Halloween Bash & Scrapbooking

Our Halloween party was so much fun this year!! We did a whole bunch of decorating again and Josh once again carved some wonderful pumpkins! (He is so good at that! And many other things) It is just too bad that we didn't have 2 more guests :( It just isn't the same without you 2 here!

Everyone’s costumes were so great, there were transformers, a French maid, a cowgirl, a rock star and a groupie, a fairy, a redneck, two hunters and of course us, we were dressed as Vikings.

We probably had about 75 kids come trick-or-treating on Sunday night, we still have some candy left but it is disappearing fast hehehe!! All in all a good weekend! :)

I have also done more scrapbooking!! Yeah for me! I actually feel like I am accomplishing something, that means that I am this much closer to finishing my first scrapbook! These are the pages from when we were at Stingray City Sandbar in Grand Cayman!

When we pulled up to Stingray City Sandbar on the Buccaneer

we could see a half a dozen other boats and at least 100 people

all standing waist deep in the stunning crystal clear blue waters.

We could clearly see the stingrays swimming around, darting

between people’s legs! Being in the water with those incredible

creatures is something to remember! Their skin was so soft

and how they had adapted to being around people and being

picked up was definitely something else. One day we will

go back to visit our stingray friends!

These are the pictures from our last night on the cruise! Our last supper and we had some proffessional photos taken! These are some of my favorite photos of the 3 of us!!

Smiling faces! So happy to gather together for one last wonderful supper after enjoying another amazingday in the sun and surrounded by lots of water! 09/09/05

Well that is all for now. I desperately need some sleep after what felt like only 30 seconds of sleep last night before my alarm rang this morning. Good Night!



Where does the time go??

Life has a funny way of getting out of hand, time slips away, you get involved in this project and that event and meeting with different people and then all of a sudden you stop to take a breath and 4 months have flown by.  How does that happen?? Here is a rundown of the last 4 crazy months!

At the end of May me and Josh decided very spontaneously that we needed to get away. We settled on Las Vegas from June 18 to 24 since neither of us had been in a very long time! We were super excited. When ever we have planned trips in the past there has always been a long period of waiting between booking the trip and going on the trip. Not this time, it was so nice to book the trip and still be excited for the trip by the time we were ready to go! Vegas was awesome!!! We would go back in a heartbeat. So many things to do and see and so much pavement to walk. OMG we probably walked like 40 or so miles just walking up and down the strip and to the different places we went.
 

We did some shopping, a fair amount of drinking, we sunned ourselves by the pools and ate lots of food!!

We went to two shows, Cirque du Soleil Eau which was fantastic by the way, so amazing the stage set up and the performers, LOVED IT! We also went to Criss Angel which was incredible, he never ceases to amaze me, still can’t figure out how he does it all! 

We went on a night time helicopter flight over the strip, what a view, I knew that Vegas was the city of lights, but just didn’t realize how many lights.  

I also surprised Josh with indoor skydiving. Seriously one of the best things we did while we were down there! And we would definitely do it again! I know he really wants to go skydiving for real, but I’m still not sure about it. It might be something to add to our bucket lists.

All in all definitely worth the money and we really enjoyed ourselves.

We were in 3 weddings between the end of July to the middle of September and attended one more wedding in between the others.

Mike and Sarah’s wedding

Holly and Nick’s wedding

Justin and Julie’s wedding

Keane and Sarah’s wedding

Also filling up the months of July, August and September were many bridal showers, shopping trips, bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, nights with friends and family and when the occasional nice day came around we were outside working in the yard and playing with Molly! My beautiful sister and her boyfriend had to once again leave for the school year, back to Wyoming. I miss her terribly and can’t wait for Christmas to be here fast!!!

Molly is now a year and a half old and still full of energy. She really is a wonderful dog, makes our lives that much more interesting!! Love her to pieces <3

Josh has finally been able to hand in his application for the Lethbridge Police, so now all we can do is wait for that phone call with our fingers crossed. So nerve wracking and yet so exciting if everything works out how we hope!!

We are now coming up on Halloween and we are having another party! So excited for this. Although we just decided yesterday what we are being so now I have to get out my sewing machine and madly sew them together! Next weekend we are going to get out all the decorations and get out some recipes for some ghoulish food.

We have also recently decided that we don’t want to stay in Coaldale forever and that someday, sooner than later, the house we are in now will be too small and we want to be closer to our families so we are looking at moving back into Lethbridge in the next year or so. What that means now is that long list of ‘Honey Dos’ has to start being finished. We are well on our way though, the garage only has 3 small items left on the list and then it can officially be deemed complete! The major task this winter is framing, wiring, plumbing, dry walling and painting the basement. Hopefully when it comes time to sell that will help immensely. Haha so our ‘Honey Do’ list just got a whole lot longer. Right now we are in the ‘prep for winter’ mode. Just hoping that winter decides to stay away for as long as possible.

In amongst all of that I have managed to do some creating. I have made many cards for weddings, new babies, birthdays and anniversaries. Also this last week I finally had time to do some scrapbooking. Only a two page layout but I’m so happy. I also have another two page layout about half done. I’m so close to finishing this album that I just want to get the last couple of pages done so I can finally say ‘yup I finished my first scrapbook :)’

Well there you have it. Really not sure where all that time went. It is now starting to get cold, and there is not nearly enough sunshine, but maybe if I blink I might be able to skip winter all together. What do you think, will it work??

REVISED

So I have recently decided that some of the things on my 101 in 1001 list are not attainable and not realistic. I have removed those items and replaced them with things that actually are possible, both time wise and money wise. Here is the revised list complete with the items that I have already finished being crossed out and the items I am working on in bold.  I still have over half of my time left to finish the list in and I really do hope to cross off every last item!

My REVISED 101 Things to do in 1001 Days

My start date: July 21, 2009 (My 2nd Wedding Anniversary!) My end date: April 17, 2012

Working on
Completed

Travel

1. Go to Las Vegas
2. Go to Cancun/Chichen Itza
3. Visit Yellowstone National Park
4. Plan a trip somewhere not in North America
5. Visit Jasper National Park
6. Mail myself a postcard from every place I go (2/?)
7. Go on an unplanned road trip
8. Visit the grandparents in Victoria
9. Visit grandma in Saskatoon
10. Visit sister in Wyoming

Adventure

11. Scuba dive as often as we can
12. Do something adventurous that you never thought you would do
13. Go horseback riding
14. Go on a cave tour
15. Go zip lining
16. Fly in a helicopter over Vegas
17. Go white water rafting

House

18. paint master bedroom
19. Paint master bathroom
20. Paint living room/kitchen
21. Paint main bathroom
22. Organize the basement for our office, entertainment area and my scrapbooking
23. Wire the basement
24. Put up extra shelving in master closet and spare bedroom closet
25. Finish garage
26. Create a proper paper organizing system
27. Sew new throw pillows and blankets for the living room and bedroom
28. Create my own art for the house out of my photographs
29. Make a real effort to keep the house clean

For me

30. Finish our wedding scrapbook
31. Finish our pre-wedding scrapbook
32. Finish our honeymoon scrapbook
33. Create blank cards and layouts to be used in a rush
34. Create a master list of layouts I love
35. Exercise every single day for 30 days in a row (0/30)
36. Get weight down to 135 lbs and stick with it (35/35)
37. Create a really good mix CD/MP3
38. Start and stick to a new 365 photo project (0/365)
39. Complete an alphabet photo challenge to be used as wall art
40. Resume using my Flikr account
41. Make an effort to get ready even if I am staying home – get dressed up for me
42. Get a massage twice a year (2/6)
43. Take time for a hot bubble bath once a month
44. Buy myself flowers once a year (1/3)
45. Get a haircut or hair color that just for something new

For us

46. Go on 50 real dates together (11/50)
47. Make time once a week for us time
48. Plan a surprise trip or event for my hubby
49. Spend an entire night stargazing
50. Go on 5 picnics (0/5)
51. Have professional photos taken
52. Look at what it will take to move back to Lethbridge
53. Make a point of going on a vacation just the two of us
54. Turn off the TV 1 night a week
55. Have a board game/puzzle night once a month
56. Draw up Wills, EPAs and PDs
57. Go for a walk as a family at least once a week
58. Seriously talk about when we want to start having kids

For family, friends and strangers

59. Send a snail mail letter/card and pictures to each of the grandparents at least once a year
60. Host 5 dinner parties (2/5)
61. Start a blog so family can keep up with our lives
62. Update blog at least once a month
63. Create and update a full address/phone number/birthday list of all family and friends
64. Buy a good photo scanner and start scanning all photos that our families have (This is probably going to be in the HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS!! I'll let you know)
65. Get caught up putting photos on Facebook
66. Research our family trees
67. Write a letter to our future grandchildren
68. Clean out our closets/house once a year and donate to charity (0/3)

Finances

69. Put a loonie in a jar everyday for 1001 days
70. Create a proper budget and stick to it
71. Pay off all our credit cards
72. Pay off our elliptical
73. Get $1,000.00 in our savings and don't touch it
74. Make all birthday cards instead of buying them
75. Search our house for things to sell on Ebay and then sell them

Just Because

76. Put a message in a bottle and send it out to sea
77. Spend an entire day at home and not use any electricity for 5 individual days (0/5)
78. Dance in the rain
79. Make an emergency kit
80. Create and bury a time capsule
81. Mail a secret to PostSecret
82. Volunteer for something at least once a year
83. Go wildlife watching
84. Learn the names and basic info of all the countries in the world for future travelling World Fact Book
85. Leave a nice note in every book I exchange or return, ask the next person to do the same
86. Jump in a lake with all my clothes on, see if I can get my husband to do it with me
87. Make a kite and fly it

New things

88. Visit a museum
89. See the Northern Lights
90. Watch more classic movies
91. Read the Harry Potter Series and the Twilight Series
92. Try a new recipe once a month
93. Compile a binder of our favorite recipes
94. See a Cirque du Soleil show
95. Play 9 holes of golf on a different course
96. Visit a haunted house/location
97. Take a photography class
98. Set up an area in our basement for me to be creative
99. Take a cooking class
100. Visit 5 historical/educational locations in Alberta (1/5)
101. Go camping...in our backyard

Hopefully I won't have to make any changes to this list in the future, it should be just about right the way it sits now. I will keep you updated on my progress!!
 
P.S. Only 5 days til we go to LAS VEGAS!!!! Whoop Whoop!!! Can't wait. And the bonus thing is I will get to cross a couple of things off my list during our vacation!! And I promise to share some of our pictures when we get back!

It's Official!!

We are headed to Las Vegas from June 18 to June 24!! It is going to be a blast!

Now all I have to do is make it through the next 14 days and we will be on our way! Why does time always go by so slowly when you have something to look forward to??

I need a vacation!!

So it has been a really long week. Work was so long and just never seemed to end, and then I came home and did housework, which also seemed to never end. UGH

This weekend was not too bad. Went and visited with friends on Friday night, had a few drinks and for the most part a good time, until all us girls were so tired and wanted to call it a night but the boys weren't ready to end it, eventually the night ended at 1:00am. Saturday I went to mother-in-law's house to decorate and set up for my sister-in-law's Bridal Shower which I was hosting along with our cousin who is one of the other bridesmaids. It turned out really great and we had a pretty good turnout and she got some great gifts. It sure makes for a long day though, setting up from 10:00am to 12:30, shower from 1:00 to 4:00 and then clean up until 5:30. A very long day but nice day. Sunday...we did NOTHING. It was nice.

WE NEED A VACATION.........so we are seriously looking at booking a trip to Vegas from June 18 - 24. If we don't go in June we wouldn't be able to go until middle of September and then the weather isn't nearly as nice.  We found some cheap flights, $340 for both of us round trip from Great Falls, a really great deal. The only thing that is a necessity to go is to get Josh's passport renewed. (yes I know, you are thinking why did he leave it so late. I don't know, you would need to ask him) So he is making a day trip to Calgary tomorrow, paying the $10 extra to have it done in 10 business days and then making another trip up there to get it. So I guess we will have to see how it all works out.

In the mean time I would love for the weather to smarten up....so Mother Nature, if you are listening, I have things that I want to get done outside, please warm up. Thank you!!