registering

today has been an incredibly unsuccessful day on the wedding front. finally, i decided it was time to go and get the invitations printed and to attempt to register for gifts. our lovely puppy (who finally slept through the night for the first time since we got her - yay!) woke us up at 7:00 am so we decided to take full advantage of one of my last mornings off before i start working 9-5, monday to friday. although i constantly complain about my procrastination with regards to the invitations i have actually purchased the them and chosen the wording; all we really have left to do is get them printed and assembled and then we can send them out. we probably could have printed them at home but since there are all sorts of different sized pieces that go along with them i figured it would be easier to take them to kinko's where they could make sure they were done perfectly. anyways, for as long as we could remember there had been a kinko's conveniently located on macleod trail, about 15 minutes from our house. since i am so neurotic, i actually googled the location and exact address just to make sure we knew exactly where we were going. turns out, google is not always up to date or accurate. an hour later, after circling the same strip mall about 100 times and attempting to ask 2 or 3 neighbouring business owners if they knew where the kinko's was, a lovely woman waiting to get her tires changed informed me that it had in fact closed over a year ago. get with it googles / yellow pages. anyways, needless to say that was an entire was of an hour and we still don't have our invitations printed.

at this point i was a little upset but refused to let myself get down since i was so excited about finishing our registration. we all know how much i love shopping, especially for housewares etc. honestly though, it was completely exhausting and frustrating. who knew registering was such a time consuming process? jesse sure didn't haha we went to the bay last night, since everyone says it has the biggest and best registry, and set up all our information the night before, and choose a few things here and there before the store closed, knowing we would be back this morning - key phrase "knowing" we would be back in the morning since the lady we dealt with suggested we register for at least 150 things between our wedding and shower. we registered for 5 things last night. we were ready to get the ball rolling this morning. anyways, we enthusiastically started scanning all the things we need and were actually getting excited and enjoying ourselves until some grumpy old man in electronics decided to poop our party. he kindly informed us that currently the bay is having some crazy renovation sale (i'm sure you have heard the ad on your local radio station, it goes something like this "here at the bay we have prided ourselves in our image as well as yours for the last century. for the first time in a century we have finally decided to renovate over 90 of our highest grossing locations across the country just in time to completely mess up brenna and jesse's gift registration. nothing will be in stock by the time your guests go to buy your gifts, don't worry though, everyone else will get it for at a ridiculously low price") and most of the products currently in the store will be gone in a matter of weeks.  so essentially, the 3 hours we spent carefully registering for what we needed had been a complete waste of time. oh, and also, the bay is completely getting rid of its "decorative department" which means i wont be able to register for candle sticks, picture frames, vases or any sort of decorative pieces.  grumpy electronics man obviously got me all frazzled, so i went to discuss this with betty, the lovely little asian lady that set up our registry for us last night. betty, bless her heart, completely forgot to tell us not to scan anything that is listed as "priced to go" or "clearance" or even "on sale" because chances are incredibly unlikely that they will still be in stock when people go to purchase our gifts (i know it probably sounds stupid that we scanned things listed as "on sale" and "clearance" but the ENTIRE STORE was on sale since they are attempting to clear all existing inventory). i honestly could have strangled her at this point but she was such a cute, frail asian woman that i obviously had to contain my inner bridezilla. long story short, we are going to have to start this whole experience all over again at sears this weekend.

i guess that the silver linging is that we did learn a lot about place settings. i never knew there were so many different types of plates: dinner plates, salad plates, serving platters, bread plates, saucers etc. oh, and there are equally as many different types of bowls, cups, mugs, platters and serving dishes. then, on top of this, every brand has been fired, once, twice, ... seven times. some can go in the freezer and the dishwasher but not the microwave. others can go in the microwave and the over but not in the freezer or on the stove top.
it.is.so.overwhelming.
anyways, after betty was done explaining all of this to us ignorant young'ins we finally decided that we should probably go with denby dishes since they are the best quality place settings you can get without buying china. i definitely did not want china; i think it is such a waste of money since it only makes an appearance on your dinner table maybe three times a year. denby makes sense since they are amazing quality dishes that can be used everyday. now we just have to choose a pattern... something we have decided is equally overwhelming. luckily, they have a greater selection at sears and i hadn't started scanning my place settings yet...

when we first started registering i was so excited. i had this "oh this is exactly like shopping only without having to pay for it yourself" mentality. as the day went on though i simply started to feel greedy. it was really weird. jesse and i are young and need things. we are not asking for anything we already have. we are literally only asking for things we need yet i still felt guilty. everyone keeps telling me to ignore the guilty feeling because this is what weddings are about: friends and family helping young couples prepare for their future together. still, i feel like a spoilt kid with a 25 ft long christmas list...

i know this entry sounds like an annoying rant (probably because it is)  but i think that my shock and frustration comes from the fact that the bay advertises itself as the number one bridal registry in the country; the catalog they gave us while we were setting up our registration was even titled "the biggest and best bridal registration in canada", and ironically, our wedding has to coincide with the first time they are out of stock of all their stock in over a century! i am hoping that we have a bit better experience at sears...

congrats

also, congratulations to my little sister, vicky, who graduated from high school this weekend! she had her graduation ceremony on friday afternoon and i got to do her hair and make up before we left to go camping. she looked pretty beautiful if i do say so myself.

vicky is on the right

congratulations little vortex! we know amazing things will come in the next year with your move vancouver to go to U BC but we will definitely miss you. love you xoxo

mexico and new puppy

okay, i know, it has been a while. i apologize. after mexico we had so much going on between unpacking, catching up from our holiday and bringing home our new puppy i literally had zero spare time to update this little blog of ours. ironically, the only time i have been able to justify blogging has been today, when i should be doing our wedding invitations. honestly, there is something about these wedding invitations that makes me want to clean my kitchen, organize my closet, sort, fold and fluff all my laundry, plant a garden just so i can spend hours weeding it .... even pick up dog poop. i don't know why i keep procrastinating but, here i am, writing a long over due blog post instead of working on the invites.

so i will begin with mexico. our trip was amazing. if you ever get a chance to go to an all inclusive resort with 20 of your best friends do not pass it up, i do not care how much it costs you. it was really nice going with so many different people because there was always something different to do. for jesse and me this was the perfect solution for our different vacation philosophies. personally, i enjoy wasting away my vacation days laying out by the pool reading my book and sipping the delicious fruity drinks and doing an odd excursion or activity here and there. jesse, on the other hand, looses his mind if he has to sit still for more than 20 minutes and wants to do nonstop activities. so, lucky for jesse, he had tons of friends to scuba dive with, play shuffle board, volleyball, basketball, ping pong, and even chess with all the while i was relaxing with my girlfriends, a good drink and an even better book while working on my tan : win, win situation.

here the view of our resort from the beach... it was so beautiful. the dome shaped buildings are where all the buffet's and a la carte restaurants are.

the resort had a ton of amazing swimming pools including an adult only lounge pool with those built in chairs (unfortunately, brian was right and the chairs were incredibly uncomfortable)

jesse and i on the beach our first night there

the beach

the first day a group of us thought it would be a good idea to take the daily water aerobics class

those who know me well know i realllllly hate fish yet i was brave enough to swim with these ones while being pelted with bananas by my "friends"

jesse and i on our way to our Brazilian a la carte dinner

leave it to jesse to participate in the oddest activities: drop in water polo 

obviously, we lay by the pool, reading and consuming calories while they burned some.

here is the bride, maddy, and my good friend adelle at the wedding

all of us girls in black are in the wedding party.

soon it will be our wedding - yikes!

breaking it down at the reception 

we were in an air conditioned building - it is just THAT hot there

after the formal reception the youngsters changed into something far more classy and headed out to the local disco, Jaguars, to continue on in the celebrations.

the next day was cinco de mayo and it was also our friend brit's birthday

so, we went to senor frogs!

instead of bar stools they had swings made our of life preservers 

we went to this really neat underground exploration park called x-plor; here, we did a cenote swim, underground river rafting, zip lines and atving.

everyone had to wear these really attractive orange helmets with built in cameras to document your day of fun.

only ten of us went on the excursion that day.

that night we went out with some friends to the french restaurant on the resort. the food was amazing.

i loved these chairs - too bad jesse would never let them fly in our dining room.

i ate an oyster for the first time!

our last day at the resort!

so, as you can see we had a really amazing time in mexico. it was really interesting to experience a wedding there. mexicans are notorious for their "mexican time" and they were no different with regards to the wedding. the bride was incredibly stressed and no one in the wedding party knew what was going on, including the bride and groom. it made me really glad that we were going to be getting married in canada...

so, when we got home, i had a lovely email sitting in my inbox from our breeder begging us to come and pick up the puppy early. apparently, all the other pups were gone and she was very lonely.  obviously, since i am a sucker, we ended up driving up to edmonton on tuesday night at 7 pm to pick her up... this may not have been the wisest decision we ever made considering we had definitely not caught up on our sleep after mexico and brand new puppies = many sleepless nights.

emi slept the entire ride home in jesse's lap

crazy hair at 2 am

playing the first morning at home

pooped after the first trip to petland

happy puppy

up to no good, like always

playing with maddy and brian's pup, heinz

snuggled up in the blankets on her first camping trip

playing with casey

pooped puppy; before we know it she will take up this entire chair!

so far so good. she has good days and bad, like every puppy, and unfortunately, today has been a bad day since its rainy and she seems to hate being wet / going outside to pee. apparently, my carpet is the next best thing to grass. she is beginning to sleep better, only having to be let out once or twice, but she still seems to be wide awake at 6 am ready to play. since we got her she has done fairly well adjusting to our busy life style; she has come with us to two bbq's, a birthday dinner, 2 baseball games and on a camping trip and done really well. obviously, we will keep you all posted on her progress. we definitely love her and its nice to have our own little family.

bye bye bye

tomorrow morning we leave for mexico and i am beyond excited! i will try and update people on our trip while we are there but i am not making any promises since we have a very busy week. maddy and brian's wedding is on wednesday so we will probably have a pretty packed schedule until that is over. we have planned one group trip which will be happening on friday; about 12 of us are going to do a day trip where they take you to snorkle/ swim in a cenote which is like a giant fresh water pool in an underground cave or something... i am not completely sure but it definitely sounds fun and a little freaky.

i am pretty excited since i have never been to an all inclusive resort. i have searched the website and the resort looks fabulous; there are various restaurants, clubs and pools. i am sure that is pretty standard for an all inclusive resort in mexico but since i have never been to one it is all new and exciting for me.  from what i have seen on the website, i am most looking forward to laying out in these weird half submerged lounge chairs that are built into the pool. brian, who has been at the resort, said they are not overly comfortable, but i am determined to find out for myself.

today, all of the girls are going to get their nails done: pedicures and gel manicures. i am sort of nervous since i have never had fake nails. i am not really the kind of person who generally gets fake nails but i think they could be fun for the trip. i figure if i like them i will keep getting them done until my wedding in september and if not, well, i learnt that i don't like fake nails - live and learn. while the gel manicure is kind of making me nervous i am definitely looking forward to the pedicure. maybe i will get a really cute design... i will obviously post pictures.

wahhh

i am currently waiting to write the last ever scheduled final in my university career. i did the math last night (being honest, sarah, my accounting friend, did the math) and i only need 8% on this exam to pass, 31.5% to get a C in the class and 53% to get a B+. honestly, this is a good thing since this test is going to be horribly hard.

last night we went for dinner at jesse's parents' place - it was delicious as always. it was nice to see everyone, including his uncle billy, who we rarely see. when we got back i checked my email to discover we had a new picture of emi; the message said that we were able to bring her home any time now. i had to remind the breeder we wouldn't be able to take her home for another couple weeks since we will be going to mexico in about 12 days (not that i am counting or anything). it made me incredibly sad that i could have her now but i know it is the responsible decision to wait until we get back from our trip so that she isnt emotionally confused.

ugh, it is almost 8 am - wish me luck...

2 down, 2 to go

i know, i have been mia this week. i have had way too much studying to do lately to find time to blog - i wrote 2 finals this week and will write 2 next week. for some reason, although i know they are coming every single year, i am never fully prepared for exams. i hate them. personally, i feel like exams make zero sense for english majors. we are trained to write essays not memorize facts. i just do not understand how they evaluate what we have learnt over the term with a multiple choice test but, whatever. the two i wrote this week seemed to go alright but they were definitely the easier of the 4; i still have a lot to do this weekend and next week but, like i have said about 100 times recently, i am almost done... forever.

while i am studying all day tomorrow jesse will be holding a mini sticks tournament in our unfurnished living room. completely ridiculous. when i was nagged him for living room furniture two mini hockey nets were not exactly what i meant. i am terrified that the boys are some how going to dent my walls or even worse, break my front windows. i just know something will get broken. thank god jesse can fix whatever they ruin. i will let you all know what damage is done later this weekend.

jesse attempting to keep me from taking a picture of our new living room accessories

so, now that the end of school is near i feel like i can start thinking about this wedding. this afternoon my mom and i are meeting with a florist from occasional bloom for a consultation. apparently, they were recommended by a few people - there are not a ton of pictures on their website but from what i have seen i like. they seem to do more modern arrangements which is exactly what i am looking for. i think it will be interesting. i have an idea of what i want, but generally i have expensive taste; wedding flowers are totally over priced (in my opinion) and i am incredibly cheap so we will have to see how it goes. i definitely want to go with fall colours; i think that the rich burgundies and oranges combined with the green is beautiful.

i am thinking something in this colour palette 

after flowers i feel as though i will be able to make more decisions regarding the decorations. i have been having trouble committing to anything lately, decorations, invitations, favors etc and i think (and hope) that the fact that i have not chosen flower type or colour was a major contributing factor to my indecisiveness but i guess we will just have to wait and see...

sunny sunday

we have officially christened our new patio furniture. this afternoon it was a balmy 12 degrees and sunny so we decided to have a couple people over for an afternoon bbq. i probably should have done some homework but really, it was the first nice afternoon in what has seemed like forever so we had to enjoy it. it was extra special since derek brought kayden over. he is getting so big and beautiful it blows my mind. i love him.

the beautiful kayden james - he's going to be a heart breaker

so, the patio furniture worked well. we bought and 8 piece set and it is still not big enough. we only had a couple people over and we still definitely did not have enough seating. luckily, the previous owner left 4 plastic reclining chairs that are in pretty good shape; i figure i can buy some outdoor pads and they will be great extra seating. also, jesse, caleb and derek are currently designing me a crazy folding picnic table which we are planning on putting on the concrete pad in the back (apparently, it has to be folding so that we can bring it camping and to revelstoke? haha). our back yard will have more furniture than the rest of our house combined at this rate...

yes, there is still snow on the ground

 it was only about 10 degrees out this afternoon but the dark wood on the deck made it feel even warmer. i am beginning to worry about how hot it is going to get back there when we start getting some seriously warm weather. oh well, it will be perfect for tanning!

once everyone left i checked my email and our breeder, lianne, had sent another update with pictures of emi. she is even more beautiful than i imagined; apparently, her eyes are officially open and she is steady on her feet now. jesse is really excited because it looks like she has blue eyes. unfortunately, i have a feeling that puppies are like babies - 90% of them start off with baby blues and then they fade with age. only time will tell.

lil emi: 3 weeks old

she's a curious little monster

ridiculous, i know. i already set up emi's little spot

all and all we had a pretty good weekend.  yesterday night we went out with my parents and sister for mama jones' birthday (happy birthday mom, i love you!); we went to kefi, an amazing greek restaurant here, and it was really fun. the food was fabulous as always but since it was mama jones' birthday we got to dance and sing and break a plate - definitely an experience. that coupled with the bbq definitely made for a nice, relaxing weekend. unfortunately, i didnt seem to get a ton of homework done this weekend but after my busy week last week i think i needed a bit of a break.