tilt

1.)Ice cream and
2.)chick flicks
after a long stressful, tiring day.

Honey, I'm home!

*NOTE* This post was written over the course of...3(?) days. So it might seem a little wonky.
The internet here is ridiculous. You click on the page and it appears just as quickly as you click. It still is amazing me 24 hours later.
Ready for a tale of the last couple days?

Wednesday morning I went to bed late. That's right, I was so excited about coming home that I didn't get to bed until very very late. It didn't help that I had to wake up early which meant that my internal alarm clock starting waking me up starting at 4:30.

I had gotten everything ready to go the night before so all I did was get dressed, brush my teeth and I was out of there. A kind soul had woken up early to drive me to the ferry(love you, buddy) and I conversed with a boy on the trip over. All the while feeling like death since my body is getting quite used to going to bed early..and sleeping late.

On the other side I had some time to kill so I had my first mcdonalds meal in over two months. Yumm. Normally I wouldn't eat there, but I am a sucker for their breakfast menu.
And I got a cocoa cappucino from Starbucks to keep me going through the day.

Can't say there was much in the way of interesting events on the trip, and I don't want to bore you with all the little details. I did have a 3 1/2 hour layover in Vancouver, but I spent almost the entire time in a mcdonalds staring into space. So no excitement there.

I got in to Kamloops at 11:20 pm. Mama picked me up. Got home and..nothing had changed.
Just a little bit disappointing. I tried to go to bed as quick as I could but when I finally settled down I could not sleep. I don't know if was because of the three cups of caffeine I had drank that day or the fact that my mattress here is way softer than my mattress at home(camp) and it was actually so comfortable it felt uncomfortable for me. So I got back up out of bed and starting organizing and decluttering my room. At about 2 am I crawled back into bed and managed to drift off.

BAM!
Do you know what is wrong with getting into a healthy sleep pattern of going to sleep at a certain time and waking up at a certain time? It means that even when you go to sleep really late one night your body will still wake up at the early hour it is accustomed to, even if you feel like death!
I started the death off right with a nice breakfast and began to plunk away at the massive to do list that I started writing as soon as I figured out I was coming home last month.
One of the biggest things on this list was all the food I wanted to make.
You see, I live in an apartment to technically I could do alot of baking and cooking but A. It's sad cooking for one. B.I don't want to go out and purchase all the ingrediants myself. Here I can just use the neverending supply of product that my mother keeps in her kitchen.

After lunch I went into town to..SEE MY NEW CAR! My lovely brother Cade works at a mechanic shop in Valleyview and one of his clients decided that they didn't want to pay for all of the work to be done to a car, so they sold it to Cade(in a round about way) and Cade managed to find a way to fix it for basically nothing. Of course he is still going to do some work on it but it's like the cheapest this car could possibly be for the year and make it is.

I then went to the Orthodontist. Yay. That's always fun. He told me that my teeth are where they should be and my jaw is where it should be but for some reason there are still problems so I will stuck with my brace face for at least a couple months longer. I'm okay with that.

I had only put 3 quarters in the parking meter and I was already 20 minutes late so I picked my sandals up and hightailed it back to the van in my barefeet. Thankfully there was no ticket. Wouldn't that be ironic if I got a ticket my first day back driving after two and half month.

I ran a few errands and then headed to the University. I had a reserved table for one at one of the Bistros the culinary arts programs puts on as a sort of test for the second year students.
Of course it was not by accident that I went on the night that my best friend would be cooking.
I would have had some pictures of the food I had, but...someone I know came in and sat at a table next to me. And although taking pictures of food in front of strangers is okay, in front of people you actually know is a big NO :).

It was actually quite fun. *Almost* all the food was amazing. And the appearance of it was so elegant, it was like dining at a five star but only paying for half a star.
And don't worry, Bestie didn't cook the one thing I had a problem with.

Thursday night after the dinner I did shome shopping and headed over to my brothers house to pop and in say hello before heading home for an early bedtime. But what was supposed to be a quick hi turned into a long discussion so I didn't go to bed for awhile even though every part of my body wanted me to be off in slumber land already.

Friday morning I finally went for my car. I got it transfered to my name and bought insurance but then spent an hour just wasting time in the waiting room of Cades shop. I don't know if it was because I didn't want to attempt standard after being off it for so long, I didn't want to exhert the energy of screwing the license plates on, or I actually like hanging out in a dirty, stinky mechanics shop? But being back in a standard didn't feel weird, it actually felt pretty good.

Later that day I went out shopping with Behn. Oh my gosh. Just thinking back to that trip drains me of energy. A little bit of back story:
I am the caretaker of the boys house. I clean it, organize it, take away the recylables, tell them to do things. So before I left in January I got this fabulous idea that Behn should buy a cutlery set. And MATCHING DISHES! So I told him this before I left, thinking that since I got the ball rolling he could continue on his own. But that so did not happen.
I texted a couple weeks later to see how it was going, this is the reply I got, "I think I am just going to wait until you come home, I might end up picking the wrong ones". Um, they are for your house, buddy, how can you go wrong if you are picking the kind you like?
I didn't say this to his face...or to his phone, but you can now see why my brothers need me in their lives. So, all this time I have anticipated coming home and going shopping with Behn when just a few weeks ago a thought dawned on me. Behn is pretty well off, and the couches and table are not so well off, so maybe I can weasel him into replacing those too!
I am an excellent lawyer, I made an amazing case, and those items were added to the list.

Although four lines on a to buy list might look small, when you are actually in the process it takes a long time. Like 3 hours long time. The couch part was pretty fun, even kind of like a cardio work out. Walk, walk, sit, walk, walk, sit. I had it down to a science. I sit down, give it about two seconds of consideration and if it isn't holding my attention I move on. Ironically, we ended up choosing the first couch Behn sat down in...but we didn't come to the decision until three stores and 2 gazillion couches later. We got a table and chair set at Jysk. I already made up my mind that we were going to look there and only there for a table so if we had to settle we would have to be okay with that. And it was a good deal, although when we stupidly checked prices at Citywide we found a better deal. Oh well.

The cutlery set was a steal. Like literally a steal. Awkward pause..ha ha just kidding, we aren't that poor. And the dishes look simple amazing on the new table (can you tell this sort of thing makes me super excited?).

The rest of the night was pretty much just building the table and chairs, it's harder than it looks, folks. Oh and trying Champagne, cause that's on my spring break to do list.
Except Champagne isn't really called champagne it's called sparkling wine, and so it didn't seem as magical. I stayed up 'til 2 am purposely cause even though I was beyond super tired, I really really really wanted to sleep in the next morning so I had to push myself as far as I could.

Luckily I did sleep in. It was nice. And the rest of the day I just chilled out. And hung with Bestie. We had fun, like always. And watched a classic movie for the first time.
Who even enjoys 'Breakfast At Tiffany's'? I just could not get into it.
But like before, it was on the to do list so I had to suffer through it.

And now, here we are at Sunday. I went to church, played soccer, hung out at C&C.
You are officially caught up on my Spring break so far.
At the end of the week I am going to post my to do list. Everything should be crossed off by that time.

L.O.V.E.

There is someone I love very much. He's not quite grown up and ready to assist in day to day trials,  but I like him that way and he is a good companion when going pumpkin picking or wildlife park viewing. But wait, if your day to day trail has anything to do with star wars or canucks trivia he would be a great help.*

There is someone I love very much. He's good to hangout with when we arrive at an event and nobody else shows up for 45 minutes. Or laugh together about groceries, cutlery and tuesdays. And he is kind enough to rebuild fences for me when I knock them over with my bad driving skills(heh heh funny story...).*

There is someone I love very much. He is good for anything in the way of car maintenance really. Or a good person to call when your co worker needs a car part delivered right away but the car part stores only deliver to auto shops, he will  order it and drive it over on his break just for you. Oh, and if you are ever in the need of partner when you are playing the pretend sermon game he would be the one you should pick(don't ask, it was a VERY long time ago).*

There is someone I love very much. He's good for cheering you up whenever, going to concerts with, being there to hold you when there was no one else to call on your darkest day. He'll drive anywhere to pick you up, and buy anything you think his house needs :).*

There is someone I love very much. This one can make you smile just by saying that crazy nickname that was born one day after eating too much of one type of candy.
He's a great companion when climbing intense mountains and knowledgable on all things related to outdoor equiptment. And I do believe one of these days he will make a wonderful traveling buddy.*

There is someone I love very much. SHE is probably the best thing ever. Someone you can vent to about the same things over and over and over and over again but she still at least pretends that she is interested. She would probably knit anything in the world for you. And is pretty good about paying for the things you sneak into the buggy while she isn't looking.*

There is someone I love very much. He volunteers for hours each winter just so you can ski for free(well, thats the story I made up for myself and I'm sticking to it :).
He has a nickname for me that makes me feel like I'm five again, but I'm okay with it.
Oh and a very lame sense of humour sometimes, all you can do is roll your eyes and say "oh, dad."*

So as you might have guessed by now...I'M HOME!
And being home has gotten my emotions going so of course I had to blog about the enormous amount of love that I have for my family.

I have a lot of to say about a myriad of things that are going on but I'll leave that until tomorrow.
My sleep-o-meter needs to get caught up.

*this result is not intended for all viewers. some many restrictions may will apply.

I have been holding out on you guys.

So I actually have this huge piece of information that I have been withholding from you.
I'm sorry.
I did want to mention it, but blogging just hasn't been at the top of my list for the last...month..and a half..so you can understand why I haven't gotten around to it.

Okay, here goes nothing..


Roomie left.
March 4th


Figures that only roommate I have ever had would leave after living with me for only two months, doesn't look too good for future hope of marriage.

Okay, so it wasn't all my fault.
Actually it wasn't my fault at all. But of course my ego would want to be at least part of the reason.

She left for good reasons, and I'm happy for her although I'm sad she is gone.

On the other hand I do enjoy having a room to myself.
I have arranged it to my liking and surprise surprise I have managed to keep it clean ever since.
Partially because there is not much else to do beside clean here. That's mainly what I do...clean and early bedtimes. I need a hobby...

Anyway before I say goodnight here is a picture of the *updated* living quarters.

I think I would do quite well at the 'student living in a tiny dorm room' life.

Well, minus the student part :).

Happy Monday, Everybody.

What makes a day?

Rain. Lots and lots and lots of rain.

Waking up to the sound of that rain pounding on my roof.

Dancing in that rain.

Playing hockey for the first time in months.

Drinking pink,bubbly juice.

Having Swedish coffee time with Linn.

Korean Elvis.

Being incredibly excited for some amazing things that are about to happen.

Going to quaint little churches.

Linn's Life Lessons.

Lesson #1: How to make Swedish pizza. (really, Swedish pizza is just regular pizza made by a Swede, so I'll never be able to perfect this recipe.)

Spooning on the homemade pizza sauce.

Leaving plenty of space on the edges so's your fingers can have room to hold on.

Do you see what I see?

For the most part these days, I read books to relax or unwind, so rather than hit the heavy thinkers I  prefer lighter, happier novels. An area of books that my mother labels as fluff books.

Well, the last book I read was as 'fluffy' as the rest of them but it did have some interesting information as well. I learned about the Romany and Anthropology and a bunch of other things.

The girl from the book had some trauma happen to her as a girl which caused her to go totally colour blind,
Which is why I did all the pictures like that.
Can you imagine having to live life with no colour?
Makes me feel a just a little more thankful for everything I have.

Btdubs:The book in the picture is the one I'm talking about in case you are interested.

Maybe a little bit o...c...d...

I love order. 

I like organizing.

Guess what I did today?
I cleaned and organized.
I really wish I had taken before and after pictures since the effect is really quite amazing.
But luckily I have some back up before and after cleaning pictures so just imagine this was an office instead of a dining room.

There is something about cleaning and making things pretty that gives me a thrill.
I admit it's one of my favorite things to do at any time.
And in a way I think it calms and relaxes me.
Although I don't think I could ever work at at job that that would be my main objective.

I should probably give you a update of my life one of these days.
Just not today, cause I'm bored of typing on a computer already.
Just know that I'm healthy and for the most part happy.

And fishy is doing better than ever.
If I could only capture his excitement when he sees me coming with his food.
He actually recognizes me and understands I will feed him, I am sure of it.

The Confession: My addiction.

Now, this addiction might be a little rare. Not one you really hear much talk of these days.
But that does not mean it isn't a serious problem and should not be dealt with.

I am addicted to.........dying my hair.
Don't laugh, this is a severe issue.

Let's look at the facts:
1.My hair takes at least twice as long as the average person.
2.I get bored, so I like to switch things up frequently.
3.I am sick of having the same black hair that has been around forever due to fact number one.
4. I have like an inch and a half of roots right now.
5. RED! EW.
(I don't even know if those facts make sense. I'm tired.)

So once again I have recoloured my hair. Although I never make the mistake of permanently dying it anymore. I only do temporary ones that will last up to 28 washes.

Anyway, here is the latest turn out.

BEFORE

AFTER

The inspiration just isn't there.

So.
I have been asked to put up more pictures.
But.
They won't be amazing.
I just haven't felt very creative with my camera lately.
And being stuck in the same place for a long period of time isn't helping.
Don't get me wrong, Homewood is a BEAUTIFUL place.
But I'm getting cabin fever.
And taking a picture of the same view for the fifth time is getting old.















It started snowing this morning and it has been snowing ever since.
There is so much of it everywhere and it is the best for packing.

I went sledding with the Harder boys at like 9. It was great.
I felt five again.
I ate snow, made snow angels, facewashed people, facewashed myself and went on a stealth mission. It was so fun.
That is all.
G'night.

A little confession, anyone?

Do you know what I love?
When listening to a song that I have heard hundreds of times, I hear a certain line of the song that I have never been able to understand what the singer was saying before, and all of the sudden everything makes sense. It makes me laugh.


Speaking of music.
I'm sort of a music blogging hypocrite.
Okay, that isn't the right term for it but I'm not too sure there is a term for it.

You know how everybody always shares youtube videos of their favorites songs on their blogs?
I, myself am guilty of this.
What I am also guilty of is never actually listening to these musical selections.
I know that a lot of people don't, though. So I don't beat myself up about it.

However, that does not stop me from posting my own suggestions since maybe somewhere out there one person might actually press play.

So, here is the song of the week:


I have the CD that this song comes from, 'Save Me San Fransisco', and it is actually one of the best albums I have heard to date.

Oh, and don't feel compelled to listen to the song now that I've guilted you into it..

A Friday morning in the life of me.

I had a bad dream.
I don't think it was bad, but I woke up because of it and usually when I wake up it means my dream was alarming.
Now, looking back maybe it was on the unusual side.

I had a dream about Lions and Tigers and Joel...oh my.

I scrambled around my bed hunting for my phone when I woke up because I'm on kitchen help this weekend and I was panicking that I was late for duty.
But it was 6:30.
Now, a smart person would have gone back to sleep for a whole 'nother hour.

Hannah got up and made coffee for the quilters.

The day can only get better from here :).
HAPPY FRIDAY!

T.I.L.T.

1.Jet smoothies. Not only do they make wonderful take home smoothie packets, but they also give said packets to Homewood employees for free! (I would suggest the 'big bean mocha'.)
2.The confused weather that goes from rain to hail to snow to rain all in the short time of 30 minutes.
3.Having an escape from madness.
4.NEW CARS!!!! I'm so excited!
5.Cheap new cars! (sorry, it's all I can think about)
6.Baking!(now this is just a memory for me now. But a very fond memory.)
7.Warm.
8.Dancing like there is nobody watching.
9.Playing with children.

10.Surprising people.
11. Google images.
12.Working in the kitchen.
13.happy things coming from unexpected places.
14.strange random conversations with strange random people.

If you're happy and you know it, smile.

Today was another day off.
Two whole days off in a row!

I didn't really do anything.
Just read my online book and slept.
And at the end of the day I was actually getting mad at myself for having been so lazy but then I remembered that this entire time I have been complaining about having days off but never actually resting, that made me feel a little better about the situation.

We started a bible study today.
This makes me so very happy.
But it also reminded me of how little time I have actually taken to study the bible.
Sad.

I am looking to purchase a copy of 'the message' though.
I understand it's not one of the greatest translations but I think it's the best for spelling something out plainly in a simple way I can understand it.
But then again sometimes it is even more confusing then my normal translation.

Some verses that stuck out to me tonight:
(they were all from Galatians.)
1:¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

^2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ²¹ I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

^6:1-3 Live creatively, friends. If someone falls into sin, forgivingly restore him, saving your critical comments for yourself. You might be needing forgiveness before the day's out. Stoop down and reach out to those who are oppressed. Share their burdens, and so complete Christ's law. If you think you are too good for that, you are badly deceived.

Ways to make a Valentines Day enjoyable.

1.Dress up and look good just because you want to.
(can't say this is the best I could have been looking but there was a boy around when we were having the shoot and it made me feel awkward to be posing for a camera..cause he was laughing..and being a jerk.)

2.Get the holiday started early by have yummy desserts the night before.

3. Add a little love to everything you do.

4. Go out of your way to make your loved ones feel special. (Reggie enjoyed a nice bath today as well as the redecoration)

5.Pamper yourself, and just do random little things to make yourself happy.

6.Forget societies idea that Valentines Day is for couples and show love to everyone you care about.

7. Watch a super amazing movie that can only get better with every viewing.

8. Use this as an excuse to eat all the stuff that you shouldn't really be eating.

Well everyone, my V-day was thoroughly enjoyable.
And I think it was just my mind set, really.
I went into this day telling myself I was going to be happy no matter what.
And I did everything I could to keep it that way.
Now, normally that wouldn't really work, but today was the exception since it was a day off and I didn't really have to be around people if I didn't want to, or be doing things I didn't want to do.

Happy Valentines Day to everyone out there!

Is the weigh scale even?

And no, this has nothing to do with the unwanted 6 pounds I have put on since moving here.

Today has been a terrible day in some aspects. Resulting in many headaches. Many, many, many headaches.

But other the other hand I had a delicious dessert and a delicious drink that would not have happened without at least one of the headaches.

So, is it worth it?

All I know for sure is I will be having a lot of alone time tomorrow, and the day after.

The thing I love the most.

Getting mail!
And do you know what is even better than that?
Getting a package!
And do you know what is even better than that?
Getting two packages two days in a row!

We got home from the conference on Thursday night and there was something from Bluenotes waiting for me.
And then the next day I'm hanging out in the lodge and Ann the secretary comes up and she asks "did you get your second package?"
I did not believe her.
But she assured me there was another package and it was even too big to fit in my mailbox. So I tore out of the lodge and started running across the field as fast as I could, regretting not having put my rain jacket on first because it was pouring buckets.
I got into the office and there it was.
And I *might* have done a happy dance right then and there.

And it had real fruit gummies which made it AWESOME! And they are shaped like toys!

So. I was happy. And now, in one of my many moments of being frustrated and upset with the world, I am trying to remember back to that happiness because it's very hard to smile with all the stupid people* around me.

*They are not stupid, I just feel that way when I'm in a bad mood.

Ain't no mountain high enough..

I am in a thoughtful mood right now.
Also a very tired mood, but since this is probably my last chance to blog for about a week I am going to quickly type some stuff out.

Hi, my name is Hannah and I want to learn to be sincere.

sin·cere

[sin-seer]

–adjective, -cer·er, -cer·est.

1.

free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; earnest: a sincere apology.

2.

genuine; real: a sincere effort to improve; a sincere friend.

3.

pure; unmixed; unadulterated.

4.

Obsolete . sound; unimpaired.

It's very hard for me to open up to people. Extremely hard.
And that makes it very hard for people to get to know me, (and with the risk of sounding cliche) the real me.

But I'm not very good at understanding myself and so most of the time it's not really my fault.

I'm going to make it my goal over the next few months to begin to get to know myself, and therefor make it easier for other people to be my friend.

In the process weeding out the less desirable qualities I have let myself develop, such as being extremely judgmental and sarcastic.

I'll check back in a while but in the mean time, I've had way too much serious talk for one night.


T.I.L.T

1.Listening to music while writing messages to friends all while sitting at a corner table in Starbucks.
2.Roomie coming home.
3. Having a major hug fest just because Jo-Yo is leaving to go work in the morning, and we were all going to miss her.
4.Texting somebody in the same room as you but pretending nothing is going on.
5.NEWMUSIC I discovered this amazing CD today. It made my heart happy.
6.Being comfortable enough with myself that I go for days without wearing make up.
7.Clean water. I really miss it. The water here tortures my hair real bad.
8.Sleeping in. Anybody dare try and text me at 8 again. I will hunt you down and hurt you. You know who you are.
9.Challenge.


Cuts on the hand are the worst. Since you use your hands so much it takes double time to heal.

We have a group coming in tomorrow, there is 162 of them. This is very major since up until now the biggest group we have had(at least while I was here) was around 70.
So they are here for the weekend and then right after that on Monday we head down to Abbotsford for a Camp Conference thing.

I am seriously considering buying another camera. Heh. I love my new dslr but the problem is it's huge. I am used to having one that I can slip into my back pocket and pull out in a moments time to snap a picture. So, I'll think on it some more.
I am still trying to get an understanding of how that thing works.
I haven't totally slacked off in the learning department, I did read the manual which explained some things but I still have to go through the huge photography book Matthew lent me.

For the most part I am not a neat freak. Well. I don't like to think I am.
But sometimes I just get fed up with anything that is messy.
Which is why I clean my brothers house so much.
Since I don't have a brothers house to clean here, it seems that I have just shifted over to the next available outlet: the guys house.
I was hanging out on the guys side the other day and I just couldn't stand to be surrounded by mess any longer so I cleaned. And then I went back to my house and cleaned. And then I went to my room and cleaned. I guess it helps me? Maybe physically cleaning helps me mentally clean.
I don't know. Sometimes I like to pretend I can figure out these psychology things.

I do need a day to recharge though.
Today WAS supposed to be that.
But Blondie convinced me to come to town, and don't get me wrong I had tons of fun. But this entire time I have been getting more and more worn down. I have had some mini crashes along the way but I'm sure if I don't take some time to chill there will be a major explosion coming up.
I think one of the problems might be that I don't even know how to relax. It's never been a huge issue because I have never been in this situation before. But I am always surrounded by people here and always doing things. Hanging out with people takes a lot out of me. And when I am in Kamloops all I have to do is go home and I get away from it for as long as I need. Here even when I come home there is people and so I never get that away time that I need. I am learning to live with it, and I think I am doing pretty well so far.
I think tomorrow since I will probably wake up pretty early I will take my Bible and some music and go out and practice resting.

Click the link. I promise it will be great.

Is it Christmas?

Picture post for Jill.

Well, mostly for Jill :), I won't mind if other people view them as well.
I forgot that you don't have facebook anymore so you haven't been able to see all the pictures.

A furry looking tree we found while taking a walk out by the ocean.





It hurts more than it looks.