this should do for a little while...

Camping at WhiteswanLake
Niagara Falls - Maid of the Midst boat

ride, we were (obviously) very soaked!

ah, so as i sat here at work and opened up a fresh can of president's choice diet pomegranate sparkling soda, i thought to myself, "why not write a new fresh blog to go with my drink of choice." so here we have it my friends, a real update, in my own words, no blog picture cheating (well okay, just a little). now as a little side note, i have to say that i love putting up my pictures on here and writing about what's been going on, because truly, a picture says so much. and i know how much i LOVE when other people post their pictures, so hopefully mine are somewhat interesting to all of my faithful fans.

so summer has been great, as great as can be when one works Mon - Fri, 8:30 - 5:00. as you can all see, i did get to take a week off in july and we headed to Ontario for some cruisin down the freeway in the hot hot sun... above left is a picture of us right after we went on "maid of the midst" in Niagara Falls - it took us right into the center of the falls and it was absolutely awesome. we had such a great time. we have decided we prefer to be on holidays and would like to become professional holidayers. we are planning a trip to Los Angelos now... yah we leave tomorrow. hehe. just kidding, it's one of many imaginary trips.

for August long we went camping with some friends, Angela (who I work with at BX) and her boyfriend who is now her fiance as of yesterday, Kim. we went to whiteswan lake which is about 30 minutes from the famous candle lake. we had fun despite the crummy saturday weather, as we pitched our tent in the pouring rain and set up a great big huge tarp and made a roaring fire. kim and angela had brought their black lab puppy who that night followed kim and jeff in the truck to go get firewood, and angela and i didn't see her follow them so suddenly we realized she was missing. so out we went in the absolute pouring rain with our little flashlights yelling for charlotte for 30 minutes, when the boys come driving around the bend with the dog in the box of the truck wagging her happy little tail. yes we were less than impressed and drenched the the core. but heck it was fun. sunday we went fishing because i am dating a hillbilly and all my friends are too. haha just kidding angela! :) i'm turning into one too, as i caught 4 of my own fish, my very own fish. i have graduated from beginnger to novice fisherwoman status. jeff needs to now buy me a cooler, more expensive fishing rod, as the one i have now has been called everything from a fisher price rod to a kindergarten rod. thats so uncool. i want to find a pink reel. now thats cool!

school starts in a few weeks and i'm not really looking forward to it, other than the fact that its my last year and i will actually have a really expensive degree. that'll be awesome. i'm gonna get my degree framed and send out really big grad pictures of myself to all my friends and family for them to mount in their front hallway in their homes :)

i have three new loves to discuss with you all:

1. in september a few girls from work and i are registering for brainsports learn to run clinic. they start you off running real nice and slow and for short periods of time, and by the end of the 8 weeks you should be able to run at least 30 minutes. so hopefully that'll be good. i need something to help me get motivated. at least lynnel will be back this fall so that we can go back to the gym together, as long as she takes a night class or something so that she'll have the membership. they teach you about proper stretching, running posture, nutrition and other crap like that. you know, all the stuff thats good for you. and they take you down all those beautiful meewasin trails by the river. so it should be good! you should join too!!!

2. so since i read sooooooo freaking fast i bought myself a killer. war and peace. 1392 glorious pages of war and peace. its got the smallest printing a person can read and i'm loving it. its taking me forever to read and its great cuz normally i read books in about 3 days. this summer i've read a million little peices and my friend leonard (you know that james frey author who's story is a big crock but still, great books to read), the life of pei, the devil wears prada, a couple of the shopoloholic books, 2 john grishm books, some dumb book i found on our bookshelf downstairs, and a few others i can't remember. so war and peace here i come! and i'm loving it so far, it's a great story. some parts are very quircky and clever and the characters are unique and it's lovely. hehe. i love reading.

3. and finally, i have bought my first installment of scrapbooking stuff! i was flipping through the good old entertainment book and found a coupon for a scrapbooking store on 8th street, and last night as there was a 1.5 hour wait between my Wed night shows, Rockstar Supernova and The Hills, i decided to check it out. so i got about 16 individually chosen peices of paper, a scrapbook, 2 gel pens, 2 packages of stickers, and some adheisive for $38.00. it's still not enough to really do a good job, i need way more stuff, but it's a start. it's so overwhelming being in there and choosing paper and stuff but sooooo fun. and the lady working there, she's a bit of a cooky one (as much as i love home sewn navy blue and white bunny rabbit jumpers), but she was very helpful. i had a fun time talking with her and trying not to laugh. she was very passionate about scrapbooking. maybe i will be too one day (my bday is coming up in 37 days so hint hint).

well with all that, and one sip left of my sparkling soda, i must bid you all adu. have a great great day!

love kristin

June in Pictures (mostly!)

Has summer arrived or WHAT?! I'm loving it.

SOOOOOO I thought I'd put my past month of June in pictures, cuz a picture says a 1000 words. So in the next few posts, I will say approximately 14000 words, and any boys reading this won't even have to stop listening! Perfect, I know. I have already posted lots of pics this month, it's been a busy month. Spent a lot of time with family, friends, babies and babies who I have to realize are no longer babies anymore (Kayden's a big boy now I guess). So in the next 14000 words, I'll go through a stagette at Beileys for a girl I work with at Blue Cross... a spa weekend in Moose Jaw.... betting on horses (and losing badly) at Marquis Down...Divine Brown concert at the Jazz Festival... a to finish off, a nice sister picture of Jenna and I taken tonight at the park. I realize Jenna put it on her blog too but it's just a nice pic, so I added it too.

Enjoy!

Karey, Me and Angela at Carla's stagette

There's the bride herself (she's the one in white with the veil... in case you couldn't tell)

June part 2 - Moose Jaw Spa

Girls Weekend in Moose Jaw!

Friday June 23

Our cell group - half of us anyway (sans Kerri, Cory, Sarah, Adrienne and Lauren), went to the Moose Jaw Spa on Friday night. We stayed in a honeymoon suite with a jacuzzi for the night and had an awesome time. We got beautiful in the mineral spa, did our nails, drank champagne (okay it was sparking peach juice...), some shopping (the gift shop counts, right? I bought a bathing suit there!), and just hung out and chatted. Girl stuff, you know. So these pictures are of me, Charmaine, Lynnel, Dani and Lillian. Next time ALL 10 of us are going, no jokes.

June Part 3 - Marquis Down

Marquis Down June 24th

Jeff & I went to bet on some horses last Saturday... we mostly lost but altogether I won $7.80 and Jeff won just over $5.00... We lost just about every race. But it was fun!!! And it turned out Aaron & Sarah Jane, Matt H and Katherine were there too, so we all hung out. Good times!!!

hair, holidays & highways

ladies: i need some sort of hair "smoothing" product - it must be light and non greasy/oily. i just want to make my hair shinier (if thats possible, muwhahah) and have zero frizzies. suggestions, please?

so far i'm enjoing being a lovely brunette. a girl at work here said she watched this documentary where they dyed the hair of a guy and a girl blonde for one day and brunette the next, and sent them out to compare reactions and attitudes. well apparently the blondes got more attention and flattery. the brunettes got more respect.

we'll see about that i guess.

i've had a couple people say they prefer me as a blonde and that is fine. the most important thing to me is that i've actually finally tried it. it won't stay forever probably so no need to wory.

well for those who don't care about my hair, let's move on to the next topic.

i had a great great weekend. i know i said we were going to greenwater but we ended up at anglin lake on friday night with renae and andrew and their cute little 2 year old son xander. then on saturday morning we headed to marean lake and stayed at a cabin there that was way to small for the 12 people and a four month old baby that stayed there! oh but we had a good time. sat night we went "glow golfing." i'm talking real golf, not mini golf, where the golf ball and the green glowed in the dark. everyone was given glow sticks that you could see for miles so that the group behind you didn't start golfing until you were gone. it was fricken fun. sunday and monday we spent the whole day at the beach, boating, tubing and waterskiing and suntanning, just the way summer is meant to be spent. at the lake. we ate like kings - steaks and ribs and potatoes and salads, not to mention midnight hot dog roasts. mmm hotdogs. it was wicked fun.

on our way home on monday jeff showed off his highway mastery to me. seriously that boy knows his saskatchewan highways. half the time we were driving on grid roads, then another time he went in the opposite direction that saskatoon was pointing and we ended up taking a ferry across the river and ended up on a different highway and made it home faster than ever. yes i was impressed. and the little mini ferry was fun too. (carmen - do you remember on our way home from sylvan lake that year and we took a ferry in alberta with my family? that whole trip was so much fun!).

i'm so excited that this week is already half over. this summer is flying by, it's already august. hard to believe.

who even knows what this fall will hold?!?!?

Stuff

Let me clear something up...
first of all i think i need to clarify the relationship between the dog and i. molly and i have an understanding. she is not "man's (i.e. myself) best friend," as the saying goes. in fact, molly and i are barely even friends. we do not loathe each other, but we have an understanding. molly and i are simply existing roommates. her annoying habits bother me, and i'm sure my lifestyle bothers her as well. molly and i simply coexist. we don't talk, play or snuggle. there are 5 other members of my family that do all that stuff with her.

THAT BEING SAID....

there is an exception to this. when the entire family is away, molly thinks i am her provider and protecter. and i don't mind her little self wandering around the house. sometimes i give her a little reassurance pat on the back, feed her food and water and even might say "ohhhhh molly you look soooooo pretty today!"

so in my last blog where i was calling her my stupid dog and complaining about her being so scared, and all you commenters think i'm an animal killer - well perhaps this blog will clear up where i am coming from. i am hoping it will. she was lucky i was letting her sleep with me that night.

it seems to me...
at approximately 100 hits per day, it should only be 14 or so more days until i hit the magic number -

10,000 hits.

i will start planning my celebration - put a note in your daytimer to make a comment on my blog on August 2, 2005 (but keep on checking in case i'm a few days off.)

a girls vacation is necessary...
alison talked about a girls getaway in her last blog. oh i cannot possibly think of anything that would be more fun than us girls in mexico - drinking margaritas in the ocean, salsa dancing all night long and sleeping in on the hot beach. come on girls, let's each save $100/month, and i think we would be set for a pretty SWEET vacation Sept long weekend, 2006. yes please and thank you! oh i'm just all excited here thinking of it.

***sigh****

bridge city speedway...
jeff and i went to the car races on saturday night and it was fricken AWESOME. it wasn't just racing, it was all the beat up old cars that had to get as many laps as possible and they would push each other off the track and were all over the place. seriously i spent pretty much the whole 3 hours laughing because it was so funny. i can't explain why something so dangerous was so funny but we couldn't stop. in the second half, the cars weren't allowed to pass each other unless they hit the car they were trying to pass. ohh so seriously good times good times, i would recommend a night of this to anybody. the only thing that could've made it better would've been bull riding in the middle of the car track. that would've been absolutely wacked out.

i can't even imagine that?

(read post below first!)

ah yes, now as i was saying. so jeff went and bought me a fishing rod this weekend! haha, something i've ALWAYS wanted. so last night i packed us a little dinner, dug out the lawn chairs and drove to blackstrap for the free fishing weekend. it was very relaxing and beautiful outside. mostly i was just glad that i was getting a nice tan while i was out there. and secretly i was thrilled that we didn't catch any fish because i know i would have freaked right out at little fishies flopping everywhere. and then there's the fact that if we HAD caught one, we would have had to eat it for dinner. so thank goodness we didn't catch anything. i can't eat something that i personally tortured and ultimately murdered. somehow the whole thing just seems wrong! however now that i have a rod i guess this is going to have to be a regular "quality time" activity.

i bug jeff about quality time and he goes out and buys me a fishing rod. what kristin means by quality time is obviously different than what jeff means by quality time. when kristin says quality time, she means going out for dinner, special romantic moments and lavish gifts. (okay so gifts isn't exactly time spent together, but they're so high up on the list that they can be substituted for time). jeff's idea of quality time is fishing.

well i may pretend to complain here, but really it does make my little heart glad that he wants to include me in an activity that is fun and relaxing for him.

so what else is new with me? i have to write an essay this week. it's for that class i took in the Czech. i have to write about whether or not Prague benefited from being ruled by the Habsburg dynasty in the 17th century. it's due on thursday and all i have for books so far is a children's picture book on prague from the publish library. woops. hello procrastinator? so i have to get my butt in gear this week and pretend i'm back in school. oh sigh.

furthermore, mom and dad are gone for the next two weeks. jeff is gone for the week like usual. lynnel is at the stampede. so is jenna for the next couple days. who is going to love me? i guess it's actually a good situation for the whole essay writing thing. yah. except that big brother 6 has begun and it's on 3 times a week!!!! heaven. trust me i'll keep you updated.

gotta go for lunch!

it's me again

i came home from work yesterday and dad asked me if i wanted to go to K-OS and i said well sure if you wanna pay for it, and he did! and then he paid for jenna too. well my goodness dad aren't you in a lovely mood! those are probably my most favorite moods of my dad. i also like when he gets in the lasagna making mood where he goes out and and buys all the special noodles and cheeses for the best lasagna ever. so anyway, K-OS put on a great show. Chad , Bjorn and Rylan were all going too, so they saved us wicked awesome seats right near the front, and Jenn B was there with her posse, and she brought us baking treats to enjoy. and it didn't rain and i had a comfy lawn chair and a warm blanket, so i felt perfect. what a perfect start to summer. this year i have taken in more jazz festival than any other - i also went and saw theresa sokyrka on friday night, and she was just so sweet. but K-OS was truly fun. i'm glad i have a generous dad.

i bought a new cell phone on saturday. i'm so excited about it. call me so that i can hear it ring.

so my rant...
i gave my prof a cheque for $475.00 for tuition fees to go to prague. i handed this cheque to him in April. he decided to cash it last night, 3 months later. WHO DOES THAT?!!!!? he is sure one lucky fellow that i just got paid last night. but frick i am a little ticked that he waited 3 months to cash that cheque. and if you're a smart one thinking "kristin is retarded for not noticing a $475 payment not coming out of her account" well i am a little retarded, i agree. but he is definitely the biggest retarded one in this little situation. i'm pretty sure if someone gave me a cheque for that much money that i would cash it right away. i think that is called being polite. frick.

well, friends...good day.

summer fun

i decided today that i truly love the whole blog concept. it's so fun to be a part of people's thoughts, and i enjoy writing about whatever is on my mind. ahhh yes, freedom of speech, what a luxery.

so it's monday morning, another week beginning. sometimes i can hardly believe how fast time goes by. i'm always amazed when summer rolls around. winter in saskatchewan is cold and long ... i'm really not a huge fan of it. but june - september usually makes up for our saskatchewan hardships.

this summer i'm looking forward to a few particulars. like what, you ask?

Kristin's Top Ten Summer Favorites

#1 camping
#2 suntanning and basking in the hot sun
#3 drive-in movies
#4 sunday night at family camp
#5 landscaping Jeff's yard (we just seeded the front lawn so far...i can't wait to watch it grow!)
#6 campfires (this gets it's own number b/c although it falls under the general catagory of camping, it is also an activity unto itself, therefore deserving of separate recognition).
#7 swimming at outdoor pools with jenna and kayden and lynnel of course!
#8 Dairy Queen chocolate chip cookie dough blizzards on a really hot day
#9 Marquis Down - horse races Friday nights - so fun!!! if you want to, you can bet on the horses, and win a pile of money. i usually do it until i lose a total of $5 bucks and then i chicken out.
#10 pulling out the summer wardrobe - no more turtlenecks and jeans - hello tank tops and fun skirts and cute sandles!!!

2 things i am not looking forward to this summer:
-working 8:30 - 5:00, monday to friday
-mosquito bites

but only two because summer is too great to bugger it down with negativities.

this weekend jeff and i did 2 great fun things from the list - #3 and #5. at the drive-in we saw The Longest Yard, with adam sandler and chris rock & various other famous faces thrown in here and there, and also Sahara was playing. i slept through Sahara, but jeff thought it was okay. he was wishing we had brought lynnel to the drive in so that he would have someone to talk to while i was snoring. anyway we played a little game that my silly family plays every once in a while, particularly when jenna is over. it's very easy and it took up all the time while we were waiting for our movie to start. i call it:

"I Like ______ Because..."

it's a good game because you find out all the positives you can think of about a particular situation. we played "I like the drive-in because..." my sister started this game one day at supper. i think it was along the lines of "I like this table because...". yah she's a weird one that girl. but creative. jeff won, i guess he is more creative than i.

as for #5, we did yard work all day saturday, and it was fun.

i'm going for lunch now!

Summer bliss

***Everyone note that I have two new additions to the list,

two of my favorite girls,

Alison and Lynnel!!!***

A Toast:

To fun girls, good times and great blogs! A world apart, yet a click away!

Hahaha, I think I may have copied that from like a commercial or something? I don't know. I laughed outloud at myself there. Hello, marketing career?

I am done exams! I can't believe I had four in a row, it was absolutely exhausting. These last 4 weeks have been nothing but sheer brutalness. However I am just about done. By Wednesday, I will have everything for this year completed. This is simply the best news I have ever heard.

Mr. Kennedy is a superstar. He is giving me a third chance to complete my World Religions course, which I have put off for a long long time. I didn't even ask for it, he just told my mom to tell me to come and see him about it! That course has been a black cloud over my head for almost 2 years because I just never got around to finishing it and that is sort of unlike me. It was just a low priority on my list I guess.

Pretty soon I will stop talking about school on here, I bet you all can't wait!!!

Instead I will talk about funny old people who call Blue Cross, and hot summer weather, and bbq's and camping adventures! That is my summer line up. Jeff and I are hoping to go to Banff this summer, but I don't think I'll get enough time off at work for us to really have a great trip there, so up North will do. I've never camped at Waskesui so maybe we'll go there one weekend! Me and Lynnel and Janelle were talking on Sunday about an ALL GIRLS CAMPING TRIP.... anyone in?!! Girls that is ... it would be like our highschool girls trip with Tina and Regan! But funner because we are older and cooler now. And better campers too I'm sure. Pizza bushpies here we come!

Just no squirrel bites this year please... that was the grossest thing I have ever seen, last year camping with some friends... Barrett trying to coax the squirrel closer, closer, closer, GRABS IT, the squirrel flips out and goes to attack mode, HUGE mother bite into Barrett's hand, Barrett cries out in pain and flips the squirrel hanging on by its freaking TEETH back and forth, back and forth, goes flying into the fire and squeals at it burns to death!!!!

It makes me sick just writing about it. I had to go for a walk by myself that afternoon, to ensure that I wouldn't:
a) Faint in front of everyone
b) Puke everywhere in front of everyone

Luckily I did neither, but I am forever afraid of squirrels. Evil rotten beasts!!!

And now for my favorite...Trivia Blogsuit:

Which three cities in the world receive the most direct flights
into their airport each year?

Even if you don't know, take a wild guess!