We'll call it unique.

It seems like life has been going out of it's way to prove to me that I am unusual.

Conversations with people have led me to that conclusion.
And looking at myself has led me to the same conclusion.

Perhaps it is my massive love for lists.
Yes, I know there are many people who love the writing out and crossing off of lists.
But do all of these people plan out their entire week, complete with what they need to think(!) on certain days, and literally scheduling in when they can relax. Okay that last one may be true for more than a few people.

But as I was thinking(thinking? Uh oh, I didn't schedule that in.) over this fact this evening I figured something out. 1.I cannot live without a to do list or schedule. 2. This means all of my days are always planned. 3. Which means I never have an allotted time to rest or do nothing. 4. Which means when I do these things during the week or on the weekend I always feel guilty and not really relaxed. 5. And it also means that since I procrastinated the to do list, it doesn't ever get fully completed resulting in 6. Me feeling disappointed at the end of the week. But 7. Starting the list for the next week to start the cycle all over again.

Not totally like that..but very close. And I'm not sure what I gain from telling you this, because I am still very confused about the whole thing, but maybe you have suffered from a similar situation and can lend some advice my way.

Sad, funny 'oh.' moment.

I was saying something to my best friend about the pictures I had put up on Facebook earlier of my brothers wedding.

She texted me later, "There are no pictures."

What?

I checked the situation out.

Turns out the album that I have been putting pictures into the ENTIRE YEAR was set to an 'only I can view them' status so the lack of comments and likes weren't because people don't like me, just my own stupidity.

I don't know how this has been going on for an entire year and I didn't realize.

So, if you are my Facebook friend, go check out a collection of 103 pictures that I took in the year 2012.

I guess it's nice for a little happy surprise.

A Crazy Photographer.

Lately my picture taking has slowed to a stop.

Mostly because my week is a write off. I come home after work and crawl into bed almost right away.
No, I don't go to sleep, but I spend what's left of the evening catching up on my cyber life or reading.

And when the weekend comes, I am so busy doing all the things I couldn't do in the week, that I don't have extra time for things like hobbies.

But today as I was driving into town at sunset, the view was spectacular. The sun was almost down and it was creating this wonderful silhouette thing with the mountains and the buildings in the distance.
Fortunately I had my camera with me.

Unfortunately I driving when I had this inspiration and I couldn't find parking anywhere, and I was getting more hurried and frustrated as the seconds ticked by, knowing that with each second I was losing the sun.

I finally found a parking spot at our park downtown, and I ran, literally booted it, across the park to the riverside so I would have an open view. The scene that I had been wanting to take was now gone, but the one I saw was almost as good, so I took a test picture....and I had forgotten to put the memory card back in the last time.

DARN.

But I had one in the car.

Ran back.
Somebody had been in the car beside mine and asked me if I lost something.
Nope, just being a crazy photographer.

So, here it is. Definitely not the greatest, I haven't been trained in night shooting yet.
But I wanted to have something to show for my half an hour of craziness.

Stress is best.

I have figured out my problem.

Since I went for so long not blogging, but updating my Twitter, I am now perfect at coming up with witting starters or perfect titles, but then the actual content is non existent, or lame.

So, this time I didn't focus at all on those first things, and I will try and write something decent enough for you to read.

Hi!
Let me tell you about the crazy fun time I just had today.
Crazy fun...or most painful experience I'd encountered in my life so far.

I have been wanting to try a specific diet out for months now, and I thought that the week leading up to Thanksgiving would be a perfect time for it because I can reward myself at the end of the  headache.

Headache...because it has been so far.

I don't know if you have ever done anything like a cleanse or diet, but let me tell you, it's not all fun and games. Well, it was never supposed to be, but so far (I'm on day 1 :D) it's been a nightmare.

Day 1 consists of Fruit. Just lots and lots of fruit. Oh, and gallons of water. That might be a reason my headache  migraine has been so bad. My water intake was a little lacking today...I'll know for the future.

Hannah is never a happy camper when she is eating healthy stuff, but when she is subjected to healthy stuff and healthy stuff alone? Moods and tempers and walking around with a sour face is definitely involved. I apologize for all the men that had to put up with me today, but they are pretty used to it by now anyway.

Fast forward/ rewind a bit.
I was asked to be a volunteer model for the Pregnancy Care Centre's Fundraiser Fashion Show.
I could insert a photo of me in my everyday clothes and we could all laugh hysterically at the idea of me pretending to be fashionable at all..but..no.

Let's just say, I didn't let myself have any part in the decision making of anything from hair, to outfits, to make up and jewelry. I just put on what I was told, and it worked for me.

The actual show was a wee bit fun, I have to admit that. But the headache, gnawing hunger ache in my stomach, and the temptation of all the fabulous desserts put a damper on things.

Not the greatest look, or lighting but you get the picture, eh? (pun SO intended!)

   

It was helpful that I had some great friends along to help make it a lighter, happier occasion.  

Stay tuned for updates on the 'DIE't coming up later this week.           

P.s. It looks like the blog wants to add to the already massive headache, so I'm sorry for the quirks that might be showing up for you, but I don't have the patience to fix it right now...or ever, probably.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Just Can't Get Enough.

One of my latest hobbies is watching Youtube clips.

I found this girl and I can't get enough of her singing this song.

I don't even want to try and count how many times I've watching this video.

Hope you enjoy as much as I did.

If you want to just listen to the song, skip to 1:10.

Things I love Thursday.

Here it is, folks!
The return of your favourite segment.

1. My Job.
  -Payday
  -Getting off early
  -Bob Scott bringing me fishy crackers yesterday
  -JR bringing me fruit roll ups today
2. The events in my life at this point in time. Like honestly, I'm very blessed, and I can't really find a reason to complain about anything.
3. GETTING MY CAR BACK TOMORROW! I think I have purposely not blogged about this string of events just because I wanted to talk about it all together when the whole ordeal is finished, so stay tuned.
4. My brother is a married man!
5. I sometimes forget about Reggie and he goes probably days without feedings, but he's still kicking..love that kid.
6. And last, but most exciting, My new baby Blake!

Welcome!

It's been a little while, hasn't it?

The thing is...I can't promise you anything substantial in the next little while. 

I guess I have the blogging blues. No motivation, no inspiration.

Although, I did start a draft of my School Post..but that's one of the reasons I am feeling so procrastinatey about blogging. So, I'm sorry to all you lovely people, but if it comes down to it, I would rather skip on ahead in life than let you in on all the adventures of my 10 weeks in Europe.

But on another note, I noticed lately that I have quite a few followers (read: I check daily to see if the count has gone up.), and I though it might be a good idea to do a reintroduction of myself to those who have joined in the last little while. You could just read all 700 of my posts and probably know more about me than I even know, but who would ever want to do that.


Hi! My name is Hannah.(I did a quick search on my blog to see if I had mentioned my name already. It's not that I'm totally scared of all those creepy stalkers out there who collect all the information about you and use it to find where you live, well, maybe I am a lot. But I started mentioning it over three year ago so if they were gonna find me, they would have by now.)

I live in a nice little city called Kamloops. (Also searched that. Stalkers, how clueless are you?)

My favourite past times include baking, reading, playing my guitar and taking pictures.
I have a large family with five brothers and a newly included sister-in-law. I love them all to bits. Probably my biggest joy in life.

I work on a construction site, building a hotel.
Best. Job. Ever.
I never really realized you could love your job so much.

I have a slightly crazy nature, which might show through a little bit on here. I can act mature..but I prefer not to and I get along fine.

I blog for the fun of it, and to update people on my life, so if you were looking for a blog with some sort of theme or purpose...you won't find it here. But I'm always happy to find out there are people reading and enjoying it, so leave me a little bit of comment love from time to time.

It's getting late and I can't think of anything else off the top of my head, so I'll leave it at that.

Class.

Let's just all try and be classy like Audrey Hepburn.

Meet the team.

The daunting task of blogging about my trip is still...daunting. But I thought I would approach it in a round about way and introduce you to the players of the story first. (In no particular order)

Marianna.
This delightful woman was our cook. She came from Romania especially for this job and at the time she got to Greece, about two weeks before we arrived, she didn't know any English, and was pretty shy about it. But over the course we got to know her and were able to bring her out of her shell.
She made AMAZING food. Every day it was something new and delicious, partly the reason why I ended up gaining 10+ lbs.

Elyse.
This crazy girl is all the way from Australia. Such a funny character. She was the eldest of the group, and it showed a lot of the time. It was great to learn from her and to be inspired by HER learning.

Steffan.
The deck hand.
A lovely man from Germany who has moved to Greece to be a missionary.
He definitely gets a prize for being able to keep up with all of us and dealing with less than fun chores. I won't go into some of the things that he had to do, but they were disgusting.

H.C.
My Hannah squared.
This girl is so sweet! And sweet meaning nice, kind, considerate, happy etc.
Always encouraging and positive. I'll try not to hold her american citizenship against her :).

Marinna.
This crazy girl didn't wash her hair for the entire 7 weeks of the trip, experimenting to see if her hair would start cleaning itself. It never got too gross, but it never did very clean either :).  The youngest of the group, she challenged me with her question asking and wise beyond her years comments and thoughts.

Oh hey. It's me.

Natey Pot Pie.
I can't even begin to tell you how much I like this boy. In the strictly friendship way (in case you were wondering.) Always making me smile. Always singing me Nat King Cole. He's the best kind of sensitive and funny all wrapped up into one great package.

Tara.
The artist of the group.
She missed her flight and wasn't able to make it one time, but inspite being several days of training behind the rest, she managed to pick everything up at an amazing speed and had no trouble fitting into the group. In the airport on her way home, her boyfriend proposed to her, which made us all very happy since we had been hearing about their amazing relationship the whole trip.

The Z man.
This guy is WEIRD! But in a great way. Having his own theme song, and creating commercials for cookies that we found in one of the towns. One of the few that had previous sailboat experience.

Taylor Brown.
And unlumpable boy from Saskatchewan.
This boy was great to get to know. We had some nice one on one chats, and he was good at calling me out things. He joined Marinna in her no-hair-washing challenge. 

Sierra.
An incredibly talented girl. She speaks French and Spanish fluently, and has recorded an album.
I feel a special bond with this one. Okay, I feel as special bond with every single person on that boat, but this one feels a little different. She was the first one I met, and it was nice having the hour  of getting to know her before everybody else starting showing up. 

Theo!
Our skipper.
I learned so much this man. Some from lessons, some not. I respect him greatly, and am really glad I got the chance to know him, and learn from him. Dealing with a boatfull of people who don't know what they are doing must have been difficult at times, but he didn't let it show, and after 7 weeks he had trained us all up to be competent crewmen.

Vanessa.
Rocking the pants. Could be always be counted on to have a good time, looking great in snorkel gear, petting the cats. Just an overall nice girl. I don't think I could ever say anything bad about this girl.

Things I Love Thursday

1. Getting a package in the mail.
2. Laughing and laughing and laughing with one of your best friends.
3. When something goes wrong, but I'm okay with it.
4. Reading books. It has been too long.
5. Wearing dresses all the time, cause you can do that in the summer.
6. Living without my phone for a day. Puts thing in perspective.
7. T Swift in the morning.
8. Having weekends so that I can actually enjoy this heat that kills me everyday at work.
9. http://www.rainymood.com/

The 4 stages of happiness.

Happiness has four stages. You'll eke out the most happiness from an experience when you...

1. anticipate it with pleasure,

2. savour it as it unfolds.

3. express happiness to yourself or others, and

4. recall a happy memory.

Ahead of my country, I guess.

On my list of 'Top Ten Delicious Foods(for now)', this one is very close to the top. Let me tell you a few stories about this delectable treat.

One time I was shopping around in MTF Price Matters. Not something I do frequently, usually only when I need to kill some time in the Valleyview area. And I saw a stack of these coconut M&M's.

I like M&M's. I like coconut. It was really a no brainer, and at such a good price!

But...like when you are buying food on sale at the grocery store, you wonder if there is a reason for the great deal especially when it seems like no one else has been scooping them up. So rather than buying the 20 packages I had originally intended, I got one as a sample.

Why did I doubt?

They were GREAT!

But unfortunately the rest of them were gone the next time I stopped in at MTF.

Fast forward to my Europe trip.
Grocery stores really are my favourite place to be. So, naturally I had to go into as many as possible in every town and city we went to. I rarely actually NEEDED something but that didn't stop me.

Then in Venice(I think), we were walking out of a grocery store and the coconut caught my eye. They are European and they are EXPENSIVE! It was something like 2 euro for a package. I couldn't make myself pay that much money even they are quite yummy. Very yummy, actually.

Goes to show that I was hard wired to live in Europe where they love the coconut chocolate and do not try to sell it cheap at the local discount store.

If anyone finds a store that sells this product, please alert me immediately. I have not been able to find it since.

Thought of the day.

"I wish everybody read my blog so they would know not to do the things that make me mad."

Locked out of life.

What happens when you try and sign in to your Youtube account in Rome and forget the password?
Answer: They think you are a hacker and lock up your account.

Okay, that is fine. But wait, my blog and email are attached in this deal since it is all run by Google now.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I'll paint you the scenario.

Doing my usual routine of logging onto my blog to see if any of my friends have posted anything, I get a error message, but it's in french so I can't understand what it says. I copy and paste unto my ipod's translate application and the translation comes across as something like, "Your blog has been deleted."
WHAT?

I didn't even know what to think, or say, or do. So I checked my email again. It gets a little confusing here. But I have my hotmail account, but it's linked to my gmail account so I get all my emails together and I hadn't checked the side folder so I missed the email that said there has been suspicious activity and they are locking my account.

Let me tell you, you don't realize how important your blog is to you until it is gone. I, like most bloggers (I assume), sometimes get the doubts of whether or not it's time to shut the blog down and have the freedom to not worry about having to put up a post for all those who wait patiently. Well the writers block hasn't hit me hard enough yet. I cannot count the times I have gone to blog over the last weeks and groaned because I can't. The count for how many times I wanted to blog about this situation is high enough alone.

Long story short, I started the process of getting everything sorted as soon as I got home and a couple days later I got to sign in again, and it felt so good.

So there is my excuse for internet silence for the last little while.
Terrible events like these always have to happen at the most inopportune time, so I'm sorry you didn't get to hear about the rest of my trip as I went, but I will be describing it soon.

Italia.

Food to try when visiting Italy: Gelato Pizza Pasta Limoncello Spritz Biscotti Hello, everyone! I am doing great. Just soaking up history and culture in Venice, Italy. And when I say soaking I mean it half literally seeing as it decided to pour rain for a while today. I love rain do I enjoyed it, and I tried to convince Matthew of reasons why it was good. Tomorrow we have one more day here before we take a night train to Paris. It will be my first time on a night train...this whole trip has just been first all around, but we'll save that list for a time that I can go into detail. Ciao.

The backpacker life.

So. This morning we said goodby to the wonderful Skopelos and ferried our way back the mainland. A short bus ride later and we were in the Athens! And let me tell you, it's been great. Just wandering around, eating gyros, hanging out. I had my first real shower of the last two months and it was great. I feel clean. I met up with the brother. Ans now we are all up on a rooftop, eating pizza, hanging out with other hostellers. I am so ready for three more weeks of this. Tomorrow I say goodbye to my family of two months. It's going to be painful. I'm sad. Goodnight. P.s. Matthew has already met two Kamloopsians, two Vernonites, and a guy from kelowna. All just in Athens. British Columbia is taking over the world.

YAY.

Funny thing is...I'm finally at a legit computer, but my post will be shorter than ever since I only have a few minutes left on the clock.

Just today made the trip for me.

We saw dolphins. Well, more than saw, they saw along the bowsprit with us for like 15 minutes. It was obvious that they liked the attention.

Still having fun, still learning lots.

Miss you all!

Skopelos!

Sorry guys, I wasn't entirely truthful. Yes, I saw a shark but it was a dead shark. I realize that I hadn't said that part until I got comments on it. It had gotten caught in one of the fish nets they had set up. I really wish my iPod would let me upload pictures because i could show a picture of the strawberry, chocolate crepe that I just consumed. So. Good. I am definitely living the life. We are in a town called Skopelos. Its where Theo the director lives. W are staying here for a week, whih is kind of nice, being able to stay in one spot that has everything you could ever ask for. The entire trip we have been building up the awesomeness of this place so I was really thankful when we got here that it actually was brilliant. It's been less that 24 hours and it's already had many hilarious, enjoyable moments. So. Everything is going great. I'm over the bit of homesickness that plagued me a little about week ago but... It would be nice to just talk to my mom..(yes I realize this will probably pull on your heart strings, mama). Yesterday I had to go out on the bow sprit ( the part of the boat that stretches out in front of the boat over the water) while we were sailing in heavy winds. Haha, it didn't seem like that big of a deal when I was out here but after people were so proud of me cause it looked a lot sketchier than it seemed at the time and it seemed like I was going to get tossed out to sea with all of the up and down motions. Kisses from Greece!

There is a shark in the water.

Yesterday I saw a shark! And we experienced a cool lightning storm that turned into an actual storm with torrential downpours which meant we had to have watch teams stay up through he might and make sure we didn't crash onto the shore In other news I felt that I had a real break through in my faith a couple days ago. One of the things we do on this trip is each day pray one on one with a different member of the group, and this particular night I wa matched up with Theo who is the skipper and director of the Kingfisher Project. Talking to him always makes me feel nervous because he seems so wise and I'm so... Not wise. But I put away my inhibitions aside and just started asking questions and opening up and in the end i felt so much better. Now I'm feeling less stressed and more on track and I'm just having the time o my life. Okayyy things aren't THAT perfect, but life is never perfect so ya just gotta deal . That's all for now!

Happy 2nd Birthday!

Well, even when I'm not in the country I can still remember to make a big deal out of a little boys birthday.

Here's to the most faithful man in my life.
I forget about him, don't remember to feed him, only clean his tank every couple weeks and yet he still follows my finger when I drag it around the tank.

This is love.

Now I mentioned in last years birthday post, that maybe by birthday the second I would be so attached to him that I would cry at his funeral (don't knock pet funerals). And I've come to the realization that Reggie is so much a part of me, I just imagine him dying ever, so yes, I would probably cry.






In honour of his two years of unwavering service, I bought him a little friend to keep him company when I am not available.

Honestly guys , I don't think I will ever want to own an iPhone. The little typing I do on his iPod touch is enough for me to hate touch screens forever. So stop hoping for a long post while I am on this trip because there is no way I am going to pay for an Internet cafe when I can get free wifi on he iPod. This next week we are sailing down to coast of Greece to Korinth. There we will be studying the new testament books of 1&2 Corinthians and we will also be driving to Delphi which is said to be the navel of the earth or something weird like that. People used o go there and ask the priestess's for guidance in every area of their life, from buyin land to starting wars. The town we are in right now is 20 kilometers from the battlefield of 'the battle of 300' which we had the option of going to see, but apparently it's only a field and a statue of king Leonidas ,nothing spectacular so we all opted out I it. Until next time!

kali̱spéra

kali̱spéra= good evening. So in addition to learning more about God an how to sail, I am also learning Greek! This is definitely going to be a packed seven weeks. Right now I am sitting in a fast food restaurant that could really be described as the Greek equivalent to McD's. I didn't have anything except for the soft serve ice crem and it is tasting quite fake. But I do know they have free wifi so I am okay with paying one euro for my cheap frozen dessert. Some Greece trivia for you: They have a siesta. So around two pretty muh all the shops clos and they starting opening again later on round six or seven. The alphabet is almost completely different. Yes, Im sure you probably knew that but being here makes it that more real and t makes everything so much harder to figure out. At least in most foreign countries you can sound out stuff and people understand what you are trying to say. Here you can't even sound things out. It's frustrating. Im surprised I made it from Athens to Volos by myself. There is no tax! Well in stores, I mean. You. See something advertised as one euro and you only have to pay one euro. I like this a lot. Alright. I already promised that I would try to stay away from technology on this trip and now this is my second time on the Internet in two days. Bad Hannah. Just letting you guys know that I'm alive and starting my base tan :).

Using the Rome method.

"When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

Well, I knew that I was only going to be in Rome for a short amount of time (read: one hour), so i decided to adapt the phrase to fit with the great United States of America.

All that really mean is I went to McDonalds for lunch an had some sweet tea as well. Remind me to never have sweet tea again.

An update on me would be the following:
Two hours into the flight from New York to Rome, the I lot told us that they were having some maintenance concerns and rather that risk flyin over the Atlantic we turned back. I was all for going ahead but who listens to me?

Back at JFK, me and a very nice, helpful attendant spent about an hour figuring out how to get me to Athens in time. I'll be flying to London tomorrow morning and from here to Athens In The evening which will have me arriving at two thirty in the morning, not ideal, but it's all part of the adventure.

This is the first time I have ever done something like this by myself before and I thought I handled Everything quite well. Until I made it to the hotel room and realized I couldn't phone my mother. That's when the waterworks finally decided they were allowed to come out in public.

So wish me luck! I'm actually quite excited that I will be able to say I've 'been to London', although not technically , since an airport is international ground.

Now I get to I sleep in my complimentary hotel bed for two hours before starting another full day of flying tomorrow.
Night!

P.S. this was frantically typed on my iPod touch so you might have to guess at some things that I'm trying to say.

Crunch time.

25 hours until departure from Kamloops.

I'm not fully packed.

And for some reason I have not started freaking out yet.


On Monday, April 16th 2012, I will be flying out of Seattle to experience one of the biggest highlights of my life (I'm pretty sure I can say that, this is a pretty big deal).

I will be spending 7 weeks learning about God and the Bible on a sail boat in Greece.
(If you would like to know a little bit more about all of it you can click here)

As if that isn't enough, I will be back packing around Europe after my school is over.

I'm sorry this isn't a lot of information on what I am doing but I don't want to waste precious few hours left at home killing time on a computer. When I get back I will have the full story for you, and a ton of pictures, I'm sure.

I don't want to promise any blog posts while I'm gone, but check back occasionally just in case I manage to squeeze out an update somewhere.

See you in ten weeks!

A pinteresting weekend.

It's feels like it has been such a long time since I have done an 'updating post'. You know, just reminding everybody what I'm up too and all of that fun stuff.
So, really, I'm not even sure that you know much about where I work (a construction site as a 'housekeeper') or what I do in my spare time and weekends (not much on anything, to be honest.).
This post will help delve into that mystery.

As I said previously I work on a construction site. I usually lead with that sentence when I am telling people, but that's a silly idea since then they get really impressed, and I have to let them down by saying all I really do is sweep and pull nails. I guess even holding a hammer is pretty intense for some people. Me, not so much.

I love my job.

I have from the beginning. The cleaning aspect of it is right up my alley, and the whole idea of building a hotel...just seems really cool, and I get to be a part of that.

Anyway, I didn't really come on here tonight to rave about my amazing job.
I was just going to mention that fact that I switched from five 8 hour days to four 10 hour days, but you know me, never giving up the chance to let people know I'm so intense I wear steel toe boots.(I'll leave out the high vis safety vest, 'cause that's just not cool in any way.)

With this change of course means I have a longer weekend, and who can complain about that.
I've noticed that I can get A LOT done with this extra day if I set my mind to it.
A couple weeks ago I painted a whole room on the Friday, and had all of my stuff moved into said room by the end of the weekend. You would think the painting part would take the longest, but you underestimate how much 'stuff' I have possess.

But on the other hand I've noticed how little I can get done in that time if I'm really procrastinating. Which is what I did this weekend. In the end you might say I did a lot. But since it wasn't what needed to get done, I call it nothing.

What needed to get done: Packing my backpack for my upcoming trip.

It didn't get done.

What DID get done:
4 new recipes I found on Pinterest.
1 419 page book.
1 2 1/2 hour nap.
A billion youtube clips of the show "Ellen". Seriously, how have I never seen this show before? Very entertaining.
A second viewing of "The Hunger Games". Well done, in my opinion, but I had no memory of the book, and it seemed that a lot of the movie was shaky and out of focus...possibly supposed to be like that, but it annoyed the crap out of me.
And a whole bunch of other meaningless things.

PINTEREST!
I'm sure if you are a women, over the age of 15 and under the age of 65, you have discovered this online sensation. I've talked to people who love it, and people who just don't get it. Personally, I love it...in spurts. But sometimes I just forget about it, or don't think it is worth my time. I mostly use it for recipes, although you would never know it if you saw my FOOD! pinboard. The thing is, I don't want to pin a recipe until I know it is a success, but by the time I try the recipe out, I forget where the pin originated from. Alright, for all of you blog readers out there who aren't Pinterest fanatics, I will digress.

Well, I'll show you a sample of what I made first.

Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Squares.
My favourite part of this recipe is that there are no marshmallows! Wait...that's my second fav part. The best part is that it has peanut butter in it :D! But seriously, as much as I like making rice krispie squares, melting the marshmallows stress me out, I'm always worried they will burn, or I won't be able to mix the rice in fast enough. I don't know if you can tell or not but I get stressed easy, I will prove it later on in the post.

'The best ever blueberry muffins'
Okay now. Have you ever been to Starbucks? Have you ever tried their Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins?
Well I have, and they are DELICIOUS! And ever since I had my first one a couple of months ago, I have been searching for a recipe that can replicate that taste. My first attempt was with 'Buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake'(found on Pinterest as well.), but it was too lemony. Not saying that was a bad thing, but just not the taste I was looking for.
But these muffins here, I think they come pretty close. I actually didn't taste them until just now, which is a day later, and they were in a tupperware which made them a bit moist so not the ideal for a muffin, but yumm, I give them a thumbs up.)

Now, I've told you about my job, my weekend, next would be my excuse for the lack of blog posting...which can be boiled down to the job and the weekend.
You see, when you work ten hour days, you come home and it's already past dinnertime, and you are tired and you don't really want to do anything. Now, I could give you blog updates about all the funny youtube videos I've been watching, and the plot of the latest book I read, but that just don't sound very fun at all. Unless it's a really hilarious clip.
On the weekends I have mainly been catching up on stuff that I can no longer do on the weekdays, and getting ready for my trip, so again, not very blog worthy.

You might argue that a real writer could make something out of nothing and create the greatest stories out of all the blah I just told you about, but I'm not a real writer. I just started this blog back when I was 14 for no apparent reason at all. Haha, I just realized this blog still has no reason, so I haven't come very far, have I?
And... There is the whole factor of followers. I see the amount of followers I have rise all the time, and it scares me a little. That might be a bit of the reason I have been hiding out lately.
The idea that so many people are waiting so see what I say next...just a wee bit nerve wracking.

Alright, I feel as this post is getting a little long-winded so I'll just end with one announcement.

Exactly 2 weeks from now I will be in Seattle less than twelve hours away from my flight to Athens, Greece. Am I freaking out? YES!
This is where the stress part comes in. I have been planning this trip for months. But not really planning, because I knew I would be stressed out by it, so I kept putting it off. Well, it's pretty close now, so it can't really be avoided anymore. But if you know me at all, you know that packing of any kind gets me worked up. And the thing is...I just don't know how to pack for this trip, especially when all my stuff has to fit into one 55 litre backpack (trust me, it's not as big as it sounds). So. That's that. I have come pretty close to hyperventilating a couple of times. It hasn't been pretty. But hopefully I will get the situation in control as soon as possible so I won't be a quivering mess for the remaining two weeks.

I will be back soon with more information about my trip.

Thank you all for reading!

Happy things.

                                                        My brother is getting married!

Haha, no, I did not just find out. I have known since a couple days before he proposed...back...whenever that was :). But since I didn't have a picture of them together yet, I decided to wait.
The picture isn't that great, I'm blaming it on the 'Blah' look that Kamloops always gets in the winter.

This is pretty exciting news though. It will be the first wedding on both the Lefebvre and the Laitinen sides.

Other good things are...This song!
Usually when I hear new music by my favourite artists, it takes me a while to adjust and start liking them. But this song was insta-mega love.
The catchy beat, the band, the use of the word 'groovy', all the necessary parts to create a hit song. I listen to it a lot. Maybe too much. B.M. complained at work the other day...



Now, here is my apology for not being around in the blogging atmosphere of late. I didn't really feel in the mood even today. But I knew you guy's must be craving a little dose of Hannah. And I'm happy to oblige.
But please don't complain if you don't hear from me again for a while. (A while= 1-3 weeks.)

A rush of energy and cheer.

I have never seemed to be that great at routine. I am getting better at it these days, what with having a steady full time job and all. Maybe a little too routine at times. I wake up at the same time every morning, and have specific times for each little task that needs to be done before leaving the house.
But things like remembering to rip off a page of my daily flip calendar usually get forgotten until I'm catching up on everything on the weekend.
That happened this week.

So here I am, late Saturday night, cleaning my room so I can wake up to tranquility in the morning, ripping off several pages in succession.
When I come across this one:

"Happiness 911
Need a quick jolt of happiness, right now? Try this:
Rid yourself of a nagging task. Answer a difficult email, purchase something you need, or call to make that dentist's appointment. Crossing an irksome chore off your to do list will give you a rush of energy and cheer."

I laughed a little, since I had just finished a headache making hour of filing my tax return. The daunting task had been hanging over my head ever since I got the notice in the mail in early January.
It was frustrating. And I was not kidding about the head ache, it hurts.
But...it's done! I do feel very cheerful. And the added bonus of getting quite a bit of money back makes it that much better.

Of course that was only one irksome task off of a list of many...but I'll worry about those another day.

Christian humour.

I told one of the guys I work with that I was going away to Bible school.

"Bible school...I did that when I was younger!"
"....Oh, really? Are you sure?" Let's just say he didn't strike me as the type.
"Yeah, here in Kamloops."
"Riiiiigggghhht."
"Almost every Sunday, I think my parents probably just wanted to get rid of us kids."
"...That's not Bible school, hun, that's Sunday school. Just a *bit* of a difference."

I would have some blonde humour for you too, but she who will not be named threatened me into changing my mind :).

He called me Tweety Bird.

Before this week I had never dealt with death.

For some reason I thought I would be able to handle it pretty well when the time came, although as some of you may remember me saying before I am very sympathetic. Seeing someone grieving in a movie is enough to start my waterworks.


A week ago today, I was having dinner at my 'pseudo family's' house. It was an early dinner and I had been planning to go to a concert that night of a artist that I had been waiting months to see.

But I got a call.

My grampa was in the hospital and it was time to say goodbye.
He was unconscious, so we couldn't interact with him, but we stayed there all evening, gathered around his bed.
There seemed to be no change, though, so everybody left for their separate homes.

But the second call came at 3am the next morning.

And now he's gone.

When you have known someone your entire life, it is hard to accept that they can be gone and never to return.
It hurts my heart.

My brother and I played a song at the funeral today.
It was a song by one of my grampa's favorite singers.
I didn't actually get to record me and Behn playing it, but I sat down and quickly did a video of it when I got home.
So here is Country Roads by John Denver.

Christmas '08. Enjoying the handknitted toque his daughter, Missy, made for him.

TiLt.

On a complete side note: Today I was running in the snow, and I slipped. Down I went. The entire right side of my body smashed into the frozen ground. Ow. :)

1. Experiencing something so funny that you laugh until you cry. And then burst out laughing the rest of the afternoon every time you remember.
2. Taking pictures of snooowww!

3. My Valentines tulips.

4. Pinterest. To be honest, I've gotten quite addicted. Of course I say that after two days of forgetting that it exists.

5. Getting so wrapped up in a book that you can't doing anything else until it is finished.

6. Bed time. Night, y'all.

Be my Valentine.

Love, it's a special day
We should celebrate and appreciate
That you and me found something pretty neat
And I know some say this day is arbitrary


But it's a good excuse, put our love to use
Baby, I know what to do
Baby,I will love you
I'll love you, I'll love you


Love, I don't need those things
I don't need no ring
I don't need anything
But you with me
'Cause in your company
I feel happy, oh so happy and complete


So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving me kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine


So won't you be my honey bee?
Giving sweet kisses all the time
Be mine, be my Valentine

Arbitrary?

To be honest...Valentines Day is one of my favorite holidays.
I'm pretty sure I like it more than my own birthday.
Love > Candy.
But, there is actually lots of candy on February 14th so that could be reason it's the superior day.

Stay tuned for lots of love...and hearts and all that happy stuff.


I just realized that it's Thursday. So I'll be short and simple and say this day is someThing I Love.

The Challenge.

At least one set a day.

For one month.

Ready.

Get set.

Go.

*This is in realization that I actually leave pretty quick, and I need to be in great physical shape for the itinerary I have planned.
**Although, my wrist is acting up right now, so the push ups and burpees are impossible at the moment.

The hunt for inspiration.

Hm. The blog title sounds so exciting, I wish the post could live up the expectation.

Today I realized that even though weekends with a long to do list, that keeps you busy and makes you feel accomplished, are good, sometimes the lazy kind are just as great.

And they give you time to do things that you usually don't think you have time for, or maybe you just justify not doing them by having busying yourself with other things.

Like painting.
The thrill of giving a room a fresh face by just throwing on a couple coats of paint goes away...after the first coat. Good thing I have weeks, or even months to do it.

And taking pictures.
Which is where the title comes in.
On a day like today, when I'm energized enough to go outside with my camera, but not actually leave the property, it takes a creative mind to think up new and original shots since I keep taking pictures in the same location.

Maybe this is actually a test to see how great of a photographer I really am, because I'm sure the greatest of photographers can put a hundred different spins on the same landscape or object.

So, here is a little sampling of my afternoon.

We have a creek flowing through our backyard. CRAZY!

And a little bridge over the creek to get to a mini, private island.

This would be unedited me. Why put on my painted face when I'm not going anywhere?

Happy Saturday, everyone!

tilt

1. knowing that the weekend is just an 8 hour shift away.
This is my first 'normal week' job, so having a real weekend is delicious.

2. Butter tarts. I could eat these things by the dozen. Sans raisins of course.

3. Crossword puzzles. Like with everything else in my life, I have seasons where I gobble the puzzles up, and other seasons where I don't touch the book for weeks. Other things in my life that also have seasons: Tea, Music, Photography.

4. Walking around in my steel toe boots and grungy work wear and just feeling official. Like I'm legit.

5. Feeling financially stable.

6. DQ Ice cream cake. Eating it in layers. Chocolate icecream, fudge and cookie, fake icing, white icecream.

7. House sitting.

Happiness is...

Finding a MEC vest at Value Village for only $10!
Researching online(I just had to..) it seems that it would have been around $80 originally.
And it doesn't look like it's been worn at all.

SCORE!

Just goes to show that getting off your butt and driving to town for an evening out actually is sometimes a good idea, even though your body is telling you that you should just lie in bed perusing Pinterest.

p.s. I tried on this sweet, simple white dress that totally could have been a wedding dress...but even though I'm being prepared and planning my wedding already, I feel as if that is something that should wait a while.

Sloth.

This is just a must see video clip.

It's a baking party.

What happens when the parents go away for several days?

PARTY!

Or not.

It has gone something like this...

Clean, clean, clean, clean.
*wait! I need to make dinner. Let's find some meat in the freezer.*
Clean the freezer.
Discover 29 black bananas, bags of raspberries, and some tart shells.
24 hours later= 5 loaves of banana bread, 2 dozen chocolate chip banana muffins, 2 dozen butter tarts and two containers of homemade raspberry jam, oh, and the kitchen is spotless in spite of all this.

Sometimes I wish I was a normal teenager.
Although I know all the mothers out there reading this are probably wishing I was their daughter.

And since I know I won't eat all of this myself, I made up a plate for the neighbours as a thank you for plowing the snow off our driveway.

I don't want to be Susie Homemaker, but apparently I can't get away from her.
Let's just keep this on the down low, though. It could kill my reputation :).

Making the change.

Everything needs change.

Or how else would life move on?

Sometimes you need to make the change happen, even if you know it will hurt for a while, before things get better.

Okay, that sentiment is true. But in my case, I'm just being dramatic.

Picture Linus from the comic strip Peanuts.

Better yet, I'll picture him here for you.

Now here is me.

                                                     
                                                I have had this blanket for years.

Years, and years, and years.

Don't believe me?

Here is a picture from about the time I got it.

Now that cute baby beside me looks something like this. (he's okay to hold a camera, but being in front of it is a reason to duck every time.) Over ten years, for sure.

Did I mention that is was my Aunties property before it was mine?

Yes, it may be a comfort to me, and filled with sentimental value, but along with all that great stuff, it's probably filled with billions of dust mites and all the other things that come from being old and used for years. Up until a little while ago it was very soft and comfy. But lately it's just really pilly and the stuffing is coming apart making it's job of keeping me warm very hard to do.

So, today, although it breaks my heart, I'm saying goodbye.

Change makes you change, and that can be a good thing.

At least I'm not giving myself bangs like I keep thinking about, right?

p.s. Is it just me, or does everybody have trouble with putting pictures on their posts and getting into a big headache over it? My words always go everywhere and it takes me so much extra time trying to figure out how to get everything back how I want it.

If anybody has any tips, I would greatly appreciate them.

That, or I might just stop posting pictures :).

Sometimes it's necessary.

But to be honest, my day wasn't bad at all, just one little thing...

It already feels like the weekend, though.
I guess it might have to do with the fact that I have started the to do list already, which is usually a strictly weekend task.

But since it happens to be Thursday, I'll leave you with a little bit of happy.

1. Baking chocolate chip cookies for the thousandth time.
2. Impressing my mother with my singing skills.
3. Taking bottles back to the recycling depot. It feels like free money, even though technically you actually paid that money.
4. $2.99 kids combos from Wendy's. Such a great deal. And just the right amount of food for my little stomach.
5. Being able to fix something, and make it work like it's supposed to.
6. Friday.
7. Planning and anticipation. (let's just say...I'll be posting some before and after pictures after all the planning and doing are done)
8. Sunshine.
9. Sunshine melting away the snow so I don't have to shovel it anymore.
10. Romantic snowfalls. But it isn't very nice that they always happen while I'm working so I can't stop and take the time to enjoy.
11. Washing my car and making it pretty.
12. Enjoying the little things.

Sticking with tradition.

One year ago today, I posted a belated happy birthday post.

This year I promised myself that I would actually remember on the right day, and I planned for it weeks in advance, but...I forgot...again.

So I figured I could try and at least make thing semi consistent by posting my belated birthday wish on the same day as last year! Yes, I know I'm a sad, sad girl.

Here is to 5 years in the Blogger world!

And we want to make this sentiment short and sweet, so I will not go on a speech about how good the years have been to us.
But I will be enjoying a celebratory dessert tomorrow.

Yummy Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Directions


Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


Hannah's Notes: Either I'm getting to the point where I can make anything taste good, or these cookies really are the "Best Big, Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies".
Since I was just making normal sized cookies the baking time was probably lessened, but I didn't use a timer.
Remember the trick to making a chewy cookie is taking the pan out when they have just browned a little bit, cause they will continue cooking when you leave them on the pan for a few minutes.
To help make them super light, I creamed the butter and sugars for a lot longer than is probably normal.
Original Source Found Here.

You are invited.

You are cordially invited to:
My Funeral.

Now, there is no specific date or time for this event yet, since it actually hasn't happened yet, but the end is near, folks.
You see, I work outside.
And it is cold outside.
Right now temperatures are resting at -22 c. with wind chill making it -33.

At work yesterday it was -14 or something around there and I was doing pretty good. There was a lot of snow to shovel so that was a good way to keep warm. But my fingers almost didn't make it.

So, I was overjoyed when I got to work this morning and they told us all that if we didn't want to work we didn't have to. But don't expect this to happen again.
I stopped at Princess Auto on the way home to buy some insulated work gloves, spending the big bucks.
I'm going to try and enjoy this unexpected day off while staving off the worry of having to go back out there tomorrow, which will be about the same temperature.

Hopefully, you will hear from me in the next week to assure you I am still among the living. But if not, I would prefer my funeral was more like a party, so bring the bottles of bubbly and thudding bass tunes!

The reveal.

So.
I will not mention names, but apparently some people were getting impatient waiting for the revealing of the big excitement I had a while ago.
Now, to be honest, I wasn't doing this to keep you in suspense. I just have a habit of promising things, and then forgetting to follow through, no matter the fact that it's staring me in the face every time I visit my blog.

You probably guessed it by now, but just for the satisfaction of the much loved 'before' and 'after' pictures, I will post the big news.

Yes, I got my braces off!
Only about 7 months late. But now that they are off, I'll stop being bitter about that fact.

Of course, there was really no point in having the braces at all. They were put on for a specific reason, that was not straightening my teeth, and they didn't fix the problem.
That's kind of a bummer, but there's not much I can do about all that.

I'm just so happy. I can eat apples again!