up up up date

1. I met Kobe's brother, Chase.

How do I know? Well I was jogging with the pups when I saw a dog that looked uncannily like Kobe. I asked the owner what kind of dog he was. A papillon poodle! And she got him from Petland two years ago - the same time I got Kobe! So crazy! I've seen dogs that look pretty close to Kobe, but these two were almost identical!

2. I LOVE looong walks on beautiful days.

Since Burns has been gone, I have had a lot of spare time to myself. When it's nice out and I have nothing to do, I take Kobe and Georgie out for long walks. So peaceful. Ugh I just love it so much!

3. The Bow River is really high.

This is a pathway in Bowmont park. As you can see, it is flooded from the Bow.

4. I love cotton season!

I feel like I'm getting snowed on in 20 degree weather. It's so great!

5. Stampede is soon to be upon us!

I love Stampede (a lot of lovin' in this post) and I love free stuff. How about a free pre-stampede breakfast? So awesome! Amaranth Foods hosted this one. All of it was gluten free and free run...and something else that I can't remember. Egg free? I dunno. Anyways, I met the Kutarnas there last Saturday. Nitty got her face painted :D

What a cutie:

6. My house was so busy last weekend!

Bryanne's family had no where to keep their dog, Abbie, for the weekend, so we took her in. She is such a sweetheart, though, so it ended up being just fine.

7. On Saturday I visited the Kutarnas.

Alex and I were going to go for a run, but we both weren't feeling up for it. She offered a delicious soup and baking powder biscuits instead. In return, I made cookies (with Alex's help)! We made S'mores Cookies. They were so good but sooo rich.

Plus also I gave this little one a bath:

I freaking love this kid.

 8. Have you seen how gorgeous the city of Calgary is?

If not, here you go:

One of the few perks of cleaning houses - getting to see all the great views some people have.

9. Did I mention that the Bow River is really high?

I was walking the pups the other day on our usual path to the dog park when we found that the quickest crossing was closed. We walked all the way around and I was too tired to walk all the way back the way we came, so I decided to be unsafe and just go on through the quick way home. I was very surprised to see that whoever put up the sign was not joking:

I carried the pups across. They both hate water and I didn't feel like giving them baths when I got home.

10. I get to see Boonie tomorrow!!! I'm sooo excited!!! It's been a month.

11. Today was my last day at ARBI. I'm really going to miss May, my program coordinator, and the lady I worked with. I'm really glad that I was able to volunteer there for the six months that I did. I really learned a lot and made a couple new friends. Everyone was so great there and now I know for sure that Speech Therapy is what I want to do. For Realz!

sunday adventures: elbow valley wetlands

Last Sunday it was Arianne's turn to pick where to go. Everyone seemed to be pretty busy, so we decided to go somewhere pretty close. Elbow Valley Wetlands matched the description, so we all headed on over there!

First thing I noticed when we drove up:

As I just decided that no one would really care if the dogs were there, a family with their dog walked out of the park haha. This place was super cute with a lot of red winged black birds flying around and attacking Marshall because he was getting too close to their nests. So cute.

Them therr boyz. So classy.

Neener face. What a beaut:

We be seeesterrsss.

If there's one thing we weren't prepared for, it would be:

(a) mosquitoes
(b) mud
(c) creepy hipster men walking around with empty strollers
(d) all of the above

It was a lovely little walk with lovely little people like Nitty Girl and Hipster Naves. Oh and the big people were pretty great too.

Until next time!

sunday adventures: elbow falls

 June 17th the fam headed out to Elbow Falls. I seriously need to go camping this year and this little trip (about 40 mins) made me yearn for camping so, so bad. Anyways, I had been feeling extremely lonesome that particular Sunday morning, and I wasn't really sure why. Perhaps it was because I was really missing Burns, or maybe it was some other obscure reason such as hormones out of whack. My point is, this little trip was the ticket to feeling better. I had such a great day!

Alex and Nitty looking out at the river.

I call this next one "Titanic":

Cute lil fams:

Arianne, Marshie, and I had a wrinkle contest. Clearly I was the winner. Just ignore my duck face.

Navyyyy Babyyyy. I love this girl:

Georgie got to come on his first Sunday adventure with us. He loved it. As did Kobe. Here are the dogs playing their favourite game of "who can sniff in the same spot for the longest time?".

After we experienced the falls, we played a few rounds of mountain bocce. We then proceeded home to have a fantastic BBQ and fire. Man oh man, Daryn made burgers that fit into hot dog buns. Soooo good! Aaand we tricked Nitty into eating one. She "doesn't like" burgers so we gave her the hot dogabur and told her it was a hot dog. She liked it haha.

Such a great night of conversation, hence we stayed up pretty late.

10@4:04

1. It has been raining here in Calgary. A lot. The Bow River is so high!

This is on a morning run through Bowmont Park. If you knew this particular off-leash area, you would be quite amazed at how high, fast, and dirty this water is! Arianne, this is where we went swimming in our clothes one time a few years back:

2. Alex, Arianne, and I have been going on Thursday evening runs recently.

We jog on a path next to the Glenmore Reservoire. It's so beautiful in some parts! We found a wooden tipi on our first run there.

3. Have you ever been to My Favorite Ice Cream Shoppe?

After our first Thursday evening run, we decided to reward ourselves with some ice cream! This shoppe looks so ghetto but it's so awesome. I had Grape Float ice cream. It seriously tasted like a grape float. It was so good!

4. I bought Kobe a harness.

I have been meaning to do this for some time now, and it was so worth it to get it! I no longer have to worry that I'm choking my dog to death, or worry about him choking himself to death when he pulls really hard on his leash. Or worry about collapsing his trachea or something weird like that. It's a lot easier to control where he goes and his collar would always slip over his head when I ran. The leash would get tangled in his legs, and life was just a nightmare when we went running. All my troubles are over!

5. I'm dog-sitting Luke's dog, Georgie, for two weeks while Denise is in Utah. He's a nice pup.

6. On our last Thursday run, Alex, Arianne, Lita, and I did a pretty good job:

This makes me feel good. And accomplished. And that I'm actually doing something to train for the half marathon in September that Alex and I registered for.

7. Christine Lyons has pneumonia so on Saturday I invited her over for some chicken noodle soup and a restful couple of hours. We watched Hugo, had some ice cream, and snuggled with the pups.

8. Saturday evening Lita and I went to Sabrina Hynes' and Darren Lynn's wedding reception at Ralph Klein Park.

We went to the wrong address at first because the GPS on Lita's phone auto-corrected 'st' into 'ave'. It was a little out of the way, but we made it there finally ha. I'm really happy for Sabrina :D

9. On our way back from the reception, Lita and I experienced some pretty great scenery.

It was such a nice evening, so Lita suggested that we visit the temple. So pretty:

10. I hear Saskatchewan has the most amazing sunsets.

I haven't witnessed any, myself, but I sure do love our Alberta sunsets. Lita and I noticed that there must have been a really great one happening while we were at the temple, but we couldn't see it because of all the trees and buildings and hills in the way! The sun was going down fast, so we raced out to Bear's Paw, found a hill, and captured it in all its glory.

Then I went home and snuggled with the puppies. Plus also, I miss Burns.

sunday adventures: kutarna haus

Sunday, June 10 was a disasterpiece of a day outside. Joe had picked Elbow Falls for our outside shenanigans, but since it was so miserable, we decided to visit The Kutarna Haus for an attractive dessert and a little playing of games.

When we first arrived at this exciting new location, we were greeted by a baby with blood all over her lips. We knew, then, that the Zombie Apocalypse had surely begun. We rushed around trying to gather all the food storage, axes, and chainsaws we would need to defend ourselves from certain doom. Marshie and Joe seemed to be the most prepared out of all of us for some reason.

Okay, okay, so the ZA isn't actually here, but we did go to Kutarna's to make a new dessert. We made some kind of strudel and Naves has berry filling all over her face in the picture.

Here's the dessert:

It was pretty good, a little rich, but it was good. We then played a round of 'Things in a Box'. I'm glad we can have fun together in any weather.

an expensive piece of paper

I graduated from the University of Calgary on June 5, 2012, about two weeks ago. With that graduation I received a little piece of laminated paper telling me, and anyone who reads it, that I now have a BA in Linguistics and am finally worth a little more than a high schooler. It tells people that I went through four years of learning, stress, late nights, procrastination, early mornings, stress, anger, joy, and more stress. Hmmm...that sounded a little like motherhood.

Anyways, I find it funny/fascinating that no stranger could ever know this about me by just looking at me. I mean, I clean houses for heaven's sake! While I was working at Sunnyside, it was insane how many people thought I was still in high school or just beginning my secondary education. I'm glad I got that one out of the way quick. I wonder how many bums I pass on the street who got into drugs or have mental issues but have a degree, just like me. Sorry, I'll save my deep thoughts for face to face conversations.

Sooooo about the grand graduation day! As I mentioned before, Burns was not able to make it down for my convocation, but he did spend time and celebrated with me the weekend before. I got up super early to look nice for the event, headed over to the university at about 7:00am to get there on time at 8:30. I found my parents, rented my gown, got my degree, and lined up to march with the rest of the morning grads into the gym for convocation.

The first speaker was really awesome and entertaining. Then the honorary grad gave his speech and I just about fell asleep because he made most of it about the economy. I have no interest in such things. Then, row by row, the grads lined up to be recognized in front of all who came to support their friends, daughters, sons, and more for their special day of graduation.

This is me looking as smart as I possibly could. My parents are so proud.

Theeeennn Mom, Dad, and I went to get some lunch while we waited for Arianne to finish a photo shoot she was doing with another grad. Then I got some pictures taken :D

I'm so lucky and blessed to have such amazing siblings. Arianne did my photos, and Alex and Marshie came out for some support and to celebrate with me.

Be prepared for an overload of pics!

Joe and Daryn then joined us for some dinner at Chianti. Long day, but it was definitely a good feeling to be finished my degree and celebrating that with some of the most amazing people I know. Thanks for coming out, everyone!