So this is Christmas

I was recently looking through my Christmas and winter pictures from the last several years and commenting that I rarely take any outdoor pictures and boring it is to scrapbook the same people in the same indoor space EVERY year. I am pleasantly pleased that my Christmas pages are definitely going to be different this year!! We spent the holidays in sunny California in the Palm Desert. Christmas was a day spent in the sunshine; climbing the mountains and driving through Joshua Tree National Park. It was fabulous! Jeremy and I had a blast and were glad that we chose to do something a little different this year. Here are some pictures that I am very much looking forward to scrapping!

Challenges

Who doesn't love a challenge!!!! I love to hang out and create especially when it's for a challenge. I find that challenges really get my mojo going and gets me trying this that I wouldn't necessarily try on my own. :)

So this year I am going to join in on the fun that the fabulous ladies over at Scrapbook and Cards Today are hosting! It's called Project 12 and I cannot wait!!! :)

'Tis the Season

So I joined an ornament swap over at SkrapnChat.....I haven't ever made ornaments before so I thought it would be a good challenge to get me crafting outside of my box. I came across this super cute idea for reindeer made out of puzzle pieces and just had to give it a try. :) I think they turned out super cute and without a huge price tag attached. I just had to share some pictures here for you!! These little guys are definitely getting me into the Christmas spirit!

Entry into Freedom

It's been awhile, and now I am free so likely I will be updating my blog with some exciting new pictures and the very near future. :) A lot has happened in the last month and I am excited to share it with you all. I had a fabulous girls trip to Jasper in November and the story includes a bit about a mouse in our hotel room which I will share all about when I post pics but suffice it to say it will be worth the wait.

I had to blog today though. I had a fantastic day. Wrote a 3 hour final this morning which I think I aced. I was totally prepared and calm which, if you ask my husband is totally unlike me, don't get me wrong I am usually prepared but not usually that calm. It was an incredible feeling to go through the exam and come out on the other end feeling like I had just climbed to the peak of a very tall mountain. This semester started out pretty rough with a change in class after my grad school realized I was in the wrong section, so between the change in classes I actually missed some lectures so felt a little like I played catch up this semester. Thankfully the semester ended out really well and I felt like I was walking on clouds by the end of the exam! Sweet victory!!

The next greatest thing today was that I finally got to see my best friend. Her and I typically see each other every day or at least every other day. We work together so lunches are usually spent dreaming about our next vacation or chatting about the new stuff that is happening in our lives. You don't often meet someone who changes your life and who understands you at a level that you may not understand yourself at. I cherish the time I spend with her and love that we got to finally see each other after not seeing each other for almost a week or what, in my reality, seemed like 10 years!!!

And finally to top my day off. I had the absolute honor of meeting with the CEO of my organization. I know that may not seem like a huge thing, but when you work for a nearly 100 000 person organization it is huge. Not everyone who works in the organization will get that type of oportunity and I am quite happy to have had the chance to both shake his hand and pick his brain for over an hour.

So today was a bunch of little moments that all rolled up to create an incredible whole. It's a fabulous thing when you wake up calm and relaxed and go to bed smiling. It's EPIC and it's these days that make life the most incredible journey. I hope for many of these days over the course of my life.

Weekend Crop

So SkrapnChat is having a weekend crop that starts tonight. Come check it out!!! Having a blast this weekend

The board is a ton of fun and the ladies are fabulous!!! Hope to see you at the crop!

Here is a sneak peak for the challenges I will be issuing this Saturday morning!

Wicked Fun

So I was working on my photos from my trip to NYC. The best part of the whole trip was our night on Broadway. We went to see the musical Wicked and it was completely worth every stinking penny! What an incredible treat! We all said that we would totally pay to see it again. It was fun putting it together in a LO to show off the night of Wickedness! Can't wait to do it again!

Twisted Sketches Sketch #23

So there is a super fun blog called Twisted Sketches which I have silently stalked for some time but have finally participated in one of their challenges! It was totally the sketch that I needed for this page!

Here's my take and thanks for an awesome challenge!!

Winter's beauty

So I know that it is pretty risky to say that Winter has any sort of beauty at all especially here in the great white north, but I will openly admit that winter is definitely my favorite season! I love skiing, skating, tobogganing, snowballs fights, etc. I have always found winter to be romantic and I love nothing more than a walk in the snow on a winter evening. I was going through some winter pictures tonight on my computer and came across these that I had taken in January 2007 when we were in Saskatchewan. These pictures remind me why I love winter so much. Pictures like this make the snow shoveling and car scrapping moments all worth it!!

Yummy new candy

So I love Jr. Mints and they have a new candy flavor. Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch. YUM!!!! Just picked up a box today. I feel some inspiration coming on as an ode to this incredible candy and their maker!

So as I sit here on a Friday feel tired and yearning for bed I had a fantastic moment with my cup of peppermint tea and my box of Peppermint Crunch Junior Mints. YUM!! What could be better? NOW GO CHECK THEM OUT!!!!

New Junior Mints

new Layout

So there was a challenge over at Skrapnchat (Skrapnchat.com) and I decided to give it a whirl. THe challenge was to use something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. Well for my "new" I decided to give my spritzer tool from Stampin' Up! a go. I must say I really like this tool. It works with the markers and all you have to do is secure your marker in the tool and spritz away! I used red to add a bit of color to my background. THanks for checking my LO out!

It's been awhile and as I sit here I realize so many things have happened in the last little bit and life is continuing it's hectic route. I am working on my research proposal this week for class so this has to be short but I just thought that I might share a LO that I worked on recently. Enjoy and I'll be back soon to do some writing!

I DID IT!!!!

So today is the first official day that I made 10km in one run! I was able to squeeze 10.3K in 1 hour and 10 mins. I cannot believe it!!! I started working out early Jan with the goal of just getting in shape and then my friend at work (Julia) said that we should challenge a 5k this summer. I thought that I could potentially get there. 5K seemed like a huge deal and then I started running and would report to her how far I was running. I got to a steady 4.5-4.8 and of course, Julia then said "well 5K is going to be too easy for you, we should do 10K". I, being the challenge loving person that I am agreed and so started pushing myself harder and harder and bumping up what I could do each time I went to the gym. This afternoon I went to the gym with the intent of running on my treadmill until someone came and kicked me off (it's quiet on Sundays so I wasn't sure how long that would be). Well it amount to an hour and 10mins and at that point I had run 10.3K. I actually got in my car and let out a huge WHOOP!!!! I don't think I ever could have done this! It's incredible to make your goal. :) Now all I have to do is get to 10K in 60 mins! lol! This year I am learning to keep reaching higher, pushing harder, and eventually I'll learn how to fly!

In the Moment

I just cannot believe that it is the end of February already.......time is sure flying. It's funny how that happens. I want to hang on to the present for fear that I will forget all the neat stuff that is happening around me but I am looking to the future with anticipation as well! A good friend of mine told me that I may live in the future and the big picture too much so I am trying to live in the moment. She said that I have to be "a little more Budist" and while I am not about to try budism, I am okay working on my ability to stay present and enjoy the moment for what it is.

This is what I have come up with so far. A piece of my life is not at it's peek right now and I have really been, at times, dwelling on it. This dwelling has the potential to ruin my day and dominate my outlook on life for a particular day, which leads to a lot of meaningless rumination and emotional suffering. So today as I was working through my day I tried to "stay in the moment" as much as I could. As I was sitting in class today and my thoughts would wander to my particular "wound" as I will call it, I forced myself to look at where I was and what I appreciated about where I was at that particular moment. I was able to think about the great stuff we were discussing and really appreciate the opportunity of graduate school and this particular class at this moment. I found that I instantly thought about how school, learning, and engaging with peers makes me happy and guess what? I actually smiled. I am glad that my 7 classmates already know that I am crazy. I also used this same practice at work today. Again, if I caught my mind wandering I would pull it back to the opportunities I have at work and my fabulous coworkers and again I would smile.

I am amazed at the power we have to control our thoughts and thus control our emotions to some extent. I am glad that my friend cared enough to speak into my life and that I had the foresight to listen. :) And if you ever catch me smiling and laughing to myself you will know that I am probably just caught up in enjoying the moment......and what a wonderful moment it will be! So here is to the beautiful present and the wonderful future to come with each moment appreciated for what it is!

A thousand lessons in a month

I am not even sure what to say beyond that I am learning so much. I am discovering things about myself that I never thought possible. Do you have those people in your life that you think you are reaching out to or helping but in the end they are the ones who reach out and touch you? This is my journey of discovery this month. My friend Miriam is absolutely incredible. Her and her wonderful family share my home with me and I have always thought of them living here as an opportunity for me to help them in some meaningful way. However, it is I who have been touched and helped by them a thousand fold. Her and her husband have been my voice of reason in the last month and a listening ear when I needed to vent. Even in the last few weeks they have completely reached out to me in real and practical ways such as inviting me to join them for supper, joining me for my workouts, helping me chip ice on the sidewalks, and hooking up my cable.

They are also teaching me the values of connectedness, community and family. They love each other deeply and out of that love flows the ability to connect with others and bless them. They make the impossible seem feasible and spending time with them has cultivated within me a deep desire for community. They make it easy to be myself without all the layers of pretense. We have been through a lot together and I really cherish their friendship, more than I think I realized. It is true what they say that during the times of hardship you truly learn who your friends are and these two are true friends.

Solace

I am sitting here being a bit of a grump. I had class today which meant staying late at work so today turned into another long day and on top of that I have an assignment due for class next week that I really need to get my butt in gear for but for whatever reason I just don't feel like working on tonight. I have some dishes in the sink, clothes in the washer, and bags of junk that need to go to Goodwill. I am not feeling like much of a champion today.

I don't know why, but somehow writing things down seems to make it all better. :) Especially when you push the publish post button. It is a weird phenomenon that our generation feels compelled to electronically publish their lives for others viewing pleasure. I find it strange too that I get so much satisfaction over seeing my life in print. Somehow by publishing what is bothering me I somehow remove it from myself and it becomes a collective problem. I don't think that I comprehend it as throwing away my problem but it almost seems that as soon as I can reflect on my problem it somehow morphs from the mountain it used to be to a manageable crumb. It provides a renewed perspective about the severity of the problem and my skills for tackling it. I guess something like therapy although I don't get to talk and I have no idea who is receiving the information on the other end. Like I said, it's weird. But it works. It's a deeply ingrained need for remote connection with those around me, now matter how little I know about them. I still try to connect with them through electronic means and hope that somehow they can relate to what I am going through.

I heard a really good quote today "we strive for progress, not perfection." I think it is something that I need to take to heart. And today I will try. I have had a long day so it is okay if there are dishes in the sink, laundry in the washer, and bags of stuff to go to Goodwill. Today I went to class, went to work, ate well, and loved myself. That is progress so I guess that will have to do. And yes, I do feel better. Now to push that publish button..........

Nearly February

Check out the new hair do!

I don't think I realized how dead inside I really was......it's been a while since I have really opened up to my creative, spiritual or positive emotional side. In the last month I think I have found myself again. I feel more alive than I have felt in a long time. I have a new purpose and a freedom and happiness that I haven't felt in a long time. I used to write lots of poetry and I forgot how much I missed that quiet time to pour out my thoughts, feelings and struggles. I forgot how good it feels to bond with others and to set daily goals for yourself that are attainable and enjoyable. :) It's the simple things really that we forget to do and really it is the simple things that mean soooo much!

I have also started working out and am pushing myself to hopefully do a 5km run this summer. I would love to accomplish that! Today I got to 4km in 30 mins so I think I can do it.

Thanks for stopping by!