Weekending: Golden Rainbows Edition

"Golden Rainbow Edition" make it sound like I spent a lot of time with unicorns this weekend but (unfortunately) that is not the case. My weekend centred around two main events, my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary and our Spark/Brownie Enrolment ceremony. Now is also a good time for a friendly reminder that it was not Thanksgiving here in Canada...we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. 

Friday we were busy decorating the hall for the anniversary open house on Saturday. I also squeezed in a little bit of 'Black Friday' shopping on this side of the border. I took advantage of everything being half off at Old Navy and ordered a few more gifts (and a pair or pyjama pants feature kittens wearing boots for myself, because that is something I need in my life) and ordered some planner stickers on Etsy and cut myself off because I do not need anymore stickers. 

Saturday was the open house and even though it was technically only two hours it was a busy two hours. When we counted the names in the guestbook afterwards over 100 people had signed, which I guess is what happens when you're married for 50 years. When everyone had left and the hall was cleaned up our immediate family went back to my grandparents to watch them open their cards before we all headed home. I was exhausted and even though I had originally planned to Skype with H. & R. I cancelled and went to bed early. 

I had anticipated Sunday being a pretty low key day apart from Sparks/Brownies but as it turned out I went to the elementary school's Christmas Market in the morning and then to town with my grandmother, her friend and my cousin in the afternoon before Sparks/Brownies in the evening. It was a shorter meeting than usual but it was fun to have the girls' parents there to watch them officially become Sparks/Brownies and they were so excited to get their badges. Heck, I was excited to get some new crests for my camp blanket! We had cake & lemonade to celebrate and that was that. 

I was home with plenty of time to Skype with H. & R. who filled me in on Gilmore Girls, I had been seeing some "Can't believe the ending!" posts on social media and wanted to know what the surprise ending was, but didn't actually care enough to look into on my own. I stayed up way past my usual bedtime getting calendars finished for my grandparents and uncle before I missed out on the Black Friday sale and watching Oak Island.

I'm cautiously optimistic that I will be able to finish the rest of my Christmas shopping this week. And get some cards ready to send out.

Linking up with B Loved Boston.

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The One With Thanksgiving Weekend

For those of you who may have been confused about the title of this post, no I have not time travelled! Here in Canada-land Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October. If you're the history buff type you can read up on Canadian Thanksgiving here. 

On Thursday J.'s Mom had a knee replacement so Friday afternoon I met up with J. to visit her at the hospital. We had a little visit and then J. & I went and had lunch at Boston Pizza afterwards. When we arrived I realized that a contributing factor to choosing Boston Pizza was the Blue Jays game. I'm pretty sure I am the only person in Canada who is not at all interested/entertained by the Blue Jay's winning streak. Regardless of what was happening on the TVs we had a pretty good meal. And by meal I mean we shared the appetizer platter which is really the best. When we finished eating mass quantities of finger foods J. had to head back to work and I headed to Michael's. I was planning on using my 50% off coupon to purchase a Project Life core kit to use in 2016, but when I got there the albums were buy one get one free so I ended up getting those and using my coupon on a stamp. Next week I'll use the coupon for the core kit! I'm not sure what my plan for the two albums will be, I'm thinking that the black one with the cameras all over it will be used as a traditional photo album, a place to store all of the "extra" photos that I take/print but don't fit into Project Life albums or scrapbooks. That leaves the striped one to use as a Project 52 type album. 

Albums via Becky Higgins

Saturday I spent the day at home. I did some research on extra Crests & Challenges for Sparks and ordered activity books and post cards from Veterans' Affairs for Remembrance Day. I decided to go with a "Pumpkin Party" theme instead of a "Halloween Party" so I've been brainstorming and Pinterest-ing some fun pumpkin ideas. 

Sunday is when the real feasting started! My grandmother went all out this year and made five different kids of pies. Which is crazy, but also awesome. Lemon pie is my absolute favourite but I also like a piece of pumpkin since it's Thanksgiving and all. Prior to all the pie eating I ate my fill of stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy and homemade rolls. 

After we ate J. and I went for a walk and I snapped a few photos. Only a few though because it was starting to get chilly outside. We drove the long way home because fall leaves are pretty but the leaves are only just starting to turn. By next weekend they will be full out red, yellow and orange but this weekend there is still a lot of green. J. continued on to his parents to visit with his Mom who, thankfully, was discharged from the hospital and is continuing to recover at home. 

Monday I ventured up to our attic and got my camping gear out in preparation for this weekend. I still need to find a few more things that I am confident I own, just very unsure about where they are in my house. We had a low key turkey dinner with J.'s parents and I was home in plenty of time to crawl into bed by 10:00. 

This week I have a financial training meeting for Girl Guides on Thursday and on Friday I'm going camping for the weekend with a group of Girl Guides and Pathfinders. I'm also way behind on my October Goals so I should probably do something about that too!

Low Key Weekending

This weekend seemed to revolve around eating and sleeping. Which I really have no complaints about.

Saturday I worked over time from 8:00-4:00. I was exhausted and a little annoyed that because another co-worker changed their plans at the last minute I didn't get to do the work I had planned to finish. I did treat myself to coffee and a salted caramel donut though so all was not lost. Plus, J. brought me a coffee earlier in the day and I finally won on my roll up the rim! I don't buy coffee every day. It's more of a once a week treat, so I don't feel as entitled to win as the folks who buy multiple coffees a day. It's still nice to win a bonus coffee though. 

(Please excuse the wacky photo edit in the corner. I realized there were files peeking out of a shelf and I'd rather publish a strange looking photo than risk any sort of break in client confidentiality.)

After work I headed to J.'s parents for supper. We had BBQ steak, baked potato, mushrooms and corn and it was delicious. I visited for about an hour after supper and then went home where I promptly showered and got ready for bed. I ended up watching the first three episodes of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

I LOVE Tina Fey. The verdict is still out on how I feel about this show though. I'm trying not to compare it to 30 Rock, but it's hard. The show is sort of growing on me and I'll definitely finish the first season. I'm not sure that I'll ever love it as much as 30 Rock though, mainly because I don't find Kimmy easy to relate to whereas Liz Lemon was/is my spirit animal. Has anyone else watched the show? I'd love to hear your thoughts. 

Sunday I turned down overtime because I definitely needed a day off. I let myself sleep in a little got up and did some light spring cleaning and then, because I could, I crawled back into my bed and took a Sunday afternoon nap. J. & I had dinner with my parents Sunday night he visited for a bit and went home earlier than usual because I had a long over due Skype date with H. & R.. Our schedules have all been crazy lately and three different time zones makes the crazy schedules even crazier so it's been almost a month since the three of us were able to designate the same free evening for Skype. We talk everyday via group message but there's just somethings that need to be discussed aloud. 

I'm in the earliest time zone so by the time we were done Skype it was past my bedtime. I definitely didn't do anything super exciting or unique this weekend but the focus was definitely on family & friends which are always important.

Linking up with B Loved Boston to share my weekend!

Where I Am

How did you picture this stage of your life when you were younger? How is it the same/different?

When I was was in elementary school...I was determined to grow up and become a famous author. I spent every spare moment I had writing words on paper. Laura Ingalls Wilder & Lucy Maude Montgomery where my favourite people and I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to get married and have babies but most of all I wanted to be a published author.

When I was in jr.high...I still wanted to be a writer, but I also realized that probably wasn't the best way to make a living. So I thought I'd be a Social Worker who wrote books as a hobby. I still wanted to get married and have a big family but I didn't worry about it too much because I figured it was one of those things that would just happen.

When I was in high school...I still considered Social Work. But I knew camp was my real passion so I decided to study recreation in university. I assumed that I would meet somebody in university, fall in love, get married, have babies and do the SAHM thing for a few years and then focus on my career.

When I was in university...I knew I wanted to be a camp director. I thought I'd find a position where I worked in youth ministry from September-May be a camp director from May-August and in between get my camp fix through retreats and other youth activities. And of course I wanted to settle down, be in a committed relationship and have my first baby by the time I was 25.

Elementary School me probably wouldn't believe that it's been years since I finished writing a story.
Jr. High me would be appalled I'm not married yet.
High School me would be a little more understanding but still be disappointed I'm as single as they come.
University me would be pretty darn relived to know that a year and a half after I finished I would be about to start a full time job as Assistant Camp Director. She would be totally discouraged to find out Mr.Right still eludes me, but if she stopped and thought about it for a few minutes she'd accept that it's better to be alone than to settle for Mr. Good Enough.

Linking up with Hayley & Lauren .

Admiration

Tell us about a characteristic you admire in one of your loved ones! Why do you admire that characteristic?

I've been staring at a blank blogger post screen for fifteen minutes now, reading and rereading today's prompt. And I still don't have a solid answer. 

My first approach was to single out a character trait that I value and then decide which ones of my family members or friends is "the best". Compassion is something I place a really high value on as far as characteristics go, so it made sense to chose compassion. First I thought of how my grandmother is just so kind, at least once a summer while I'm home over break she'll send me back to camp with homemade cookies and bulk cans of coffee just for the counsellors. My uncle to 'secretly' plows his elderly neighbours driveway every time it snows. I thought about another friend who will go out of her way to help an animal in need. There are just so many ways to show compassion and they're all equally important. 

Then I thought maybe I should go another route. I strive to be compassionate towards others and it's something I consistently think about. Perhaps I should choose a characteristic that I struggle with and then choose somebody in my life who really exemplifies that characteristic. Perhaps a throw back to last week's post about being brave? I should figure out who the bravest person I know is and write about them. But I ended up with the same problem, bravery takes on so many different forms. Getting out of bed after a monumental life event doesn't necessary require more or less bravery than jumping out of a plane. And there's a fine line between bravery and making immature decisions. Most of my friends are in their mid-late twenties and I'd be willing to bet that quite a few "acts of bravery" were fuelled by some "liquid courage". 

Back to the start. I should just go ahead and choose a favourite person and determine what qualities they have that make them my favourite. This lead me into some dangerous territory. As it turns out a lot of my friends have very similar characteristics. Picking one over the other just felt wrong. 

So I ended up back at the very beginning. Back to how important I think it is for those around me to be compassionate. Every time I see somebody put others above themselves I am inspired and want to have that same selflessness. Dropping everything to be with a friend who needs you now, offering help and expecting nothing in return, doing things without expecting recognition. Ultimately it all boils down to thinking about how you would want to be treated. 

Holiday Favourites: Family Tradition

I had so much fun linking up with Hayley & Lauren last week for The Girl Between the Lines I can't wait to do it again! This week everyone is sharing their favourite things about the holiday season.

I'll let the blogging world in on a little secret; I don't LOVE Christmas. Now before you close the window, unfriend/unfollow/delete me from your life just hold on a second while I explain. It's not that I don't enjoy Christmas and all the family traditions and festive spirit, but there are things that I enjoy more. And right now there aren't a whole lot of children in my life who are really into the whole Christmas thing so as sad as it may sound, a little bit of the magic is gone. I can't wait to someday have my own family and babies to celebrate the season with, but that's just not where I am in life right now.

I am thankful that my family has really great Christmas traditions. On Christmas Eve we all go to church and then to my aunt & uncle's house for finger foods. When all of us cousins were younger we would run around the house playing and being SO excited Santa was coming. These days we're all grown up (the oldest four have babies of their own) so there's a lot less chaos and a lot more wine. When we were little after we left there and went home brother & I would be allowed to open one gift under the tree. There was always a lot of painstaking present shaking and examination trying to decide which one to open. One of my favourite memories was the year Brother opened a package of batteries. He was not amused. 

Christmas morning we wake up and open our stockings first! Then it's kind of a free for all opening presents, we have calmed down since we've gotten older though. After presents we have breakfast and then get ready for Christmas dinner. We do Christmas dinner with my Dad's side of the family and then after dinner we head out to my Mom's parents house for Christmas dinner leftovers from Mom's side of the family Christmas dinner. They have dinner a little later so we usually arrive just in time for dessert! Santa is also nice enough to leave all the grandchildren presents for us there too. 

 I know how lucky I am to have so many aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents and I'm so thankful that I get to spend time with them during Christmas. Even if it's not my most favourite time of year and I am already dreading answering the "Do you have a boyfriend?", "Have you met anyone yet?" questions. I hope and pray that someday soon I will have someone to take to all these family events with me and in the not so distant future my own babies will be running around the house on Christmas Eve. Because family really is my favourite part of Christmas!

Runners up to my favourite thing about Christmas include; Christmas Movies (National Lampoon, Charlie Brown, Elf & Rudolph) and Christmas Treats (gingerbread, candy canes, Coffee with egg nog). But in the end family comes first! 

I Regret Nothing

I had a pretty low key weekend. So much so that when I looked at my blog calendar and say "Weekend Shenanigans Link Up" my first thought was 'what the heck did I even do this weekend'. And then I realized that the answer to that question is "Friends DVDs and Pinterest". 

I don't know if there will ever be a show as perfect as Friends. I've lost count of how many times I've seen every episode but they still make me laugh and cry. I can't even pick a favourite character because I love them all so much. I don't know if it's the writer in me or just a personality quirk but I think the key to any good TV show, movie or book is character development. And I think details and backstories are so important to character development, which Friends totally accomplishes.

Besides getting some good laughs in watching Friends I also came across some great Pinterest finds. Including these quotes. 

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I have some exciting adventures planned for the next few days so I'm not sure how much I'll be blogging this week! For now I'm off to do some laundry, make supper and hopefully get everything crossed off my to do list in time to get a decent night's sleep.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Here in Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated the second Monday in October, meaning this weekend was Thankgiving weekend! We do Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday, which is actually pretty common around here. It just makes more sense to do a big turkey dinner after church on Sunday than on Monday. And Thanksgiving Monday is just an extra day off work! 

I actually don't like turkey, there's just something about the smell that turns me off. But I fully enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner of stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy and BBQ chicken. And lemon pie for dessert. My grandma makes the best lemon pie. I'm not much of a pie person but her lemon pie is my all time favourite.  Mom brought home a pumpkin pie from the grocery store bakery that I've also been enjoying all weekend. Last night my aunt & uncle had a bonfire, which was really the perfect end to the day. 

Today I'm spending the day cleaning my room and getting to work on some Christmas cards for an upcoming church sale!

Rams & Roses Roadtrip

I spent this weekend at the provincial 4H show with my aunt, uncle, cousins, mom & grandma. My cousin J. is a champion cake decorator, I didn't take any pictures of her cakes this weekend but they were seriously awesome. She is super talented! My favourite part of the weekend though is the livestock. I seriously need to find myself a farm boy to marry so I can have access to sheep, goats, cows and horses all the time! 

On the way home we stopped in at Costco and had to take a picture of the giant vats of Nutella and send it to H. with an "I miss you" text. Her proudest moment this summer was consuming an entire 5kg bucket of Nutella over 10 weeks of camp. (She did have some help) 

We got home Sunday night just in time for me to catch the Breaking Bad finale! If you haven't watched the series yet you need to stop what you're doing right now and spend the next two weeks doing nothing but watching Walter White! 

I took this last night on my way to craft night at church. The sunset over the water was absolutely stunning. The pictures I snapped on my iPhone don't do it justice but you can kind of get the idea.