Wednesday, December 31, 2014

New Years Resolutions 2015



Here they are, in no particular order:

Stop biting nails (filing them is okay)
This has been a bad habit for as long as I can remember. I definitely used to be a lot worse (I would bite them until they all bled), but I still am pretty terrible. I find I do it mostly in the car if I'm sitting in traffic. It mostly comes out of bordem, stress, or just restlessness (I pick a lot of labels too). It's also partly mild OCD. I don't like jagged, or uneven edges so I am constantly picking at my nails if I have the tiniest little snag in it. 2015 will be the year of nice nails!

Workout on my days off
I was being really consistent with this before I got my night position at work. I used to, any time I had a day off, make sure I either hit the pavement running, or got sweating at the gym. Now that I've been on nights for the last month and a half, I've been way more complacement with this task. I definitely don't workout when I'm on my five days "on" because I am way to preoccupied with sleep, and even on my five days off I am still finding myself making excuses to not get moving either. So in order to get my tummy toned and my thunder thighs back down to a decent size, I best get cracking on this one.

Spend minimum 1hr outdoors every day
This one should be pretty easy to follow through with since I already go out pretty much everyday to walk the dog. Right now, most of the time I will drive to the dog park, and then only actually be outdoors at the park for maybe 30 or 45 minutes. Or, if I take the dog out walking, I have a couple different loops that I do, but the longest one is only about 40 minutes. So, I'm hoping it should be pretty easy to just extend these walks and  "outdoor time" that extra fifteen minutes.  


Pay off debt
Mark and I have been working on this since I finished school. We started paying back my students loans in March of 2014 and we've already paid off over half of it, so I think I am pretty safe to set myself the goal of having the rest paid off, not only this year, but I am eagerly hoping within the next six months. Debt free will = stress free 2015!

Knit
This one is probably lowest priority on my list, but I figure I'd toss it in. I used to know how to knit years ago (my nona taught me), but I haven't done it for years, and I think it would be nice to get back into. No more having to by mittens or toques or socks, I could just make them myself.

Blog (read, write, photography)
I really love what blogging has brought to my life already, and I am very eager to continue on with this past time, and see what the future of it holds for me. I really would like to work on some more skilled photography to go along with it, but I think as long as I am keeping up with the writing I will find it a benefit in my life, because it's so nice to have a release like this.

Eat out less (i.e. cook more)
This one is kind of two fold. Mark and I eat out a lot, like A-LOT! Way more than necessary and if we can cut back on this, not only will we be eating better, but we'll be saving money as well which means, more money to spare to either drop into savings, or to get the debt paid off faster.

Coach volleyball
I used to coach volleyball years ago, but I have since lost a lot of my connections and now it's just not a part of my life any more. A friend from volleyball currently does some coaching, so I have already offered to help out if he needs, so I am hoping he takes me up on my offer and I get to get involved again. I used to find it so fulfilling, and I really miss the developmental aspect of it so I hope, even if the friend doesn't take me up on my offer, that I will be able to find somewhere else where I can help out.

Stop swearing
This is the newest addition to my list of resolutions. Never as a kid, or even a teenager did I swear. It was just something I never did. It didn't happen in my household, and as far as I was aware, it was wrong, rude, and inappropriate to use that kind of language. However, as I have gotten older, and after living in a house with three boys instead of a family with all girl siblings, my offensive vocabulary definitely expanded. Well, in the last two years or so, even though I use the foul language myself, I've noticed more and more that when I hear other people use the language, I am utterly disgusted. So, I am going to try extremely hard to no longer use swearwords. There is no need for them.

So, there it is! My 2015 resolutions. I know it's a lot to think about, but I think most of them are relatively low key so I'm feeling pretty confident that I should be able to keep up with them throughout the year! 

I'd love to hear what you have planned for 2015!
-Linds

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

"Noggin"


This is the book I most recently finished reading and it's by John Corey Whaley. It is about a kid who gets a "body transplant" and how he is trying to transition back into life. Before the kid gets the transplant, his head is chopped off, and frozen while waiting for the transplant. Five years go by waiting. Part of the twist to the story is that when the kid wakes up from the transplant, time has only stood still for himself. Everyone else is five years older, but he is still just a teenage boy, who has to go back to high school without any friends, etc. Everyone from his life before, including his best friend and his girlfriend, has already moved on to other things in life.

This has me thinking: If I got to keep my entire head, my brain, and my personality as is, but had to transplant an entire different body, whose or what type of body would I choose? I think it's pretty safe to guess that most people would probably choose someone more fit, better looking, maybe taller or shorter too depending on your current situation, and probably someone a little better...shall we say..."equipped." But really, how much would all that matter since in our heads, we are still the same person. If I am a lazy person now, would having a more fit body automatically make me want to get up and go to the gym more, or would I just stick to my bad habits and eat crappy food, gain all the weight back and then be dissatisfied again? Or, would you intentionally keep those bad habits so that your body wouldn't feel so foreign? I would want to find someone who has nice, well manicured nails, but that doesn't mean that I've all of a sudden kicked the habit of biting my nails.

On another note, how would your significant other handle the change? Yes, we all love to believe that the people in our lives are ultimately there because of our personalities and not just because of looks, but I am a strong believer that looks are a big part of the attraction to each other as well. What if your significant other didn't want you to have bigger boobs, or wanted you to have smaller hips, or whatever the case may be. How do you handle that as a couple? Would you let the significant other choose your body since they are they one who you want to be attracted to you. Would you be offended if your significant other was too eager to find you a different body?

Now, on to the more emotional aspect of this. How would you cope with being basically frozen in time for five years. You wake up and everybody else, including your family and closest friends have carried on living their lives, finishing high school, getting jobs, etc. You feel like you've blinked and woken up from a little nap, only to find that no one else is where you left them. How would you survive going back to high school without the people at your side who helped you survive high school in the first place. How would you manage seeing the person you love, being engaged or married to someone else? How would you manage being the exact same person you were five years ago, meanwhile since everyone else is changed, they expect you to be a changed person too. I think it's only natural to slowly fall into other people's expectations of you, and to have to fight your way into holding true to yourself, but this fight would be even harder when every one is already five years ahead of you. 



How would you handle being only part of the person you spent so many years trying to become in the first place?

-Linds



Unforgiven (2005)

Hiding deep inside the storm,
Avoid the objective to conform.
We live and breathe and scream and cry,
Our hearts aching from deep inside.


Raise a hand, and speak your voice, 
knowing fate gives you a choice.
Choose to fight, or choose to hide,
Watch for the storm cast outside.


Bring out the demon from within,
Slit those veins full of sin.
Unaware of the fear we hold,
A screaming bomb leaves us cold...




Monday, December 22, 2014

My husband is a zombie!

Recently my husband has turned into a zombie! 

Okay, not in the literal sense that he has died and now is the living dead. And not in the sense like me right now being on night shifts all the time and feeling like I am on autopilot, but there's definitely soooooomething going on. 

This has probably been going on for, I'd estimate, six months, but has become much more frequent in the last, probably, two months. 

I wake up in the middle of the night and I will look over in bed, and my husband will be laying on his back, fast asleep, but his right arm is sticking straight up in the air. Sometimes he's grumbling, sometimes not. But his arm will just be straight up! It usually stays like that for a couple seconds and then slowly it starts to lower down, and sometimes it'll even just flop down and smack me in the face (I sleep on Mark's right side). I have no idea why this happens and Mark never has any recollection of it happening. I've tried several times to gently grab his arm and gently lower it down so it's resting beside him, or on his tummy, but within a couple of seconds, he'll just put it right back up in the air. It's such a silly thing, but it really creeps me out. 

(I tried to capture a picture of it here, but I wasn't quite fast enough. He was already lowering his arm down.)
Mark and I have been sleeping in the same bed together for quite a while now, long enough to have gotten used to each other's sleeping habits. 

The only thing that ever was an issue before this zombie thing started was that Mark used to kick me a lot in his sleep. Never enough for me to wake up, but enough that when I'd shave my legs in the morning, I was covered in tiny little bruises all up and down my legs. This only lasted I think a few weeks, maybe a month, but he quickly got used to me sharing the bed with him, and it was never a problem again. 

I'm not sure what has prompted this little zombie arm thing going on, but hopefully it passes soon so that I will have no more nights being startled awake!

Does your significant other have any wonky sleeping habits?
-Linds

Saturday, December 20, 2014

A prefect example:

If you read my post from yesterday you've quickly realized that I am not much of a Christmas person. It's not like I'm completely void of Christmas celebrating. I still do my part to participate in the family festivities, and I put on my shiny positive attitude when around others so as not to upset anyone, but last night my husband gave me the perfect example for why this time of year really gets under my skin. 

His work did a fantastic thing yesterday. The company donated over $10,000.00 worth of product to a school. Yesterday, a bunch of the employees went to the school and handed all the stuff out. It was a bit of an event, they had an assembly, and each of the 500 kids were handed some brand new item. I guess a bunch of parents came to the event as well. Now so far this all just sounds super positive and supportive, right? How could something like this make me hate this time of year. Well, here it is. Instead of the parents/families (the ones who are supposed to be mature) just being grateful that random people decided to give their kid/school something nice and new, the parents we're eagerly running back up to the employees asking for more product, claiming their kid had more siblings at home and would like something else as well.

Now, I get that of course, not everyone is well off, and that not every one can afford the same types of things for their families as others, but this just brings me to my point from yesterday. Where do people get off just assuming that they are deserving of so much more (and even if they are deserving, that it's just going to be gift wrapped and handed to them). To have the audacity to go up to someone who is donating their time and money, and ask for more, to me that is just unbelievable. Be grateful for what you are given. That's it. Whether you deserve more or not, be grateful for things that are just handed over to you. 



Well, I better stop before I get too angry ranting here. I thought yesterday was going to be my only negative Christmas post, but after hearing about what my hubby experienced last night, I just had to get this off my chest. 
-Linds

Friday, December 19, 2014

"A Santa Cause: It's a Punk Rock Christmas"


Well folks, here it is...my anti-Christmas post. I know, I know. I'm that girl. Please don't hate me!!

Of course as a kid I absolutely loved Christmas time. It meant no school, staying up late, getting to eat tons of delicious treats, and receiving tons of gifts. Over the years though, as I have gotten older, I have slowly come to realize that Christmas is a season that, well.....I greatly don't enjoy (I don't quite have strong enough feelings for the word hate here, yet, heh). 

Don't get me wrong, I love gathering around the dinner table with family, and spending late nights reminiscing, etc., but it drives me mental that we only do it because it's Christmas time. Sure in my family we get together on birthdays and Easter and Thanksgiving, etc., but why do we seem to wait until Christmas to show appreciation for each other. And, why do we need gifts to show appreciation for each other. People spend the entire month of December and some times even November, stressing out about finding the perfect gift, and running each other over in malls scrambling to find the best this or that. Yes, the consumerism part of the holiday I hate, I think that's obvious. 

But it's also the negative, phony side of people that comes out at this time of year that gets to me as well. If we're not friends in the first place, don't all of a sudden start saying happy holidays to me, you don't really mean it. Sure, maybe you think you are just being polite, but honestly, I find it more offensive. 

Christmas happens to bring out some of the worst in people as well. I can distinctly recall situations where people who I know, and normally love and respect, were given gifts and disgustedly replied with: "oh, this is what you got me"  and, "well, how come I didn't get something from that person". Maybe I'm harsh in saying this but, I think celebrating Christmas has just taught people the wrong expectations. Why should we assume we're going to be given gift after gift? Have we really done anything to deserve it? Sure we're decent people, but did we spend all year going above and beyond for others, in order to deserve to be showered with gifts in the last month. I think not. And even if we did go above and beyond for others, are we only doing it so that we will be rewarded? If so, then that right there just makes us less deserving.
 
I think naturally people are selfish, which is fine, we have to look out for ourselves to survive in this world, but I think Christmas has brought on this un-deserved expectation.
 
I'm not religious by any means either, so saying that I participate in order to celebrate Jesus' birthday doesn't cut it for me either. If I ever decide to have kids of my own and raise a family, I think I might kybosh the whole Christmas, holiday thing completely, and just make "grateful days" (the name is a work in progress, hah). Why does it take celebrating other people's events (mostly religious), in order to spend quality time and show appreciation for the people we love. Why can't we all just pick our own days on our own schedules to celebrate and be grateful for each other. Maybe some people do this already, and that's amazing, but then why do we need this extra day, correction, month, this extreme time of year where it seems like the only focus is high financial, emotional, and physical stress. .
 
Well hopefully I didn't scare to many of you away with this post, and if you have stuck around until the end, I thought I'd share with you two of my favourite "Christmas" songs. They are from the CD "A Santa Cause: It's a Punk Rock Christmas". Be warned, they are not your upbeat, spreading love and cheer, Christmas carols, but they are two songs that I listen to 'round the clock at this time of year. I guess they kind of make me feel less alone, like I'm not the only one with a sort of dreary Christmas outlook. Here they are:

Forget December by Something Corporate

Yule Shoot Your Eye Out by Fall Out Boy



Anyway, sorry for all the negativity! Don't worry, my spirits will pick up soon.

-Linds




Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Sunday Abby Co-ed 6s

I finally got a full team photo of my Sunday Co-ed 6s Team so I thought I would share. This league is a ton of fun, and is one of the ones where I get to be setter. 


(Back row left to right: Andrew & Steve)
(Front row left to right: Mark U., Jessamine, Me & Mark)
We've played in this league for about 4 seasons now, I think, and each year with a slightly different team, but it is always a blast. It's played out of Abbotsford Christian on Sunday nights. It's a very competitive league, with a lot of the players being college/university level which makes for some pretty incredible rallys.  

I would guess that our team has probably the least amount of "trained" experience, since most of us just picked up the sport casually, but that being said though, we constantly stayed between the top and middle pools this season, and I think we ended up 5th overall after the final week. 

I think the league starts up again in early January and I can't wait to get going again!

-Linds



Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Dreaming Death

So this topic was brought up recently at my work so I decided to share. (Miriam, I hope you read this one, hehe!).

I die in my dreams. Always...always, always, always, always, always!  Okay, okay, fine, not actually ALWAYS, but on the rare occasions when I do remember my dreams, most of the time it's a somewhat stressful, intense, or dramatic situation, and I would say nine times out of ten I end up dead at the end of them. 

Not only that, but for most people if they die in their dreams, there's no actual confirmed death, most people wake up just as it's about to happen. I, on the other hand, don't get the luxury of waking up right away. I'll hit the ground after falling off a cliff, or bleed out if I've been stabbed, or lie lifeless after being suffocated. It's strange. Basically, as soon as I die in the dream, then it's like I have this third person perspective and I start watching from above. I see that my limbs are broken, or I've bled out, and usually nothing more happens in the dream, other than just sitting their watching myself no longer living. Every once in a while I'll see a little more (i.e. I'll witness other people's reactions to finding me dead), but most of the time, it's just this motionless witnessing of myself being dead.




How morbid, I know.

I've had these kinds of dreams since I was a kid, and it's honestly never really bothered me too much, but any time I tell someone else, they usually seem utterly horrified (yes you, Miriam!). Should I be more bothered by what my subconsious has in store for me. Maybe I should be reading in to this more and taking a message away from it all, but honestly, I've just come to live with it. I wonder if I would become a different person if I were to take the time and analyze where this stems from.

If any of you out there are dream experts I'd love to hear your take on it.

-Linds

Sunday, December 14, 2014

No refs, no rules?

All of the Volleyball leagues, and most tournaments,  I currently play in are "call your own" ie. no refs, so we go on the honor system. This is a really tough thing to get used to if you've been playing high school, college or club volleyball though, because in those games, if the ref doesn't call it, you carry on playing. So it's easy to get away with a gentle touch of the net, etc. 

Well, in the honor system, you have to fess up to any and every mistake you make, and any and every mistake any other player on your team makes. But the even tougher part is trying not to call (even the most blatently obvious) faults of the opposing team. Don't get me wrong, it happens a lot where both teams will just automatically call the fault and all is well, but once in a while the opposing team calls something for the other team and well, all hell breaks loose. 

The rule is "call your own" so it's wrong of us to call something that the other team does wrong, and vice versa (no matter how obvious!). 

For a while there, one of the most frustrating "lack of calls" was net calls. For a while the rules had changed so that you only had to call "touching the net" if when you did it, you were interfering with the play. So basically it came down to it only mattered if you touched the top tape while swinging or blocking. Everything else just kind of ended up being "okay". Well slowly people started to abuse this to the point where in one of our leagues we even had someone who thought it was fine to brace themselves on the net as long as it was after they played the ball, even if they ended up bumping into one of our players through the net (totally not okay, but there was no convincing this guy otherwise). 

Thank goodness recently the volleyball rules have gone back to the old way. NO MORE NET TOUCHES! Well to clarify: No net touches while in the action of playing the ball, this includes swinging, blocking, setting, etc. That means a gentle touch of the net is allowed if you're just running by, or if your ponytail touches, minor things like that. 

Now, even with the improvement in the rules, it doesn't mean there won't always be those people that try to sneak by with breaking the rules, but unfortunately no matter how strict they make the rules, this is going to be unavoidable. There are always going to be those types of people out there, but to me it's a matter of respect for the game, and I will always make it a priority to be honest with the other teams, my own players, and most importantly my self. 

Are you honest enough to call your own faults?

All for now, 
-Linds

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Listen Learn Love...

In my previous post  "Why Ink"  I talked about my first tattoo. I didn't include any photos then, but I got Mark to take a couple for me the other night so I thought I would include them today and maybe elaborate a little on my first tattooing experience. 




This tattoo is about four, maybe almost five years old. Of course it's a little bit faded now, but I still love it. It's on the back side of my right hip (slightly off-centered to the typical "tramp-stamp" location). I'm sure I still get tons of judgement for where it is, or even having it at all, but I don't care. It's meaningful to me and that is all that matters. (Don't mind my pyjamas in the photo, this was taken right before heading to bed!)

I got this tattoo done at I-kandi in Langley, and it was literally only about 11 minutes of total tattooing time. I was fine getting the actually tattoo done, it pinched a little, but definitely easily tolerable. It wasn't until the day after though, when I was taking my bandage off, that I literally fell over in the shower because of the mental thought of knowing that it was put in my skin by needles (I have an ongoing fear of needles)

Thankfully Mark was home that day though, he picked me up off my butt and gave me some juice and let me lay around the house the rest of the day, and then after that I was totally fine. Of course for about the first week or so though, I was totally paranoid that I was accidentally going to smear the tattoo off of myself, hehe, but I had nothing to worry about, and it all turned out just fine!

There was little to no scabbing, it was a wee bit itchy, but nothing a little lotion (un-scented of course) couldn't help, and I ended up with this simple piece of art on my body. Totally awesome!!

Initially, I had no real drive to get any more ink. I was more than satisfied with my first and only tattoo, but only about a year or so later, of course that little voice came back, and sure enough, I knew I wanted more. I tend to be pretty picky so it'll probably still be a while yet before I decide what any of my future tattoos are, but I'll definitely be doing a post in the near future to show you guys my tattoo #2 in the meantime!

I'd love to hear about your tattoos or tattooing experiences!

-Linds

Friday, December 5, 2014

Goofy foot?

When it comes to things like snowboarding, skateboarding, surfing, skimboarding etc. being "goofy foot" is when you ride with your right foot forward, and "regular foot" is riding with your left foot forward. 

I am regular foot. I do all those activities left foot first. 

When it comes to volleyball, I, odly enough, developed a goofy foot. 

A typical volleyball three step approach for a right handed person like myself goes something like this: Left--Right-Left

I, on the other hand, from the gecko have always done my approach opposite: Right--Left-Right.

I have no idea where this developed from, but I distinctly remember from day one of learning to approach a ball, that it felt way more natural for me to go right foot first. Thankfully this goofy foot, right foot first approach, has always worked well for me, because let's be honest, I'm too far gone to try to correct it now, but I find myself wondering, why did it feel more natural this way in the first place, when everything else I do is regular foot.  

Amongst discussing this with my women's 6s volleyball team, it turns out one of our middle hitters is left handed in her day to day activities, yet, she is a dominant hitter in volleyball with her right hand, and she is able to swing a raquet (i.e. for tennis) equally left or right handed. 

My husband is similar, he is right hand dominant in life and most sports. He hits in volleyball with a right hand (mostly) and yes has the proper footing to go along with it too, he plays golf right handed and baseball right handed, however, when he picks up a hockey stick, he plays as if he is left handed, and he skimboards (as well as surfs and snowboards) right food forward, i.e. goofy foot).

Where do these "unnatural" tendencies come from?

Do any of you have an unnatural "goofy foot"? I'd love to hear about it!!


-Linds




Wednesday, December 3, 2014

This feeling...

I find myself feeling...feeling a little...off.


I don't know if it is because last weekend for four days straight I spent with five other people around, and basically outside all day, and then when I came back home, I spent an entire day inside and all by my self. Maybe it was a bit of a shock to the system to go from one extreme to the next, but something has me feeling...off. 

Now generally speaking I can get kind of overwhelmed when surrounded by to many people and too much commotion. So, it's normal for me to love spending my days solo, and I pretty much always get out of the house for an hour to walk the dog, but for some reason I still just feel off. I found myself lying in bed last night asking myself "In what direction do I want to head? Is everyone else happier than me? Does it matter?"

Should I travel? Should I continue education? Should I hunker down and get the debt paid off faster? Should I look into buying a house despite the debt? Should I re-decorate? What should I do with myself? Do I need to do anything with myself?

I am perfectly happy with my life, don't get me wrong, but should I be doing more, or less, would either make me happier? Do I need to be happier? 

Perhaps I just need a new project, or a goal to work towards, something to keep me distracted, but focused at the same time.  Something to either help this feeling pass, or something to help me steer into the feeling and plow right through it. 

I already feel better working on this blog, writing is freeing and feels like a weight off my shoulders. Working on this blog has also made me look into photography. Photography has always been something I enjoyed doing, but the more I take pictures I find the more I want to learn skills. I also did some scrapbooking this morning, and again that got some creative juices flowing. I've never really considered myself a creative person by any means. I've always been the plan, schedule, coordinate type person. Sometimes I find the creative stuff unsettling, but other times it's so relieving, it just depends what mood I am in.

I think this is something I am slowly learning about myself. I don't have to be just one type of person. I can be what ever type of person I feel I need to be on what ever day so that I feel happy in my skin. 

That is all for today. Sorry that today's post is a little scrambly, but I basically just let me hands take over. No filter. 

'Til next time, 
-Linds


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Weekend get-away in Tofino, B.C.

In my previous post I talked about how it was mine and Mark's 1st year wedding anniversary this past weekend and that we went away to Tofino, B.C. for a couple of days to celebrate since we never did a honeymoon. 


(Wickaninnish Beach, Tofino, B.C. Saturday November 29, 2014)


Well, today I am going to elaborate more on the adventures of our little get-away and show you all the photos of the beautiful island!

We did the trip from Friday, November 28, 2014 to Monday, December 1, 2014 (our anniversary is November 30th). We left at about 10:30am Friday to catch the 12:45pm ferry, and headed back home at about 10:30am Monday to catch the 3:15pm ferry back home. 

We did the road/ferry trip with two other couples (Rob & Bridget, and Steve & Danielle) and our puppy, Captain Axel. Don't worry, even though we had a full car, Mark and I made sure we took some time just for ourselves during the trip in order to celebrate our 1st year wedding anniversary.  

The six of us rented a beautiful house about a 5 minute walk from Chestman Beach. 
(Tranquil accommodations from VRBO)



(View from the front porch)


It had a full kitchen, living room, two bathrooms, laundry room, three bedrooms and a loft. Plenty of space for all of us. Each couple brought several grocery items and then we also did a couple little shopping trips to just pick up whatever we wanted to cook that day or night. It was fun cooking along side other couples, and generally speaking everyone took turns preparing, cooking, or cleaning up after meals so it never really felt like a whole lot of work.


We arrived at the house around 6pm on Friday and by the time we picked up some booze, and groceries, and had dinner made, we were all pretty pooped. We ended up playing a couple rounds of Taboo (boys vs. girls, and sadly the boys whooped our butts), and then headed into the hot tub for a relaxing night under the incredibly star lit sky. 

Saturday we all slept in pretty late, but had a scrumptious bacon and egg breakfast to get our late morning in gear. After filling up on breakfast, we loaded in the car and did a quick fifteen minute drive down to Wickaninnish Beach. 
(Wickaninnish Beach, Tofino, B.C. Saturday November 29, 2014)
After the beach, Saturday night included more cooking together and some board games. Mark and I also took some time to lounge in the hot tub for a bit on our own, while the other couples hung out inside. As usual, the whole night was filled with easy conversations, laughing and joking! We all went to bed a little bit earlier than the previous night, but Mark and I snuggled in bed until midnight waiting for our anniversary to exchange "gifts."

Mark and I typically don't do gifts for each other for gift giving occasions (i.e. Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.), but we usually try to do soooomething small or sentimental just to remind each other we are thinking of them. For this specific occasion I got Mark a little book called "What I love about you by me". It is a small book, with a bunch of fill in the blank prompts on reason why I love you. I then also got us a three year double journal. It basically has once a day prompts that each person fills in their response but it's over the course of three years, so you get to see how each others thoughts/opinions/plans compare and change over the course of the years. No guarantee that we will last writing in it consistently for three years, but I thought it would be something fun and different to try. 

Mark's gift to me was a small letter. It was just something short, but basically a little love note reminding me why and how he loves me. Very sentimental and truly from the heart. Oh, and he also gave me a pack of socks, haha (odly enough, a pack of socks was one of the very first "gifts" Mark ever gave me, before we were even officially a couple), leave it to the hubby to buy me socks so that he can wear them himself! But that's why I love him!

And now, on to the next day. 

Sunday, November 30, was Mark and my first year wedding anniversary. We slept in until about 9am and then did breakfast again with the group. We had waffles (with some vanilla/cinnamon baileys - you've got to start the day on the right foot) and fresh fruit. After tidying up we headed, basically across the street, to Chesterman Beach.

Now Chesterman Beach is pretty neat, because if the tide is out you can walk all the way out to Frank's Island (you just have to make sure you walk back before the tide comes back in, otherwise you will be stranded!). 



(Chesterman Beach, Tofino B.C., Sunday November 30, 2014)
We finished up at Chestman Beach pretty early in the afternoon (no we didn't get stranded at Frank's Island, phewff!), so we decided to head into town for a stroll through the city of Tofino. 




When we got back to the house we all played some Munchkin (one of mine and Mark's favorite strategy card games), and then lounged around the house for while. Eventually our stomachs started to get the better of us, so I got myself dressed up and Mark and I headed back into town for our anniversary dinner (the other couples did dinner on their own and also offered to look after the pup for us while we were out so it was a nice little treat). 

Mark and I went to "The Wolf in the Fog". Unfortunately we didn't make reservations so we ended up sitting in the pub area instead of the dining area, but it was all the same food so no biggy. The drinks were ridiculously over-priced and didn't even taste that great, but the food made up for it so all in all it was a nice dinner out together. 

When we got back the other couples were still awake. Mark, myself, Steve, and Danielle, went into the hot tub for a quick dip, and then when we got out, all six of us decided to play a game called "Ladies and Gentlemen." This game was hilarious. We played a couple rounds, and did some role reversal which left us busting our guts!

Shortly after that we called it a night, and soaked up the last few hours of relaxation in bed, before having to head home the next morning.

Monday morning we woke early, basically cooked up all our left over food, for a smash of breakfast, and then packed up the house ready to head out. We hit the road around 10:30am and made it to the ferry by about 2pm (of course we had to stop for gas and snacks). We hung around at the ferry (departure time wasn't until 3:15pm) trying to tire the pup out as best we could before being couped up in the car again. 


(Duke Point Ferry Terminal in Nanaimo, Monday, December 1, 2014)
After a full weekend of running around with the dog, playing various board games, enjoying the fresh ocean air, laughing until I was crying, we finally made it back home around 6:30pm. I could not have asked for a better 1st anniversary weekend. I got to spend it with the man I love, my sweet lil pup, and in good company of some close friends. What more could I ask for. 

I'd love to hear how you spent, or dream of spending, your 1st anniversary!

-Linds

Monday, December 1, 2014

1st Year Anniversary


It was mine and Mark's one year wedding anniversary this weekend and honestly it had me feeling a little nostalgic. I kept finding myself thinking back to when we not only got married, or when Mark proposed, but all the way back to when we first started dating. All those memories from when we were first getting to know each other just kept flooding my mind. Mark isn't much of a romantic guy, but I definitely have a few particular memories that for some reason always stick with me. They aren't anything really significant, but just moments in time, where when I look back, those were moments where I really knew this is where I wanted to be, and who I wanted to be there with.
1. Holding hands. We had held hands before walking at White Rock Beach on one of our first dates, but there was a night shortly after that, where Mark and I were just sitting on the couch watching a movie after everyone went to bed (when he still lived at his parents house). We just sat there, side by side, hardly even "snuggled in", but just holding hands. The entire movie long he held my hand. Something so simple, but so sweet. Most guys would have quickly tried to move in for the arm around the shoulder or whatever, but Mark just sat there, completely satisfied with just holding and rubbing my hand.
2. The first time Mark called me beautiful.  Mark invited me to play card games at a friends house and when I showed up, the moment I got out of my car he told me I looked beautiful. He didn't just say "you look nice" or "your hair looks pretty" (I had curled it that day), but he just looked me in the eye and called me beautiful. In that moment, there was so much honesty in his eyes, I didn't doubt him for a second.
3. The first time he told me he loved me. We had just driven back from spending a summer day at Cultus Lake in Chilliwack, B.C. and we went to my parents' house for my sister, Christina's, birthday party bbq. After we mingled with everyone for a while, we went up to my room (I was still living at home at the time), and we just layed in my bed (don't worry, on top of the covers), exhausted from the sun at the lake, and he just looked at me and said: "Okay, this is it, I'm in. I love you, Lindsay." True to his form, so blatant and so direct, but I loved every word of it.

(Cultus Lake, May 2009)

I can guarantee you Mark probably only has a vague recollection of these moments, if at all, but I know that it's not because they don't matter, or weren't significant to him, it's just his personality. He holds on to different memories that are captivating in his own mind.
We have been together for about five and a half, almost six years now, and we are both definitely not the same people as we were when we started out. I think the best thing about our relationship and our marriage, is that we both started out as such opposites, and we still are total opposites, but now just in different ways. Because of that, we both are always willing to give the other person room to grow into who they need to be in order to be successful in the next part of our life (whether that be the next day, week, month, year, etc.). We constantly challenge each other, but we also constantly follow blindly behind each other. We have such a mix of traits that every day really does seem like something new.  
This first year of marriage has been a whirl wind. We got married very quickly after getting engaged, and then it was Christmas time right after, than a couple months later we got our puppy which was a whole new experience of puppy parenting. Then, work got super busy for both of us in summer/early fall, and now I'm in a new position doing nights so our schedules are totally wonky. We never did a honeymoon or anything after our wedding, so this weekend we headed to Tofino, B.C. on Vancouver Island for a small little get-away in order to celebrate our 1 year anniversary and just take some time for ourselves and to reconnect. We sat around in the hot tub, cozied up by the fire, played board games, and card games, and just did what we do best, enjoyed each others' company.



Well, I am literally about to fall asleep while typing so I will be heading off to bed pretty quick! I will have another post soon with all my photos and details from our trip!
Take care,
-Linds

Monday, November 24, 2014

Afraid (2005)

I'm afraid of what I feel,

A lost soul with no hope.
I'm on the end of the tug-of-war
Where there's no more rope.

I'm afraid of my head,
For it knows too well,
This road that I'm walking,
It's sure to be hell.

I'm afraid of my dreams,
So sweet, but so deceiving.
I wake up with a smile,
But then comes the grieving.

I'm afraid of my heart,
Will it lead me the wrong way?
I've been broken before,
By the words you didn't say.

I'm afraid of the truth, 
It's never what I expect.
And when it's found out, 
There's nothing but memories left.

I'm afraid of what I feel,
A lost soul with no hope.
These words never spoken, 
My only way to cope...

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Sunday Fashion Fun-day #2

Welcome to outfit post #2. Again, these photos were self-mirror taken so I apologize about the quality.

Similar to last weeks post, I wore this outfit out Friday afternoon on my day off to grab a coffee and take the dog out for a walk. Probably a little dressy for the occasion, but I am a big believer in comfortable, easy to throw on dresses (and that's exactly what this is). I love this kind of outfit because I think it aims for my "effortlessly cute" look, and yet it can easily be dressed up or down just by changing a few accessories, and maybe changing up the jacket (i.e. a leather jacket instead of the vest and hoodie).




Although it was still sunny this week, it was definitely a lot colder. I decided to add the leggings with this dress to help keep warm. I love being able to wear a dress all year long, simply by adding a pair of leggings or tights!

Pretty much everything I buy is on sale. I very rarely pay full price. One of my favorite stores is Winners for that exact reason, discounted items. However, even with Winners being as discounted as it already is, I still usually wait for stuff to go on sale anyway! I feel way more confident in an outfit if I know I got it at a great price!


Dress: H&M (similar
Hoodie: H&M  (Yes, I frequently wear mens clothing!)
Vest: H&M (I got this on sale in the kids section for only $15)
Leggings: Garage (old - similar)
Boots: Payless ShoeSource (November 2013 - I wore these under my wedding dress as well)
Necklace: Bootlegger (old)
Earrings: Ardene (old)

I also ended up going out for dinner later in the evening to watch the hockey game and then to a friends place for some pool and ping pong, and the outfit was perfectly comfortable and casual for the occasion. Again, I easily could have changed up the jacket to make the outfit a little more dressy, but no need for it this time.

Here are some photos of the outfit "in action."
(Please ignore the hubbys hair and mustache. I swear he doesn't always look this creepy! He has since gotten a hair cut, but unfortunately the mustache will be around until the end of November!)

Anyway, hope you enjoyed outfit post #2! I'd love to hear your thoughts!

-Linds





Saturday, November 22, 2014

New job!

After a year and a month of work as a casual X-ray Tech, I finally got a position. Yes, it's only temporary, but at least it's a step in the right direction. 

Guess what the job is.....lucky me, it's nights...ugh. It's a five on five off rotation which I'm totally stoked about having the five days off, but doing nights until May (that's when the temporary job ends) is going to definitely be a challenge. I tend to do okay with one or two nights here and there, but five, I'm either going to be a total zombie, or I'm going to be a cranky emotional mess. I can't say for sure which one it'll be for sure yet, only time will tell, heh!

If anyone has any coping methods for how they tolerate graveyard shifts, I'd love to hear them. Right now, when I get a random night shift here and there, I tend to just try to sleep in as late as possible the day before, and then I bring tons and tons of snacks for me to munch on during my shift in order to keep my energy up.  Probably not the healthiest coping method...

I've done my first set of five on this past week and so far I survived. The third night was the worse. I was a bit of a baby, being all needy and unreasonable with Mark. But overall, I think I did okay. I didn't make any major mistakes during any of my shifts, I was able to sleep most of the days for at least a few hours. And I was still able to even get a few things done around the house in the evenings, i.e. laundry, dishes, walking the dog, etc., as if I was a regular functional person.

I am totally stoked now to have my five days off but I find myself debating whether I should turn my sleep back to days, or keep my sleep schedule on night mode. What do you guys think?

That is all for today. I think I still need a bit more catch up on sleep before I am able to get some more passion-filled writing down on here.
Check back soon! 

-Linds!


Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Mousey!

Today I want to feature my youngest cat. His name is Mouse and we have had him for about 3.5 years....I think. 

We named him Mouse, honestly, because when we got him as a kitten he had these massive ears that totally made me think of a cartoon mouse! It was only as time went on that we realized it was quite fitting for his personality too. 


Mouse, or mouse-y (we have a habit of calling him this) tends to run, correction scurry (like a mouse), around the house with his belly as low to the floor as it can possibly get, similar to how you would expect a mouse with stubby little legs to run around. 

He's also a little bit of a spastic cat. He's extremely timid (he hid in the closet for almost a week when we moved into our current place), and gets startled easily, but slowly he warms up and has actually ended up being quite the cuddle bug. He runs and hides any time we have visitors over, but has slowly started to warm up to Mark's younger brother. Most people don't even know we have two cats, because so often Mouse is trying to keep out of eye sight. But if it's just Mark and I home, Mouse has no problem venturing out and doing the usual cat stuff, strolling between our legs, and nuzzling into our hands for more attention.

I'm pretty sure he absolutely hated us when we brought Captain home. But, over time I think Mousey has come to accept Captain in to the family, and now he will even tolerate being side by side with Captain, or sitting on the couch at the same time!



On the rarest of occasions Mouse will be brave enough to step a few feet outside our front door, but the moment even the wind blows, he is scurrying back inside. We don't mind though, we love that he is mostly an indoor cat, because it just means more time for him to cozy up with us or for him to hang out on his cat tree!

I hope you enjoyed meeting Mouse! He's probably the hardest one to catch photos of, but this definitely won't be the last time you see him!

Take care, 
-Linds