bedim: let me educate you

Blog Every Day in May: Educate Your Readers On Something You Know A Lot About.

This one is tough for me because I don't really consider myself an expert on anything. Unlike Burns, I don't really get hooked on specific subjects for very long (he could talk to you for hours about Tetris, space, physics, etc.). I guess one of the topics I'm most knowledgeable about is my relationship with Burns. This post shall be called:

How to stay in a relationship with someone you're not married/engaged to for 4 years - tips and tricks.

1. Talk isn't cheap. In fact, talking takes up a lot of precious time. Make sure you take time out of your busy schedules to sit down and talk to each other about anything and everything. If you must, calling is a fantastic means of communication. Texting isn't the greatest medium but it's better than nothing.
   
2. Feelings matter. No matter how dumb you might think it is that Bob doesn't like it when you call him "sweetie pie", you need to take his feelings into account and maybe break that old habit of calling all of your past boyfriends that same name.
   
3. Sometimes the problem isn't the problem. I can't even count how many times I've been upset about something very insignificant and blown it way out of proportion. When situation like these arise I go back to Tip #1 and talk it out. Almost every time we were able to talk (and talk and talk and talk) about it and get down to the nitty gritty of what was actually bothering me. 
4. Keep learning. It's a well known fact that a lot of people divorce because they are "not the same people they once were". I feel like these people suddenly realize this and it's a big shocker that they have both changed. Everyone changes. Even though Burns and I aren't married yet, we've had a lot of time to become different people over the years. We tackle this obstacle by asking each other questions we would ask on a first date and, therefore, get to know each other all over again. Questions like "What's your favourite colour?", "What's your favourite band?" and "What colour is your toothbrush?" can spark great conversation while getting to know your significant other all over again. 
   
5. Laugh it off. This one took me quite a while to learn how to do and I still struggle with it, but I think this is very valuable advice. Any time I get really mad at or annoyed with Burns, I try to lighten the mood by thinking of the situation from an outsider's perspective. With many incidents I have been able to step outside of my storm cloud and see one really crazy girlfriend getting upset over her boyfriend kissing her face while she's trying to sleep, or her freaking out because he was rubbing her lips with a snap pea while she slumbering peacefully (this girl doesn't take her precious sleep time lightly). Eventually I just had to laugh. 
6. Be yourself. I am a very strange person and it took me quite a while for me to let Burns to see my true colours. We have so much more fun because I finally let my hesitant wall crumble to little pieces. 
   
7. Date. Seriously though, never stop doing things together. Find something(s) you have in common and run with it. Plus, if you're going to follow Tip #4, you might find out that so-and-so likes something that you've never tried. Guess what, if you go on a date with them and try it out, you just might have found a new "something in common". Which leads me to my last tip.
   
8. Try [almost] everything once. I put the "almost" in there in case your significant other wants you to try holding your breath for more than 4 minutes or something like that. Probably not a good idea. BUT if you try out a not so dangerous idea, you just might like it or at least you might be able to tolerate it when you used to despise it.

All of these tips are great, but if you really just want to date for 4 years be prepared to take a lot of questions and ridicule for not being engaged/married. Just remember Tip #5 and you'll be fine. 

bedim: story of my life

I came across this idea on Facebook. My sisters were chatting about it with a friend and so I decided to go see what all the talk was about. The link led me to this post of challenge to blog every day in May. Since Burns is now gone I need more things to do. Blogging is a great way to kill some time while letting people get to know you. This first challenge was great in that I once again realize what an amazing childhood I had and what a great life I'm living right now. I'm excited for the rest of the month's topics. Enjoy. 

Blog Every Day In May: Story of Your Life in 250 Words or Less. 

I was born a 90’s girl. My toddlerhood consisted of hanging out with dogs, cows, goats, chickens, and a ton of kittens! This sparked my love of animals. Life on the farm was full of exploring adventures with my siblings. Then we moved into town. 

We would ride our bikes to school, swim in the summer, and build forts out of snow in the winter. We had a giant garden and all the children got their own row to take responsibility for. This sparked my love for gardening. 

We once again moved out of town and we once again took care of a few animals including cows, budgies, dogs, horses, goats, and more kittens! As the years went by, the animals went bye-bye as well as my piano lessons. Singing lessons, Show Choir, and soccer dominated my high school years. I graduated with the second highest marks in my grade and was accepted into the University of Calgary’s Linguistics program. 

I learned how not to be treated by a man and how to spot a liar from a mile away. I also discovered that I was okay with taking my sweet time to fall in love for real this time. I have had amazing adventures with my family and also my very soon to be family. 

I’m engaged to the man I truly love with all the fiber of my being and I can’t wait to start our new life together. I have a fantastic job and a wonderful dog.

easter and such

Easter Sunday fell on March 31st this year. I had the whole previous week off of work so I cleaned the gym in Airdrie for a little extra income. I decided to take Saturday off so that Burns and I could go down to Raymond on Friday night.

When we got there we saw everyone's vehicles but the lights were off. We went inside and nobody was around. Then we heard the theme song from "X-files". Creepy haha. Alex, Marshall, Carol, Cassi and Brad came out and we had a good laugh. Then we saw Parents on their way down the long driveway so we shut off all the lights and hid. I'm sure Mom and Dad had a wonderful time playing hide-and-seek with us.

The next morning a few of us took the girls on a little walk through the fields. Burns was sleeping (what else is new?) Dad was working, and Brad and Cassi were in Lethbridge for Cassi's family dinner.

Nitty loved swinging on her Marshie-Carol swing.

I love home.

We went to the bridge where there used to be huge fish swimming around. I guess that was a few years ago but we wanted to see if they were back. They weren't.

We headed back home and Kobe was in pouncing heaven. He looked like a little fox jumping on all the mice that were running around under the dead grass. When Burns finally got up we took his dad's gun out and shot it a few times. It was pretty cool to shoot a WWII gun. Pretty powerful.

This is the hole it made.

Later that day we went to Indian Battle Park where Brad and Cassi met us (Maverick too). I had been raving about hot yoga to everyone so Burns and Marshie decided to try some at the playground. Oh and they did back flips and jumped from rock to rock. I'm sure all the parents loved what a great example those boys were setting for their little ones.

We played with the girls there and then walked down to the river. Marshall and Burns couldn't help but get up to no good.

We saw a beaver swimming around and threw rocks in the river for Maverick to chase.

And Natalie was a pro dog-walker. Seriously though, she was so good at it.

We went back home and Kobe was so tuckered out from all of our adventuring. Oh yeah he even caught and killed a rodent at the house. I won't give any details other than he separated the body from the head somehow. Yeah...it was really gross.

On Easter Sunday we had a fantastic dinner then headed home.

The last month has been, well, pretty boring. Burns is half way through his exams and he has had a hard time with them (he gets pretty stressed). We just want to be together as much as possible before he leaves for work so I've just been hanging out at his house while he studies. Kobe is always such a good snuggler, unless Burns is around, then he snuggles with Burns.

Matt sent me this picture recently from when they came up for a week. Just hanging with my future niece and nephew!

This last Saturday Burns and I finally got out of the house! We went to Edworthy Park and walked next to the river. It was so gorgeous out and I loved being with him. We skateboarded back to the car. Burns can't wait to skateboard up north.

Plus also spring is almost here! I found these babies in my backyard and they make me so happy!

fish creek park

A few weeks ago I didn't have to work on a Friday. It was a gorgeous day so I suggested to Alex that we go for a walk at Fish Creek Park. It was so nice and the girls loved being outside, especially with Kobe around. 

They really liked throwing the leaves up into the air.

And there were plenty of puddles for the girls to splash through.

 Trying to get Navy to smile...

There's the winner:

We let Natalie lead the way through the forest.

And she found a forts!

We walked a little further down and we found another fort. So cool.

This little lady had a hard time keeping up with everyone and was tuckered out pretty quickly.

Thanks for the adventure, Kutarnas!

johnston's canyon

This one time Burns and I went to Market Mall. I was on a mission to get some new pants so I decided to go the cheap yet cute route and we went to Sirens. Burns didn't want to go in so he went to Pet Land to visit the puppies and "cheat on Kobe" a little bit as we jokingly say. While I was searching through some pants, this cute little girl comes up to me and says hi.

And then this one showed up!

Alex and Arianne had been in Pet Land and saw Burns. We then made some pretty great Vine videos with the crazy shoes they had for sale at Sirens. I also found my wedding shoes there but they didn't have my size. They phoned Chinook to see if they had my size there and they did! Well worth the trip.

That night Arianne and Alex invited us to join them for an appetizer and games night. So much delicious food! We played Catch Phrase - boys against girls. It was pretty hilarious at times and I was so sad that I had to leave because I had to get up early to clean the gym in Airdrie.

Alex invited Burns and me to go on a Sunday Strollin' adventure with her family and I excitedly accepted. Burns and I got to her house and we found out that we would be going to Johnston's Canyon for our little stroll. I was pretty excited because I had seen pictures of some of my friends behind ice waterfalls in Johnston's Canyon.

Me with the littlest bear cub:

Joe and Nitty:

A lot of the walkways were suspended to the canyon side.

Alex was pretty hard core and went in her Toms:

We went through a cave to see the Lower Falls:

Pretty cool to see how frozen waterfalls can get.

Alex and Nitty coming to join us:

Looking down on the Lower Falls and the cave:

Then on we went to the Upper Falls. Here's Burns helping his soon-to-be niece, Nitty, up the slippery slope:

Burns and I went ahead of everyone else and we went down a little trail to walk beside the stream.

Then we came to the Upper Falls and it was incredible. I've never seen anything like it. All I could say was, "Wow!"

We weren't sure where to go to get behind the waterfall so Burns tried getting behind the side waterfall on the far right.

He slipped and fell in! Both feet up to his shorts were soaked. Poor Boonie.

Meanwhile the Kutarna's watched from afar.

Fullers were there too, so Dan had an idea to climb the canyon to a waterfall that was off to the right. Burns is in this picture. See if you can spot him. That's Dan climbing, Burns was already at the top.

I didn't want to let the boys have all the fun, so I grabbed Kobe and up we went!

 IT WAS AMAZING!!!!! Yes the ice really was that colour.

Alex tried to come up but her Toms weren't allowing it. Next time, Alex!

The way down the canyon was a little scary. I had Kobe in my arms as we pretty much slid down the whole way. Then Burns and I ran most of the way back and we caught up with Kutarnas who had left a while ago. Burns stopped in a patch of sunlight to wring out some water from his socks then we were again running and caught up with Kutarnas again. So fun!

Most amazing Sunday Stroll so far. Thanks so much for inviting us, Kutarnas!