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.