outfitters and by the time we got there, I don't know if it was our desperate need to leave the city but it was a much nicer breadmaker than it was at Home Outfitters. We also got the ice cream maker attachment for my fancy new Kitchen Aid mixer which is very exciting. So in the last two weeks we've gotten the Kitchen Aid mixer for cookies, the ice cream attachment and a breadmaker. We're going to gain 100 lbs each eating nothing but cookies, ice cream and bread!! We never did find suitable bedside tables. We got home and Travis's mom had cooked turkey dinner so we went over there and ate way too much turkey but that's what you're supposed to do at turkey dinner then came home and collapsed on the couch. Actually, we rented Airplane and I fell asleep not too far into it.
On Sunday we got our spring cleaning done. Holy cow what a huge job that was. We were up early and finished late. We took two truck loads to recycling and 8 bags of garbage out of here. I finally semi organized my stuff that's been sitting in the garage since I moved in and we reorganized the kitchen to fit all our new appliances. Travis has now officially used the mixer more times that I have. He's cooking up what I'm sure will be an amazing dinner right now and trying out the mixer for mashed potatoes. Yummmm! Dinner time!