Boyfriends are fun.

The Christmas card 'bloopers'.

I thought it might be time to announce my relationship status to my blogging world.

Hey, Everybody. Meet Matt.

Matt is a funny little story that I cannot tell you now, since I am saving that epic tale for our wedding( but don't get any ideas, we are NOT engaged at the moment.)...but it's safe to say the words DATING SITE came into play.

After several years of being single, and going for dinner and movies alone, it's been an adjustment to always have company. But it's a nice adjustment.

He is a smart, handsome man who is a perfect mixture of sarcastic and sweet. And he seems to like me, even though I am a very spoiled girl. So, match made in heaven? You'll just have to hang out with the two of us and find out for yourself.

The last thing I have to say is this. When you find a man who will put up with your least attractive quality, you should hold onto him forever and ever.
There are three that are tied for first in my world. Least Attractive Qualities, I mean, not men. HAHA
1. Listening to terrible music.
2. Taking wayyyy too many selfies.
3. Being incredible needy.
And lucky enough for me, my man puts up with it all.

And there you have it. The reason my blogging has been cut by 50%.
No time to blog when I'm out adventuring with my partner in crime.

Mother Appreciation Day.

Honest to goodness I starting planning a blog post in my head on the way home from work.

Mostly a rant about the troubles of working with a bunch of women.(remind me again why I quit my construction job?)
Drama, and gossip, and silent treatments and tears. Its almost too much to bear.

So that was what I was going to write about. 
And as I walked up to my door, with the five minutes I had to change, and walk back out to go to my next event, I saw the package.

As I have mentioned before, a package is a wonderful thing. But an unexpected package? That is ten times better.
Wonderful presents from the mother.
What a way to make my day so much better.
Thanks, mom!

Boot toppers!

Not actually the whole tree. But the nice little Linus blanket that is wrapped around the base.
Even has 'Linus' stitched into the corner.

The how-to guide to...

Donating blood for the first time and having it go wrong.

DO try and relax and remain calm.
DO appreciate all of the people that are trying to make you feel better.
DON'T let this be the deciding factor in never trying to donate blood again.
DO cancel any plans that you had for that evening.
DO stop and get your favourite comfort food on the way home.
DO change into your pyjamas as soon as possible. And not the every day zebra print one's. This definitely calls for the special, fuzzy zebra print one's.
DON'T freak out and panic when you rummage through your purse for 5 minutes and can't find the bandaid
that they gave you. Chances are, you will see it as soon as you actually stand up and survey the area.
DO silently swear under your breath because your arm still hurts so much an hour and a half after the appointment.
DON'T worry about plates, or cutlery, or normal manners. You grab that take-out box and head straight for bed.
DO take a moment to cry it all out when you have finally settled in bed. Crying is a great release of all your emotions.
And last but not least, DO spend the rest of your evening having a relaxing time of reading, and watching light comedies in bed. Oh, and blogging about your experience of course.


Now, folks. Before you become too alarmed, maybe I should explain the situation better.

"Having it go wrong" MAY not be the best term for it. But, since it didn't go "right", I had no other choice.

Today I went to donate blood for the first time.
Why did I do it?
I. have. no. clue.

Not only does the sight of blood make me VERY queasy, but I am deathly afraid of needles.
BUT it's the right thing to do. And I had this strange conviction to do it.

I went through all the steps and process, and everything was going great.
And then they put me in the chair, and I started getting nervous, but thats perfectly normal.

I won't go into the gory details, since thats not when it happened.

But after sitting there for a couple minutes, maybe 5-7, I started getting lightheaded, and not feeling so good. But I didn't want to quit! Or seem like a baby. So I didn't say anything. I just turned my head to the side, and maybe closed my eyes? I don't really remember any details. The next thing I know, there are people all around me, stopping the machine, putting cold cloths on my arms, and neck, and head, and chest. And I felt sick, and chills, and fever, and dizzy and all those other random fun symptoms.

So because of that I got the special treatment, and my two(!) juiceboxes and my cookies were delivered to me in my chair.

The good news is they still use the blood, even if it's not a full portion. So it wasn't all in vain.

All in all, it was a bit of a terrifying experience, but I will go back again.
Turns out I probably just hadn't had enough to eat in the last two hours.

Don't let this story convince you not to go. Let this story make you feel better when your trip to the donor clinic is so much easier.

Welcome "Home".

Hey everybody.
It's time to give you a little life update.

So many things have happened in the last week and a half, it's hard to believe.

Thursday, September 5th, I went out with coworkers in a last hurrah type dinner.
Friday, September 6th, I worked my last day at the construction site, and went to a blazers game with one of my closest friends.
And then Saturday, September 7th, I packed all my stuff into my car and drove two hours to Kelowna, to start my new life.

Although when I say that I packed everything into my car on Saturday, that isn't really true. If you remember, I had been living with my brothers in a different house this summer, and I moved out of there on Thursday. So rather than do all the work of taking it out once I "moved home" for two days, I just lived with a car packed to overflowing for the remainder of my time in Kamloops. It was a fun two days. Think of how annoying living out of a suitcase is, and triple that feeling.

So, I arrived at my little basement suite, and started unpacking. That got boring after just a couple hours.
Now you would think(and I would think) that I wouldn't even have had that much stuff to be unpacked. And that guess it fairly true. But I'm not a focused unpacker. And what could have taken somebody experience only a couple hours, took me half a week.

I waited to take pictures until everything was unpacked, which is why this post is somewhat late. Takes me half a week to do the unpacking, then another week to get the energy to actually take the pictures, and blog about it.

The kitchen. Looking homey with things all over the fridge already.

The living room. A sweet looking fireplace. Not sure if it works or not though :).

A pretty normal looking bathroom. But tons of storage in the closet, which I found out was necessary.

A nice, big bedroom.

Bedroom view #2.

So as you can see, there is quite a lot of furniture and things already in the place. The only thing I had to bring was a bed, which made the whole thing a lot easier. No need to be living out of boxes still, or sitting on cushions on the floor.

All in all, the overall move and living has been quite successful.

School!
Yay for school.
I have been having the time of my life.
It's so fun.
Not so much yesterday, because I just come back from a visit home(to Kamloops), and I was feeling a little sad. But getting a quiz back with this...



Helped to make my mood a little better.

Anyway.
In some ways it is a lot easier than I had imagined, and in other ways it's harder. Example, there is about 162 terms to memorize, and then 179 more terms that are specific to Dentistry.
Flash cards here I come.

My teacher is really fun. And she makes everything easy, and goes to great lengths to prepare us for the quizzes. And brings us snacks, and fun little things.

The Job!
Leading up to the move, I told myself to not worry about looking for a job yet. I'd let myself have a week of relaxation and vacation, and then start the search.
Ha. Ha. Silly joke.
I forgot that without a job I become anxious, nervous, stressed, paranoid, etc.
Which is why on Saturday, the day I moved in, I was already dropping off resumes.
And what a pain that is.
Job searching, just not the funnest thing around.

My last job was such a breeze to get into, it really didn't prepare me for the years ahead of me.

But.

Then something happened. A silly little story happened.
I had seen online that Sears was having a job fair. Not my first my pick of a job. But when I got down to thinking about it, I really didn't have a first pick of job.
So I show up on that Saturday(exactly one week after I moved. To the hour, if you want to get specific.),
and ask about the job fair.
It had been canceled, they tell me, but go ahead and fill out an application form anyway.
Alright.
Oh, but then the manager comes back out and say that once I've filled it out, why don't I come back to her office, and we will do a mini interview right now.
The rest is history, folks.
She hired me right then and there, and I am now employed in the ladieswear department of Sears.

It felt SO GOOD to know that I had a job. And all my stress was just wiped away.

I start my first shift tomorrow(Friday). Without any training, it will be train as I go on the job, so we'll see how that works.

But there you go. That is my new life in a nutshell.
I hoping that I can keep up with the blog, to be able to give you some fun updates and stories about my time here in Kelowna.

go, Go, GO, STOP!

Otherwise titled as 'One of the most stressfilled, fun weeks of Hannah's year.'

A little bit of the update on my school experience.

*Disclaimer (the best blog posts all have them* I don't want you to view this as a general homeschooling flaw, I would like to think that I am a very special case.

Last week I had a lovely chat with one of the ladies at Ongoing Education at Okanagan College in Kelowna.
She explained pretty much everything for me, and got everything sorted.
Things that needed to be sorted were arranging tests in order to get all my prerequisites ready for my application.

So, to go along with my disclaimer, I'm not used to tests. I am not one of those homeschoolers that had tests all along the journey of my schooling, and I did not have to do any provincial exams. Couple that with my off and on OCD, and perfectionism, and you have a Hannah who is a bundle of stressful nerves.

One thing about not having tests growing up, I don't really have a proper way of dealing and preparing for them yet. Which basically means, although I got my prereading book for the CPR course mid last week, I didn't actually start reading it until Monday, and cramming on Wednesday. (The course being the next day, Thursday.)

My compulsive list-making skills did come in handy this week though.

I will admit my stress got so bad on Wednesday afternoon, that at a point I was pretty sure I would have a panic attack. There was nausea, stomach pain, headaches, sweating, and being on the verge of tears.
I would like to say a special thanks to my lovely sweeper team for dealing with me. Looking back now, I know I was just being plain silly.

On top of all of that, the course and test were not even in Kamloops, so I made the two hour drive to Kelowna. I guess it's a little fitting, since that is where I will be going to school.
Thursday I had the CPR course, and it was actually so easy. All the stress and nerves of before, went away when I learned everything, and had the confidence I needed to pass the written exam (passed with 100%, I might add).

The next day, I went to the college and did a typing test, the goal was to be able to type 35 words per minute. It was almost as easy as the test the day before had been.
And with that, I had confirmation that I could be expecting an acceptance letter in the next week.

WHHHHEEEWWW.
I do admit I make things out to be so much of a bigger deal than they need to be, but it's almost as if the added stress makes for a bigger celebration in the end. So, almost worth it :D.

Then after the days of stress, I headed into two days at the lake, doing nothing but napping, reading, and soaking up the sun.
I did not feel guilty for the lack of production at all. Lack of production? What am I talking about. I managed to finish two books in that time. So productive.

One more thing I would like to mention on the school subject.

Hannah is not a fan of change. She gets comfortable with the day to day normal, and the idea of totally disrupting that freaks her out. Especially when it becomes so real.
As much as she loved the idea of applying for college and moving to a new city before, now it is just a new cause for worry and stress.

The idea of quitting my job, that I have grown to love and get so much joy out of, is a big reason that I thinking that I don't even want to make this big step. And every day it is a struggle that I'm dealing with.
BUT!
I found a quote on Pinterest last week, that I have been thinking about constantly, and it is helping me deal with everything.

"What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same?
I doubt you would be happy.
So, why are you so afraid of change?"
Karen Salmansohn

I don't want to be where I am in 10 years. Heck, I don't want to be where I am in 2 or 3 years. And without making the difficult steps now, I won't be able to make that happen.
So, here is to beginning a new phase of my life, as hard as it might seem in the moment.

NEW BEGINNINGS!

This is cheating.

I had to do a brief update for all of my friends from Bible school, and so I'm doing the cheaters thing, and copying and pasting it here.

And to think I used to laugh at all the people who said they got "bloggers block".
It's a real thing, and you should be frightened of getting it yourself.
I cannot even count the amount of times I have forced myself to press the 'new post' button, and then stared at the screen forever, trying to formulate a way of writing down my thoughts in a unique and witty way, that would make everyone want to smile and be my friend.

And in actuality, when I have managed to scrape something together enough to hit 'publish', it is always some odds-n-ends thing that I put together on the spot, so that I could try and convince myself that I still have it together. I don't. But I'm also not going to throw away 6 years of my life, just because of a dry spell. I have faith that the writers itch will come back. Maybe not in time to keep all of my readers here, but since when has this been more than a public journal for me anyway?

Here is my short update. Obviously there isn't much to it, and there are probably still a lot of holes in between that would be nicer if filled. But if I have learned anything from my Europe and Australia adventures, it is when I promise a report on something, that it never happens.
So. That's that.

"As all of you know, I went to AUSTRALIA! in March. And that was so much fun. It was my first solo trip, so that in itself was an experience. Elyse's wedding was obviously the highlight. And it was lovely to see her, if only for a short, busy day. 
For the rest of the trip, it was just me, checking out the cities of Melbourne and Sydney. Not only did I see all the animals native to Australia, but I went to the Melbourne Aquarium one day and saw penguins. And that made my life. You don't even want to know how long I stood there and watched them. Taking wayy too many pictures, I might add.
During that trip I realized that the whole solo thing was probably not the best idea for me. I don't regret it, but I tend to be a introvert, so didn't really go out of my way to strike up conversations and all that. I'm also a little paranoid, so most nights found me in my hostel room by 9pm, because I was afraid of what dangers the night might hold :).

After that trip, I was already planning my next one. Which, until recently, was set to happen in January, and the plan was to be a nanny in England for a year or so.
That plan, which up until two days ago was pretty much confirmed, now is looking like it might be postponed, because I just applied to college tonight. Weird. This coming from a girl who has never ever ever wanted to back to school. Ever. (T-swift reference, anybody?)

Nothing to exciting. It's called a Dental Office Administrative Assistant Certificate. It's a pretty short course. Which is good, since that's all I can stand. But I'm really happy for the opportunity to get some sort of training under my belt.
So prayer for getting accepted to that would be much appreciated.

In other news of my life, since Vanessa noticed it on my instagram, I moved out!
Only temporarily though.
My brothers roommate went to work at a bible camp for the summer, so they needed someone to fill in for two months. I wanted the chance to see what it was like before plunging straight in, so this is a nice little test of what it's going to be like in the future.
It's only been a week and a half, but so far so good. I have a little work to do in the cooking department, but that will take some time.
I'm already noticing the perks to living at home, so I don't think I'm done with that quite yet."

8 things I love.

Seeing as I can never remember to blog on Thursdays, here is one just for fun.

1. Rain.
2. Peanut butter cookies from Walmart.
3. The giggly anticipation I get right before bed sometimes, because I am so excited to sleep.
4. Taking a really good photograph.
5. Being so happy I can't keep the smile off my face.
6. Costco shopping with my mother.
7. Making lists, and checking them off.
8. Relying on my senses.

HMD!

Mother's Day 2013

                       A return from bloggers block to send a Mothers Day greeting your way!

Stuck.

Stuck in a small circle of procrastination right now.
I should be packing.
I should be doing my taxes.
I should be filing for my medical claim.
I should be blogging about actual topics.
I should be preparing for work tomorrow.

I'm watching a movie and painting my nails.

86 hours until departure.
31.5 of those hours will be spent working.
Ideally 32 of those hours will be spent sleeping.
And Monday and Tuesday nights are spent with people, having last minute hang out sessions.

So, yes, I should be freaking out.
In fact, I am.

But I'm just not doing anything about it.

And I wonder why I am so stressed all the time...

An update on the March challenge.

4

5

6 (not my opinion, just documenting)

7

8

It is a little bit laughable that the one free day I had, I didn't end up getting around to taking a picture.
So none for 9.

10

A time for grieving, and a time for moving on.

I felt bad for Flamingo Frances( as her nametag stated), I really did. Here she was, just trying to get through her Monday evening shift at Petland, enjoying the quiet calm of the store without customers, when I appeared.

{Some back story}
As some of you might know, my fish died a little while ago. We had been together for over 2 1/2 years, and I was quite attached. I'm realizing that he was there throughout some of the most difficult times in my life so far, so maybe that why I had such a special bond with a pet that you usually don't connect with.

Just about a week before Reggie died, I had bought a large 5 gallon tank in an attempt to cheer him up. As it would appear, it didn't work. And I was left with this new tank, sitting empty on the counter. It stayed that way up until now, because I didn't have the heart to buy a new fish at the time.
Last Monday was forced into being the time, maybe only because my mom was threatening to go buy fish if I didn't. And I didn't want to be stuck looking at fish that I didn't pick out. So, I went to Petland.

And I gazed at all the different fish for a very long while. And then I asked F.F. some questions. And that's when my sob story started pouring out.
Honestly, I don't even know how I could make such a big deal about a fish. But it seemed that every other sentence, I was mentioning Reg, and something about him, or how I felt now that was gone. I am ashamed of myself. Thankfully, she was a fellow fish lover, and she seemed to understand, or at least she is very good at acting. In the end I was triumphant in finding 4 fish that I could live with, but I still drove home feeling as if I wasn't ready for this step.

Despite my lack of love, they seem to be surviving, and hopefully in time I can grow fond of them.

Introducing for the first time..........

Hal and the Karens!

*note* There are three Karens. It's just hard to see one of them because she is so small, and facing the camera.
Also, Hal is frisky, and seems to sense when I am taking pictures of him. So there hasn't been a clear photo of him yet.

Month #3

Let's just put the facts out there. Going to the gym isn't very fun. 

I tried to trick myself for a while, but I soon saw through the lies.

Month 2 didn't work out so great. But I did learn how to work some new machines, and I feel comfortable going to classes, and working on free weights, so I won't say it was a total fail.

This month is going to be something totally different.
Since I am leaving the country on the 21st, I wanted to make it something that won't be a hassle while I am traveling around, and not so much about diet or exercise, since I really, really don't want to have to worry about those things while I am on vacation.

Instead, I went in a different direction completely.
A picture a day.

As the aspiring photographer I pretend to be, I want to challenge myself to find something worth taking a picture of every day.
Now most days, I'm sure I will cheap out, and not put any heart into it. But I really hope I will be able to learn a bit more about my camera through this, and get a little more sense of what is photogenic and what is just a bad picture.

So here is March 1, 2 & 3.

I didn't actually make the new goal until Saturday. But fortunately I had taken a couple pictures on Friday anyway.

It was raining really hard on Saturday night, but I couldn't capture the magic correctly,
so I settled for a different kind of magic.

Can't get enough of the new ink.

The permanent decision.

Anybody who knows me well, knows that I'm an over thinker.

Almost every decision I make is a large process, taking at least a couple days to consider, usually with me making my mind, and then changing it 20 times before actually making the final decision. Or not making the decision ever. Example being my lack of career plans :).

Take my last big purchase.

The iPhone.

  I can't even tell you how many times I went back and forth on this one.
My blackberry started acting up months ago, and it was extremely frustrating. It would freeze up at least a couple times a day, randomly turn off (usually while I was on the phone), and sometimes not send or receive texts. But even though I knew what phone I wanted to get next, since it was so much money, I couldn't make myself take that large step. So, I would just smash my head into walls whenever my phone acted up instead.

Then I created a plan in which I would set aside a small amount of money from every paycheck, towards the new phone, so when I finally I had enough, I would feel as if I had earned it.
And this took a very long time.
The day finally came when I had enough, and I still couldn't do it.
It took me almost another month to work up the courage to spend the fortune that is required for the new iPhone.

So.
I come to my next large decision.

But this one came with another added pressure.

Permanence.

It's a whole 'nother stressfilled time when you are considering something that you will never be able to take back.

Like a tattoo.
So, like my phone, this choice was a long time coming. Which years of thinking it over. And I'm not really exaggerating when I say years.
After ages of thinking this through, in the fall I told myself it was time, and that I would do this for my birthday. Haha. That was wishful thinking.
4 months later, I was exasperated with my indecisiveness, and almost on a whim, I went into the tattoo parlour to see when I could book an appointment. There had been a cancellation, and I could come in the next morning. ACK! Instant panic attack. I thought I would have to wait weeks, and it would give me time to get used to this new development  But no, I was plunging head over heels into it. If you can say that after years of processing.
But maybe it was better this way. Like ripping off the bandaid.
And it turned out okay.
No time to stress, no time to change my mind. Just enough time to spend a couple hours pouring through websites looking for the perfect font.
Going into this, I wasn't sure what my pain tolerance would be.
I know generally, I'm not that great.
And it hurt.
I picked a very sensitive part of the body, and most of it was right on top of bone, which makes it hurt that much more. I was very unprepared, but I didn't make a fool of myself by crying. Very proud to say that not a tear was shed. I had to keep up a nonchalant "this is totally fine" attitude to prove to the tattoo artist that I was cool enough for this :).

Here it is.

To explain this tattoo, would be like giving up a part of my soul that I'm not so sure I'm willing to share quite yet. It obviously has meaning. But I'm sure I would do a very bad job of explaining that meaning.
Instead, I will leave you with the song that it came from, and maybe you can come up with an idea of what it means to me.

Exciting things coming my way...

I'm trying to be as mysterious as possible.


Dare I say it?

Stay tuned for an (exciting) update.

Oh. Hey.

To the blog that I forgot existed,


I'm sorry.


I really hope there is no one out there, slowly losing the will to live because I have stopped my updates.

It's definitely not a conscious decision.
There just seems to be a lack of blog worthy material at this point in time. Either that or I have lost my touch for being able to spin things into an entertaining read.

If it helps, I am working on things in my life.
Ya know, finding new passions, re kindling old ones, cleaning out the closets (both literally, and figuratively), getting outside, making decisions, thinking.
It has been fun.

That is all...for now.

T.I.W.L.T.

Things I WILL Love Thursday.

1.Kangaroos.
2.The Sydney Opera House.
3.Beaches, Beaches, BEACHES!
4. The second best accent in the world.
5.Seeing a mate from bible school, and being able to witness her GET MARRIED!
6. Flying into the future.
7. Having my first totally solo traveling experience.

Four days late, I hope you can forgive me. I need to learn that I should not give any teasers, because there is a good chance that either the post will be late, or never show up at all.

But as you might have guessed, this lucky girl is planning her trip for AUSTRALIA!

Sometimes things just happen.
And details fall into place just right.

At the end of March I will be heading out for Melbourne, and I will have 3 weeks to delight in the wonder that is the land down under. (anybody catch that rhyme?)

Another month, another goal.

On Thursday, a friend reminded me that it would be February the next day, and was wondering what my next goal would be.
I guess it's a good thing that I told you guys about my resolutions, because without that reminder I would have totally forgotten. Thanks, Friend!

So I started thinking, trying to figure out an easy, yet effective goal to accomplish this month.
It took a while.
It was half way through yesterday before I figured out something reasonable.
The complicated part is finding a way to adopt a habit, that is reasonable enough so I won't quit because of the difficulty level.

February's Goal!

Exercise!

Now who doesn't like a little confession moment?
Here is my secret.
I have been going to the gym, yes.
I have been going to the gym twice a week, yes.
I have been telling everybody I go to the gym twice a week, of course!

But, have I been going alone, and not telling anybody how much I actually do? Guilty.

You see, going to the gym is one thing, but actually pushing yourself? That's a totally different matter.
Now before you go and judge me more than you have already, I will try and redeem myself.

I'm not a total fraud.

I do my 15 minutes of cardio, ab and arm machines, and sometimes some leg work. But it wasn't until this last week that I was actually pushing myself to the point of exhaustion....sometimes.

This next month I am really going to try and convince myself that sweating myself silly on an elliptical is fun.
One reason that has been keeping me from spending that extra time at the gym is boredom.
I sit on the bike for 10 minutes and I am already wishing to be done.
How am I supposed to keep myself going for another 20 minutes?

I came up with a solution.
Don't laugh.
Wait, laughing is good, it burns calories.

Zumba!
Here is a video from Youtube to show you what it's all about if you have never experienced it yourself.
Don't feel as if you have to watch it all. I didn't. Just get a little taste of how much fun you could be having while getting a workout!


I tried this for the first time today.
It was confusing.
I'm not a dancer, and they don't explain everything before hand. So you just kind of have to go with it, and pray you don't crash into someone when you go mess up and go the wrong way.

But it was fun. And amusing. And I felt sweaty at the end. But not worked out. Trying to decide if that is a good thing or not.

I will be implementing this as a third exercise unit. It will be a fun, light way of getting some cardio in on the weekend without it feeling like a chore.

As you could see, it is all done to music, and it really helps the time go fast.
And then for my regular gym days I will be increasing my cardio time, and actually making a schedule and plan of what I have to do in all the other departments.

I will be continuing my Coca Cola fast in the meantime. I just don't feel as if I am over my addiction yet.
You might laugh at the use of addiction, but it was just that.
I was starting to have at least one can a day, and not feeling happy until I had it.
Bad. Or sad. Either one fits.

Tune in tomorrow for the previously mentioned exciting news!

Gluten Free, Take Two:Wheat Free.

If y'all remember, just over a year ago I did a Gluten Free diet for two weeks, to see if it would improve my health at all. Nothing was wrong with me at the time, that I could tell at least. But for all I knew, I could have been living on 50% power my entire life and not known it.

Two weeks happened, and nothing changed. So I crossed that off the bucket list, and moved on in life.

Well, here I am 14 months later, going back to it, with a whole different purpose.
I'm getting in shape.

As all of the health experts say, in order to lose weight, you have to worry about your eating style as much as you worry about your work out plan.

So, I'm getting serious about this.
As you read in the title, I'm only doing wheat free this time, since it doesn't have to do with potential food allergies. But even so, it is amazing how much food that cuts out. It has been a fun time trying to figure out what is and isn't okay to eat.
Basically, I keep myself away from anything but homemade food, which is definitely a bonus for my wallet.

I have been at it for a week already, and it hasn't been as hard as I worked it up to be before.
There is no finish date set at the moment.
As long as I can stand, I guess. I would love to go for at least a month if I can manage it.

And on the exercise end of it, I have been going to the gym twice a week. A mixture of cardio, arm and leg toning, and core strengthening.
The goal is obviously a six pack :). And I actually think I am quite close.

I have been using Pinterest quite a bit to find wheat free recipes, and this one in particular is quite delicious.

BANANA OATMEAL MUFFINS!

The banana in the name will fool you. It does call for two bananas, but I have made this recipe twice now, and I could not detect any banana taste either time. Which could be a good thing, for those of you out there who are not huge fans.

I added chocolate chips to mine the second time 'round, because if you are used to sweeter things, it can seem a little plain and bland, but sometimes that's good.

Here goes week 2!

1+1+1+1+1+1=?

Happy Birthday, Blog!

6 years ago yesterday, I decided I would give this Blogger thing a try, and here I am, still typing away after all this time.

I know that my posts of late have been infrequent, and probably not all that entertaining. But I'm not going to shut shop down just because of that. I created this blog for myself, and I am still writing in it for myself, so if readers come and go because of a lack of commitment on my part, I'm not too crushed about it.
This is for me, keeping a personal record of my past for when my memory fails me in the future.

ThingsILoveThursday

1. Lego House- Ed Sheeran (Have I mentioned he is opening for Taylor Swift in June, and I just happen to have a ticket to that show. Yay!)

2. Tearing through the house to get my camera before the moment passes.

3. The anticipation of an adventure. Stay tuned for exciting news!

4. Tostito chips with a hint of lime.

5. Reading. These days it seems as if I never pick up a book, and it saddens me. I used to read for hours on end. I am not even half way through a book I started a whole week ago!

6. Movie night.

7. My bed. It is most comfortable. I can say that I even prefer it over nice hotel beds.

8. Getting flooded by memories.

Acting like a child.

You know how little kids have more fun playing in the boxes of presents at Christmas rather than the actual presents?
Well, that is like me, when it comes to this package that I got from Romania.

When I ordered the ring, I had no idea where it was coming from. I assumed the states, or Canada since the shipping was a decent price. But then this lovely little surprise came in the mail, and I could not contain my excitement. I spent the first ten minutes just staring at the packing, not even bothering to open it.


In the end, it turned out that the ring didn't even fit, so maybe it was best that I wasn't all that interested in it anyway.

Cliche New Year post?

Well.


Hah.

I don't know what to say.
I told myself that resolutions were not going to happen this year.

But.
I can't not have at least one.
It's tradition to have resolutions just so you can feel disappointed at the end of the year when you don't accomplish them. :) I'm all about tradition.

So this year I will:

1. Read the unabridged version of Les Miserables.
2. Find somebody that I can kiss at the stroke of 12 next new years. (there is a little more in that one, but not really something I want to go into on here.)
3. Have a 1 month goal for every month.
4. Achieve something that will make the whole year seem worthwhile.

There, I have the perfect mixture of vague, and so very not vague.

Number 3 is humorous.
The thing is, I have realized I have an addiction to coca-cola. And I told myself I would have a resolution to help me with that. But the thought of going without it was just too much to bear. So Coca-Cola will be my January goal. And by the end of January I will have thought up something for February, and so on. My hope is that by going off the pop for one month, I will stop craving it, and not want it anymore anyways.

Number 4 sounds a little strange. Depressing almost, but I really don't mean it to be that way. I don't feel as if life is meaningless in the ordinary day to day living. I'm actually very okay with it. But I feel as if having one big thing to look back on can also be very satisfying.
My Europe trip was definitely the achievement of this past year.
There were so many aspects of the whole thing that taught me so many different things. I am very glad that I got to experience it all. And as I'm already learning, the bad parts make for excellent stories.

Happy New Year, everyone!
I'm ready to go out of my way to make 2013 amazing, and I hope you feel the same way.