Thursday, December 24, 2009

Photo contest

One of our wedding pictures has been chosen as one of the top 15 that 6:8 Photography has taken all year, and we are in a contest on their blog. The couple who's picture gets the most votes will win a 12x18 canvas of whatever picture they want. And we want it!!! But we need your help! Please go to http://68photography.ca/blog/ and scroll through the pictures until you get to the place where you vote for your favourite. We're the fourth one down and we hope you'll pick us as your favourite. But, if not that's ok too. Their pictures are all awesome. Once you vote, it will say the voting is closed, but don't worry because your vote will have counted! Voting closes December 31st, 2009 so please hurry! Thanks so much everyone! Have a wonderful holiday season!! Love, Leif and Laura

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Birthday Hubby!

It's Leif's 26th birthday today! To celebrate, we went to the Saltlik for a lovely steak dinner topped off with amazing cheesecake! I kept it a secret as far as Crowchild but I don't know exactly how to get there or where to park, so Leif had to be the driver. For his birthday, I bought (or really he bought himself) hockey gloves and I got him batteries for his lego technic gift from his parents. But he has to save that for Fernie! My parents got him a chin-up, push-up, dip, sit-up contraption like Wade and Tara have and I'm just as excited about it as he is!

We both had a good day, with me being officially on Christmas break and with Leif getting to shuffle hangars twice! I went for a massage today and wow can that woman push hard! I'm going to be very sore tomorrow I'm sure, but it's worth it. I also went to see a naturopath in the same clinic and I really like her. I think I'm going to get some good, natural doctoring.

In other news, Oswald now will sit on the rock even if we're moving around him. And both of them are starting to eat better now that we have a heater for the water. The mitts that I'm knitting for Leif would have been done if I hadn't have run out of yarn half way though the last thumb! Grrr. Hopefully Naomi at Heaven Stitch and Design will be able to help me with that on Thursday. http://heavenstitchanddesign.com/home.html

Almost all the presents are wrapped, Leif is packed, and we're ready for the family holidays to begin!

Hooray!

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

New Tools!!

Yes I know. It has been for ever since I have written on here. But alas here I am. So my wife came to me and said "dear We need to clean out the guest room closet before we have company over to stay." So I turned to my wife and said "sure that sounds like a great idea. But I will have to go to Home Depot and buy some tools". (Yay for new tools!!!) She looks at me, rolls her eyes I and says "really???" I said "I need these tools so I can build us a new shelve to put all our stuff that is in the closet in the garage." I'm so glad I bought a honda becasue it turns into a truck so fast!!





I will do a before and after picture of my garage when I have my shelve built and its all CLEAN!!!
Good Night ya'll
Leif
P.S. Yes I know my car is dirty. Last time someone staying at this house washed their vehicle it snowed.





Sunday, October 25, 2009

The Most Cheery Sound...

... is a little girl laughing while being tickled by her mother.


And then between giggles saying "no sank you" followed by "amemee one".

Monday, October 19, 2009

Artsy

Instead of doing homework and other productive-like things, I'm having fun being artsy. Or letting other people be artsy for me!

Here's the painting Shelby gave us from the blog game (which we still have to do)...


... and she recently painted us a matching one, on request, so they can go on either side of the window above our fireplace. Now we just need to get them framed.

They look great hey??

And our other art addition is a window frame piece from a lady in Fernie. The picture frame is from Quinn and Zoe for my birthday.


This is Leif not wanting his picture taken! And our rosemary plant from the craft/farmer's market in Fernie.


And my artsy contribution... I just finished crochetting this hat. Puts some happy in winter I thought!

Monday, September 21, 2009

Sneak Preview

The house is not near photo worthy yet but I'm so excited about our new area rug that I just have to post a picture of it! The flash makes it look a little more textured (aka. not vacuumed all nice) than it looks in real life, but you'll get the idea. Woot!




Monday, September 14, 2009

Monday...

Today was Monday. Enough said?

Got up early with a sore throat and other signs of getting sick.

Rode a PACKED bus and then a PACKED train and then another PACKED bus.

First class was pretty good.

Got totally stumped on the first assignment I was working on in my break.

Got to the next class "not early" and the class was PACKED with almost no seats.

Endured a professor who likes to ramble about irrelavent things and not teach the course material at all.

Heard about an internship meeting from my friends that I should have got an email about on September 4 that was TONIGHT! (Or Thursday thankfully). Stupid name change in my email.

Rushed home to eat lunch.

Rushed to my first filling EVER at the dentist. One of the WORST experiences of my life.

Thought I got a flat tire on the way home, but actually didn't.

Skipped grocery shopping because my cheek felt like it was the size of grapefruit. But started laundry.

Then my wonderful husband came home and tried to cook us suppper on the barbeque. Cue the barbeque COMPLETELY dying. He cooked supper on the stove instead. Hooray!

Wrote some thank you cards and filled out more name change forms and started filling my new shoe rack (that I'm estactic about) that Leif put together for me.

Ate supper and watched our turtles eat too.

Rushed to a Retirement 101 course. Yup, definitely the youngest by far there. But got coffee out of the deal!

Went to Walmart to get Cold-FX for both of us.

Bedtime. Finally.

Hopefully Tuesday is better. Happy 4 months hubby!

Happy Note...

We had this note left at our house one evening. It made me smile!


Sunday, September 6, 2009

Our House: Before

Now that we have internet in our house (well actually at the parentals) we can show you our new house! These are pictures of the house when we took possession. The place came with all the furniture... and a few extras.

The outside of the house. We have the front half, top floor (so all three sections of windows) and the left garage (19). On the left is our bedroom with the spare bedroom behind that you can't see. The deck is in the middle with the living room right there and the bathroom behind. And the right window is in our eating area with the kitchen behind. Our door is to the left of the building and the stairs go up behind the second bedroom and bathroom. Make sense?


This is our front (and back I suppose) door.


Looking in the front door and up the stairs. The other door you see is to the garage and there's a closet to the left.


The lovely garage my husband adores.


This is the laundry room at the top of the stairs.


Kitchen with a pantry and the linen closet is just to the left. The laundry room is just behind and to the left of where I'm taking the picture and the stairs are behind me.


The living room. The deck is right outside that door.


The eating area. The kitchen is to the left.


The tiny bathroom.


The second bedroom.


Our bedroom.


View from the deck.


The beautiful chair in the bedroom. It's now on my grandparents' deck. And the Hello Kitty quilt. It's in a bag for Value Village.


Our closet with our hanging clothes in it already. That's the bathroom on the right.


And the wonderful shower curtain. We got a new one.


The house looks a little different now. Including two new sets of shelves and a piano! Once I have it all cleaned up and organized we'll take after pictures.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

New Profession: Hairdresser

It's official. I have a new profession.

Leif's regular hairdresser is on holidays for the rest of the month and he REALLY needed a haircut. So he had the brilliant idea that I should cut his hair. We borrowed my parent's cape, clippers, and scissors and I got busy.

This is Leif before. Looks really excited eh?


Side view of before.


After I've done the clipping of the back part. It's like a reverse mullet.


And, voila! This is the finished product.

Not too shabby for my first time I don't think. He looks a little happier in the last picture than the first. I actually really enjoyed cutting his hair. It's kind of liberating to have someone trust you not to make them look like a freak even though it was a big possibility! We might have to buy some supplies of our own. Think of all the money we'll save! I might have to learn how to give a good head massage though because I think that was the main attraction of the salon!

And an update on the turtles. (Because I'm sure you love to hear about them... ha). We've officially named them Oswald and Orville Olson. Oswald is the slightly larger one. Orville is the slighty more docile one.

And an update on the house. Ayla wanted pictures of the house... so Friday when we get possession we're not going to move anything until we take pictures. And then we'll take some after pictures once we have everything in the right place. And then Ayla can come and design our space. Yup, good plan.

Last week of work, here I come!

Pianos

I am in love with the piano right now. We went to play some pianos yesterday at The Piano Gallery down south to see which one we want to buy. I really miss being able to sit down whenever I feel like it and just play.

I know most of you already know about this video, but you should all listen to it again! Jon Schmidt is so talented. Takes my breath away everytime I watch his fingers fly.


Friday, August 7, 2009

Proud Parents...

We've spent the evening adoring our new children-like creatures like proud parents.

At lunch Leif went the Pisces Pet Emporium and spent a lot of money on a tank, rocks for the bottom, flat rocks, a special filter, anti-chlorine stuff, biological waste reduction, and lights to create a house for our babies. The huge tank JUST fit into his car. He called me periodically throughout the afternoon to tell me something he remembered the lady at the pet store told him.

I was hoping one of the men from another unit would be here when Leif got home to help get the tank up here, but, alas, no such luck. I barely could lift the stupid thing, let alone haul it up stairs!! Almost tripped a few times, but no serious mishaps.

I got to cooking supper while Leif started putting everything together. We got the hose from outside to fill the tank because we would have been hauling a lot more pitchers of water than we did (to heat up the water in the tank).
We needed to make a dry place for the turtles to hang out under the lights so we went to Walmart after supper and found some plant pots and dishes. The set up didn't work as well as we'd envisioned, but Leif did some creative manoeuvring and finally got it to work.

Time to add the turtles...

THEY COULDN'T SWIM!!!!!! They tried reaching for the top of the water by standing on their back legs but the water was too high. We figure they've never been in a tank big enough for them to learn how to swim! We had to watch the poor guys (or girls, we're not sure yet) flounder around and kick their legs so hard but not get anywhere. It's been about 3 hours and they're FINALLY figuring it out.

We can tell them apart now too!
One has a pointier shell on top, and more black markings underneath.
The other has a more smooth shell, and less black markings.
We thought the black markings were shell rot at the beginning since it didn't seem like they had ever been out of the water. (Worried parent moment.) We did some quick internet research, and we think they're supposed to look like that.
From what we can tell, Mr(s). Smooth is more daring. S/he has actually moved to the other side of the tank! What a feat! (Proud parent moment.) As of yet, they haven't figured out that they can and need get out of the water. Leif's tried putting them on the sunning rock but they scurry off there as soon as he lets go. (Anxious parent moment.)
And one of the turtles just started eating! That is a very good sign. Turtles apparently don't eat when they're stressed, or nervous, or anything like that.
I'm sick and not going to get better by watching our turtles. Must tear myself away and go to bed. I hope they don't die while I'm not watching them! (Over-protective parent moment.)
Goodnight!
Laura.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

We Seriously Have Pets?!

Yes we do. As of this afternoon in fact. And this is a huge deal because Laura does not like pets one bit!!

So the story begins with this house we bought this afternoon. It comes with all the "furniture" in it. There's lots of little gadgets in there too that we're not sure if we get or not. When we first went to look at the house on Thursday last week there were two turtles (YES TURTLES!!!) in the sink with not very much water and they looked mighty hungry. So we fed them some pellets that were beside the sink. (Not sure if we were allowed to, but you shouldn't be allowed to leave turtles in the sink!).

For the long weekend, we went to Fernie and Leif started researching turtles. He really wanted a pet, but Laura wasn't too keen on it. But, little did Leif know, turtles are Laura's favourite and that's one of the only pets she would have!

Then we went to do our own home inspection on Tuesday and the poor dears were still in the sink!!! And the water level had gone down. AND they looked even hungrier! So we added some water from another big contraption beside the sink and gave them some more food. We asked Royal to ask the other realtor if we could have the turtles with the house, and if so, we wanted to take them home as soon as possible because we didn't like that they were in a sink.

Royal called this afternoon and the other realtor called the owner and that's how we got turtles! We have no idea how to care for them or anything. We're thinking we should take them to a vet as soon as possible to get them checked out. We have a bag full of turtle stuff that was in the dirty tank with a crack in it that we also inherited. We don't really know what some of the stuff is.

We hope to keep these turtles alive and happy somehow, so that means we need to name them! Want to help anyone? We'd like their names to match.

Here's a picture to give you inspiration...


Friday, July 31, 2009

Weddings And Other Big Things

Two young couples we know are getting married today. One in Alberta and one in Saskatchewan. And then another young couple is getting married on Saturday in Washington state. It all gives me a weird feeling. It’s like “been there, done that”. But somehow I want to go back. I see beautiful wedding pictures by 68Photography and MaevEden Images and want to get married again. Everyone has such cool ideas for their wedding and I wish I knew more about weddings when I was planning mine.

But really, it’s about the marriage not the wedding. And I think I love my husband more than the day I married him. With the real kind of love. The kind that does nice things when I don’t really like him at that moment. The kind that wants him to be happy all the time. The kind that makes me try new things even though they scare me or I don’t want to.

I’m young and little, and life is big and scary. It’s so nice to have someone who’s always there to tell me things will be ok. Someone who listens to my worries, no matter how small, and tries to make them go away. My knight in shining armour. We have big things in the works right now. It makes me hugely excited and a little apprehensive.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Get your knickers out of a knot

So here I am again with a mug of sleepy time tea but I promise I will do a real post this time. Oh boy. There has been so much happening in our lives since I posted last. I just don't know where to start. Ha

A couple of weeks ago my wee wife and I snuck away in the middle of the week and took our friends Kevan his wife Leah and Duane to the lake. It was such a good day to be out on the water relaxing. We brought our camera to Fernie but when we got to the lake, it was left behind in Fernie.


Kevan was the first brave one to get wet.

This one is of Duane finally understanding the sweet spot in the wave
Duane again but this time he dropped the rope

And the last one. Duane looking at Kevan saying ``please save me Kevan, I`ll be your best friend`` And Kevan thinking ``I think it will be funnier to
watch you fall``

Then today I went to grab my lunch and I noticed that my almonds that I had in my bag got open some how so I thought they must have just fallen out. I took the bag out and after further investigation I realised that a gopher had torn open my Safeway bag and then torn open the almond bag and just helped himself. sheesh. What kind of a world to we live in? So tomorrow I'm going to bring my gun to work and teach that little gopher a lesson. Guns and airplanes go good together don't they?

Yay Bed time
Leif


The Farmer's Market

Yesterday evening we happened upon the Grassroots’ Farmer’s Market in the Northland mall parking lot. It was so neat! When I was young, I remember going to a farmer’s market somewhere with my dad to get peaches to can but I wasn’t too thrilled to be there. It’s weird how my perspective has totally changed.

We wandered around the market to see what all was there. Rugs, crafts, coffee beans, honey, fresh fruits and veggies, sausages, beef jerky, meat pies, jam, a man playing a guitar, etc... We settled on four sausages (with no additives or anything!), a huge carton of blueberries, and smaller cartons of peaches and cherries. All for 31 dollars!!

We had some of the sausages for supper and they were so good! And then we packed some of the fruit for lunch. I don’t think I’ve ever had better peaches or blueberries. The market is every Tuesday from 3:30pm to 7:00pm. I think we might have to go back!!

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Pre Post

My wife has been bugging me to make a post and I was honestly going to do it tonight. But the problem is that I made us a pot of dreamy time tea and shockingly enough it has made me want to go to dreamy time. So that is where I'm going to go. toodles for now!!!
Leif

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Our Honeymoon - Vancouver Victoria Style

As most of you know, we went to Vancouver and Victoria for our honeymoon. It was a lovely vacation for both of us, and it was nice to see some family and good friends that we don't get to see very often.

The night after our wedding, Friday night, we stayed at the Airport Delta. We hadn't changed from our wedding attire so we walked up the front desk all decked out and so the lady gave us an upgraded room. We got a free continental breakfast, but we messed up the times and didn't get us early enough! So we ended up at Timmy's in the airport. Hard life eh? Saturday afternoon we boarded our flight to Vancouver.

From the Vancouver airport we took a taxi to our hotel, The Sutton Place, and dumped our stuff in our very nice condo style room.













Then we walked to the parkade where our hot ride for the next couple of days was: Dad O's solstice! Leif was instantly in love and we decided to take it for a spin through Stanley Park... with the top down! I must say, I'm still amazed that even though we went forward really fast my hair still blew into my face!

















My handsome husband...

















Sunday morning we went to meeting and then in the evening we went for a walk to Canada Place by the water. There was an IMAX there so we saw a double feature of The Space Station 3D and Deep Sea 3D. Pretty neat stuff.

Monday we went out to Dad O's hanger and Leif and him had a long consult about airplane matters while I read my Jodi Picoult book! Then Dad O took us out for supper at The Copper Chimney, a really good Indian restaurant, and up to his office to look at our wedding pictures on a huge screen! We were so glad to see they turned out so fabulous!

Tuesday was Vancouver Aquarium day. We saw the dolphin show, and the sea otter show, and the beluga whale show, and then walked around everywhere else. We couldn't find any turtles so we had to ask where they were. Don't know how we missed the big one!

















Wednesday we went up Grouse mountain and went zip lining in the rain, snow, wind, and hail! It was fun nevertheless. We were so cold after that, the hotel hottub felt so good! For meeting we went with Ayla and her roommate Shona and then went out for Gelato after!

Thursday it was time to head to Victoria! We decided the Ferry was too boring for a honeymoon so we took a helicopter! I was so nervous about it but it turned out to be really cool! My favourite part was the take-off. You just lift straight up into the sky!

We got to our hotel in Victoria, The Magnolia, a little early so we dropped our bags and went for a walk down to the harbour. When we got back to our room we were in for a huge surprise! Quinn used his employee status to do this to our room!


















WOW!!!

Zoe wrote up the list of things to do. We completed numbers 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9! Not bad for 3 days! We also walked around downtown and spent some big dollars on a hoodie, trendy boots, and a duvet cover! On Friday night we went to the most amazing (and most expensive) restaurant with Quinn and Zoe I’ve EVER been to. The food was all fresh and local and positively delicious!

And then back to reality on Saturday.


P.S. This post took me many hours of frustration because of the stupid pictures. If anyone knows how to fix it so the pictures go in where I want them to instead of at the top all the time, PLEASE tell me!!