movie star

two years ago my brothers basketball team, the university of saskatchewan huskies, won nationals. These documentary guys followed their story and are currently making it into a movie! straight to DVD but still.... check it out!

its been a while

hello again...i know, its been a while! to my defense, i have had a lot going on this past month. i promised kevin that i would post once more before the wedding.

so, there are a few things that have happened since we last spoke. first and foremost, we (almost) finished the new kitchen floor. i absolutely loved it. personally, i think that it updates the kitchen about 10-15 years. honestly, i smile every day when i see it and think "thank god that blue, pink and i-used-to-be-white-but-now-im-grey tiles are gone". thank you kev for all your help!

old kitchen floor

bye, bye =)

placing the first tiles

front foyer

obviously, the floor is completely laid. i say that it is "almost" finished because, although we have laid all the tiles and grouted it, we still have to replace the baseboards and finish all the capping on the stairs. i will post pictures when it is completely finished (you shouldn't have to wait too long because jesse promises it will be done before wednesday evening).

emi has probably quadrupled since the last entry. jesse has made it his personal mission to teach her how to swim. so far, so good. she really only goes into her belly; as soon as she gets deep enough that she would have to swim she chickens out. jesse has actually gone to the extreme of carrying her into the river to a depth where he knows she cant touch and drops her in, giving her no choice but to swim back to me at the shore. needless to say, she doesn't love that tactic.

the older she gets the more in love with her ridiculous personality we become. currently, she is obsessed with plastic clothing hangers. she sneaks into our closet when she thinks we aren't looking and grabs them, chewing them in secret. the other day she actually got one stuck on her head and honestly, she couldn't have been happier.

she is basically the size of an average adult dog right now. she had an eye infection and couple weeks ago so we had to take her to the vet - obviously, the weighed her. she was 67 lbs. i would say that now, she is easily 75 lbs. it is ridiculous though because the way she acts, you would think she weighed 7 lbs 5 oz instead. all she wants to do is cuddle.

i tell everyone that she is a giant space cadet but truthfully, she is too smart. the other morning i wake up to her whining beside my bed. i get up to let her out to pee and in the 30 seconds it took me to walk to our closet to grab my house coat emi has already crawled into my prewarmed spot under the covers, all cuddled up next to jesse. what a brat.

i know, we have a sick obsession with our dog. honestly, we love her too much. i cannot wait for everyone to meet her. i just hope they remember that even though she is bigger than most adult dogs, she it still a puppy. i promise, we are working on her training. she is actually getting a lot better. today, at the dog park, we were incredibly impressed with her. i would say she is obedient about 65% of the time which isn't too bad for a crazy, excited puppy.

so, this time next week we will be married. hopefully, i will have time between now and then to post another entry, if not, please forgive me! i promise i will post about the wedding after all the excitement is over!

tiles, ties and taylor

this week has been incredibly busy but we have accomplished so much that i am excited and relieved about.

monday night i had to work late training a new employee but after my shift we went over for dinner at my parents. we hadn't been there in a while so it was nice to have an actual conversation with my parents that didn't have to do with some wedding issue or update. after that we went to home depot and lowes. i have decided that lowes is my new favorite home hardware store. obviously, as you know from my last post, we purchased new flooring for our kitchen. jesse claims that this is that happiest he has seen me since we moved in (this is probably true, especially lately haha). so, tonight we are going to rip out all the existing baseboard and sand the current lino floor. hopefully by sunday we will have laid all the new flooring. i seriously cannot wait.

then, tuesday we started our hunt for shirts and ties. apparently it is incredibly hard to find the perfect purple dress shirt. we were unsuccessful on tuesday and postponed our hunt until wednesday after we met with our photographer.

the meeting with the photographer went really well; she made us really think about the time line of our wedding and order of events - something that we hadn't exactly planned yet. we discussed the usual photography logistics like the various locations we would want to stop at for photos, when she would meet us to start shooting etc. she seems really excited to shoot our wedding and we are really excited that she is shooting it.

after that we decided to look one more time for shirts and ties. finally, we were successful. we ended up getting light purple shirts with a dark purple tie to match the bridesmaids dresses. originally, i hadn't really wanted a lighter purple shirt, since i think it is a very summerish look, but i am really happy with how it turned out.

so, all in all, we have accomplished a lot and spent a lot this week.

tomorrow morning i leave for edmonton for the weekend; i am going to see taylor swift with my girlfriends and am super excited. we will drive up tomorrow morning, spend the afternoon at the mall, have lunch with our friend britt who moved there for the physio program and u of a, then check into the hotel and hit the concert! saturday morning we plan on getting up early (well as early as we can manage after a late night concert and a few bottles of wine) and driving home. i have to get home at a reasonable time since i promised jesse i would help him with the floor saturday afternoon / evening and sunday!

new flooring and taylor swift all in one weekend, what more can a girl ask for?!

mojave

WE GOT OUR FLOORING!!!


i think this is the most excited i have been in like, five months?
it is a vinyl peel and stick tile from cryntel romastone. it is a bit of an upgrade from the regular peel and stick tile since you actually can grout it! i think it is going to look amazing! we choose the mojave limestone finish.  


here is a sneak peak!

we got everything for prep, installation as well as the actual flooring for 300 sq ft for under $450!


fingers crossed it goes in this weekend!

food festivals and flooring

i feel like we accomplished a lot this weekend even though we spent the majority of our time relaxing, god knows we needed it!

friday was definitely calm. both of us are pretty sick (something i blame on the insanely stressful week we have had) so we came home after work, made some butter chicken and watched rio on video on demand; we went to bed early and caught up on some much needed sleep. nothing too exciting.

saturday was also incredibly relaxing. we got up early, stopped at tim hortons, then took emi for a long walk at the dog park. the weather was amazing, probably close to 30 degrees. lately, we have been attempting to teach emi how to swim and luckily there was another 4 month old great dane at the dog park who was happily splashing around in the river - if she wanted to play with him she was going to have to get pretty wet. it was actually pretty funny to see her and this other great dane puppy playing. generally, emi looks very clumsy and awkward  next to all the quick puppies we run into, almost like she is in slow motion but with atticus (the other great dane puppy) she was finally on the same level as another pup and loved it. they played for a really long time. after the dog park we headed home and did our own thing, i read a book in my hammock while jesse played a few video games. again, we went to bed early although neither of us got much sleep since jesse was hacking all night long.

today was another story. we definitely accomplished a lot and its only 5:30! we got up early, had breakfast and took emi for a walk through fishcreek park. after that we went and picked up jesse's suit and shoes for the wedding. then we went over to south centre mall and checked out some shirts and ties for the groomsmen. i think we have decided that they will wear lilac shirts with deep purple ties but nothing is set in stone. after that we went to taste of calgary with our friends adelle and hougan. taste of calgary is one of my favorite weekend festivals in calgary - probably because it is a food festival. basically a ton of local restaurants set up booths with 2-4 items on their menu. each item is anywhere between 2-5 tickets. i think the tickets are either 75 cents or a dollar, i cant remember. either way, you spend the afternoon walking around in amazing weather sampling amazing food. definitely my kinda thing.

but, the most exciting thing we accomplished today was deciding that we are going to upgrade our kitchen / front foyer floor next weekend! this may be the most exciting thing that has happened to me since we moved in! i absolutely HATE our current flooring. while i have never really been a fan of linoleum, our linoleum is especially hideous. it is the same white, light pink and baby blue 80's inspired lino from when the house was originally built in 1978. i don't think it would be half as bad if the finish wasn't completely warn off or if it wasn't discoloured in some spots due to the previous owners smoking habits. it wasn't as bad before we had emi but since she arrived it has driving me up the wall. before i would have to wash my floors every third day and they would look half decent, now with emi, i feel like i have to wash my floors three times a day. i absolutely loath them.

i know it is completely ridiculous to invest in good flooring, like hardwood or ceramic tile, since we are going to do a real renovation in the next few years we decided we would do peel and stick vinyl floor tiles. jesse was not impressed with this idea one bit until i convinced him to take a trip to rona with me this afternoon. there are actually a lot of decent patterns and they are incredibly affordable, as low as 70 cents a tile. we will probably be able to do our entire kitchen, eating area, hall way, pantry and front foyer for under 300 dollars. we both know it is not the best quality but it only has to last us a couple years and anything is an improvement over our current floors. i will obviously update everyone with pictures.

hope you all had a fabulous weekend
xo

ps. while i was writing this entry emi decided she likes milk...

thankfully, the carton was empty and sitting in our blue bin.

44 days and frustration

44 days until the wedding.

44 days left to get everything organized.

44 days until we are finally married and all this frustration will be worth it.

today  i am sick and i am cranky. because of this, i am very frustrated. i feel as though i am frustrated with everything to do with the wedding. i am frustrated by the fact that the bridesmaids dresses still haven't arrived. i am frustrated by the fact that none of the groomsmen have picked up their suits. i am frustrated by the fact that my stupid decorator never replies to my emails (how he has a successful business is beyond me, he is out there). i am frustrated by everything to do with the rsvp's. i am frustrated that people are attending our wedding in ways we never intended them to be able to attend. i am frustrated that we are still 4 people over legal capacity / fire regulations and that no one seems to take said regulations seriously but me and the lady who enforces these regulations, jane. yes, this is probably one of my biggest frustrations. i am frustrated by the fact that no matter what we do there is always someone unhappy. i am frustrated by the fact that it is starting to feel like what we want and how we want it doesn't matter matter.

i am most frustrated that my frustration is frustrating jesse.

i am sure that every bride gets to this point in the wedding planning where all they want is for the day to come and the planning stage to be over. i am at that point.

i am being whiny because i am sick, i know this. i am lucky we have had so much help and support along the way. i am lucky we have so many people who love us enough to make the long journey to calgary from their various homes of vancouver, saskatchewan, montreal and ontario in order to celebrate with us.

so maybe i shouldn't be complaining but honestly, this entry made me feel better, so i am glad that i did.

bridal weekend

i may have had the best weekend of my life. i want to start off by saying thank you so much to everyone that participated in / helped plan this past weekend - i could not have asked for anything more!

friday night we had my wedding shower. even though i am biased i believe it was the best wedding shower i have ever been to. my mom's friend ann hosted it at her house and they did a cocktail type shower with wine and appetizers and games. it was perfect - like i said before, exactly what i wanted. my friend maddy had a really neat idea that everyone bring me a bottle of wine along with a gift; i loved this idea because not only did i get some really amazing bottles of wine, i also got some incredibly unique bottles that i probably wouldn't have ever bought for myself. i am definitely excited to try them all!

i know that it is traditional to do a sunday afternoon lunch type shower but i loved the friday night cocktail idea. i really think that the cocktail type atmosphere put everyone at ease making the experience all the more enjoyable. we played the traditional shower games like "how well do you know the groom" (yes, i did win - thank goodness! haha), "how well do you know the bride" (shockingly 4 of my friends tied for 1st!) and the "toilet paper wedding dress" game! all of them went super well and everyone had a ton of fun! after we were done playing the games, drinking some wine and eating some food we all opened presents. i was so incredibly lucky - i got a ton of what we needed and a lot of what i wanted. thank you, thank you, thank you!!

all my girl friends

the three wedding dresses made of toilet paper

all my gifts!!

my bouquet made out of present wrapping

so, since i knew i would be up late the following day for my bachlorette we called it a night around 11. i was fairly exhausted from the work week and it was definitely good that i went to bed early since saturday was a very late night. val hosted my bachlorette at her place. we did a similar cocktail / appy style evening then all piled into a party bus and headed to hudsons, a local pub we all love! all of us had such a blast. the fact that i misplaced my camera that has all the pictures from my bachlorette on it is a testament to what kind of shape i was in at the end of the night! so is this picture of yours truley and emi....

unfortunately, the picture is not the best quality but apparently i crawled into bed (around 1:48 pm) and emi crawled up after me. i guess she was trying to cuddle me. good thing she left my nose and mouth exposed so i didn't suffocate to death in my sleep... haha

all and all it was such an amazing weekend! i have the BEST family and friends! i love you all!!!