Category Archives: Friends

Hola! Cerveza por favor?

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WOW it has been a long time! You know, I had every intention of blogging before Kim and I left for Mexico, but with all the hustle and bustle, it just wasn’t happening! I had so much going on in February and believe me, my packing suffered because of it. You wouldn’t believe the stuff I forgot. Not quite as much as the time I got all the way to Grand Forks for a shopping weekend to realize I had left all my luggage at home, but not my most stellar performance, either. Who forgets their hairbrush when they have as much hair as I do???

First I will catch you up on the month of February… I started taking the Wilton Cake Decorating classes. It is something I have always been interested in, but the time was never right. Well I guess I can’t say that about February either, but I was waiting no more! Also taking the class are my BFF and Mama #2 – talk about bonus girl time together! It’s been great meeting up once a week for dinner and class! So, there are 4 levels and 4 classes to each level. Level 1 saw me learn how to make a Rainbow Cake using the star tip, edible icing clowns, alllll sorts of flowers and of course, the Wilton Rose! I learned soooo much in those 4 classes. Level 2 started March 2nd and for this level, there isn’t any cakes (in other words, I’m getting alot of sad faces at work and at home on Wednesday mornings, hee hee!)… Just alot more learning different flowers and of course, Royal Icing! I am most excited for Levels 3 & 4 – FONDANT & GUM PASTE. Yippeeeee! So pretty much, I will be the Cake Boss.

My first cake: The Rainbow Cake

My second cake: The Clown Cake

Aaand my final cake for Level 1: The Rose Cake!

Also in February was another amazing show with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra for their Pops Series. The show we participated in was a tribute to Queen! No, not THE QUEEN. Queen! Three shows over the weekend had us all belting out faves like, “We are the Champions”, “Bohemian Rhapsody” and my personal fave, “Somebody to Love”. What a great time we all had! Unfortunately, the Sunday afternoon show was poorly timed, being that it started at the same time as the Canada-USA Olympic Gold Medal Game, but I got to a TV with 2 minutes left in the 3rd Period… after USA tied up the game with .24 seconds left on the clock, we pulled it together in overtime and won the gold! And by we, I mean Sydney Crosby. HA!

And finally… off to sunny Mexico. Kim and I decided to stay at the 4 Points Sheraton at the Airport. With me living out of town and it being winter, you just never know. Plus it only added to the fun, so that’s what we did! Also, since I only wear flip flops to the airport when on the way to a sunny destination, it helped that they had a walkway to the airport and I didn’t have to walk through the snow in my sandals ;)

After leaving Winnipeg at 8:55am with a connection in Toronto, we arrived in Cancun at 5:05pm! Quite a bus ride to the resort but I gotta tell you… when we finally got there and dumped our stuff in our room, I got the craziest and most awesome surprise! BRAT was there! Yes, that’s right – the bee-otch herself, in the flesh! Her and her husband Robert (aka Poncho via) booked a trip at the same resort and everybody knew BUT ME! What a wonderful way to begin a vacation! It was so great having them there with us and we have so many memories and things to laugh about!!!

It would take HOURS to post every detail of the trip… we spent hours lazing beside (and in) the Caribbean Ocean on the powder white sand, visited Playa Del Carmen (my personal fave), Cozumel, lots of shopping, Xcaret, Tulum and another new amazing spot, Akumal! Akumal would be where Kim swam along side Sea Turtles! Talk about amazing. We all got awesome tans and I am now shedding skin worse than a snake ;) Here’s some of my fave pics of our adventure (out of order, as per usual ;) :

The amazing Akumal beach

The Jaguar hamming it up for us in Xcaret

I spent an entire walk down 5th in Playa devoted to finding a Sombrero to wear on the plane home that was under $10. After 10 shops and seriously 2 hours of this, I wheeled and dealed someone down to $8.50 and what do I see not 2 minutes later? HAHA! That’s what I get for being CHEAP!

Just a funny pic that Kim took of me.

The beach just outside our Villa at the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum

Brat, Kim and I at the a la carte Steakhouse

How perfect that this was floating around in the pool

Sigh…

Again, sigh…

Three words: SWIM UP BAR.

So sad to be leaving :(

What an amazing time… just the R&R we both needed! Thanks Kim for such a wonderful, relaxing and memorable time and remember – no more bus rides at 11pm in Playa Del Carmen! HA!

The weather has been fabulous ever since I got home and the other day, we actually spring cleaned. I’m serious, this actually happened. Aside from washing the floors (we ran out of Swiffer Juice) and the garage, we’re done! Perhaps we could organize the storage room a bit, but other than that? We’re good to go! Now, if it snows again, I will have a real head start on spring ;)

Have a great day all!

xoxo…t

Embarrassing Moments

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Embarrassing moments… we’ve all had em’. You know what I mean, right? That moment where you ask yourself, “did that actually just happen to me?” I thought it would be fun to post my own absolute most embarrassing moment ever-in-life, and in return you have to leave a comment and tell me all about yours!

It’s like a modern day slumber party, people! Jump on board!

Okay, here goes. (p.s. I am cringing right now at the very thought of reliving this)

Picture this. I’m barely 19 and “dating” this guy. The reason I use the word “dating” in quotations, is because it was pretty much on his terms. There should be a future blog posting about why all girls are so so stupid when they’re young. Okay anyway, “dating”. Naturally, the less he calls, the more I like him. Since, like always, it was all dandy at first, I don’t get what the problem is and keep calling him (it’s okay dude, I get it now… much like my good friend Kelly Clarkson, I do not hook up). Luckily, while I may be in “young, stupid girl” mode, I’m not that THAT stupid. So after about two weeks of these games (read: see him at the club after the unreturned phone calls, he looks like a deer in headlights, “oh hiiiiiiiiiiii, uh, soooo sorry I didn’t call you…. it’s been, um, sooo hectic at work”. Hey buddy, do me a favor and tell me you like my friend better than me, okay?

Anyway. A month or so passes and I’ve all but forgotten about the guy. Life has moved on from the drama. Hallelujah.

About this time, my good friend Kathryn and I decide to go for a drink at Moxie’s before heading out somewhere else. THANK GOODNESS we were going out and I had put some effort into my look (read below post about black fleece pants). There’s nothing worse than seeing the guy that blew you off when you look like you just rolled out of bed. Of course, you want to make him pay, right? HA! Someone paid, alright. So Moxies. Kathryn and I walk in and see a friend of hers whilst waiting for our table. We stroll over and are chatting it up when all of a sudden, my phone rings. I dig it out and look at the call display. It’s the guy. So of course, in true 19 year old stupid girl fashion, I am jumping all over the place, thrusting the phone in Kathryn’s face, pointing to the call display using very large and grandeur gestures, the whole 9 yards. It’s very loud at Moxies, so I DASH out of there to get into the mall so I can answer the phone (casually, of course). I get outside and I’m all, “hello?”. And what do I hear on the other end?

“You don’t have to run for me.”

Oh, the horror. The absolute horror. I think I may have blacked out during that moment in sheer disbelief. It was like, trying to press rewind on your life. “That did not just happen to me, that did not just happen to me, make it go away”. Of course at this point, there’s no recovering. I try and act all cool and collected. “HELLO???? I CAN’T HEAR YOU, BAD RECEPTION”. Meanwhile, he’s totally watching me do this from the restaurant window.

GAH. I have never wanted to swallow myself whole more than at that moment in my life.

Kathryn and I ended up sitting there for a few minutes to TRY and save face, but the damage was done. I never wanted to see that person again in my life, and I haven’t.

Isn’t it nice when you “grow up” and settle into family life and you can look back on these moments with hilarity (and again, cringes)?

Okay, let’s have it.

xoxo… t

It’s 2010!

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Wow, does time ever fly… I was catching up with my girlfriends last night, and we were discussing how crazy it is that we graduated 10 years ago. 10 years??? Where did the time go? It definitely does not feel like 10 years. In saying that, I am feeling a lot of gratitude for where life has taken me since 10 years ago. What a great family I have, both immediate and extended. I am lucky to live in a beautiful home surrounded by great neighbours (okay, so I have one creepy neighbour, you can’t have it all folks)… a great job where I am happy to be everyday and amazing friends. Yes, life is good…

I have come up with a few New Years resolutions for this year, rather than just the one. My first one is to continue in and do better with my change jar. I actually did really good last year, up until the Tim’s went up at work here and I started cheating. So my plan is to always try and have cash in my wallet (less debit transactions) and then to throw every coin I get my hands on in that jar. I have a goal in mind for the change jar, but I don’t want to post it here because if I can make it happen for that person (who reads this), it will be the surprise of a lifetime. I hope, anyway.

Secondly, there’s the obvious fitness and nutrition goals… what really knocked me over was the 32 year old woman in the United States that died of a heart attack a month ago. 32? Female?? REALLY??? This stressed me out a bit. I’ve always had minor chest pains. Everytime I ask my Doctor about it, she brushes it off as nothing saying that at my age, coupled with my gender, it couldn’t be possible that it would be heart related. Fine, I say. But my eating habits, while not absolutely terrible, could be better. Could be ALOT better. My exercise factor is zero. I hate it. I hate it more than pretty much anything (see Facebook status about shovelling). So this will be a tough one for me, but as aforementioned, I like my life alot and want to prolong it as much as possible ;)

Another goal? Don’t sweat the small stuff. I am a serial worrier, and 98% of the time, it’s totally unfounded. I will one day undoubtedly have an ulcer over a) things that have nothing to do with me and b) I have zero control over.

So that’s that folks – those are my goals for 2010. What are your new years resolutions?

I dropped Johnny off at the Airport yesterday morning at about 5:45… he was off to the Dominican Republic with his good friend Brett for a sunny vacay. I have gotten a few funny looks when people asked about our winter vacation plans and we tell them we are vacationing seperately this year…. hahaha… the “I wonder what’s wrong” looks. HA! It’s priceless… It was kind of a fluke, actually. It started with me and the fact that I have wanted to go on a Scrapbooking Cruise FOREVER. How fun?? I should mention here that I also get some funny looks when I tell people about the concept of a Scrapbooking Cruise. As in, “why would you go on a cruise to SCRAPBOOK?” “Why not go on a cruise and scrapbook when you get home?”, is the general vibe I get from the look on their face, and the odd, “I wasn’t aware I missed your 80th birthday”. So for all you naysayers out there… the only scrapbooking one does on a cruise like this, are on the days that the ship is at sea. And even at that, it’s a couple classes. An hour here, an hour there. By no means are you scrapbooking when you are at port. But the idea is connecting with all the other people out there that love the hobby so much, and learning from awesome, talented and decorated teachers.

Okay ANYWAY… so finally this one comes up and I figure “what the hey”… Even though I know the prospect of a Scrappin’ Cruise automatically means Johnny will not be a part of this trip (haha, “honey, can you pass me the glue dots?”), I am going to go SOMETIME so what am I waiting for??? So we decided I was going and everything was all ready for booking. Since I had planned this glorious 7 day Caribbean cruise and since Johnny hadn’t gotten to go last year either, we also agreed that he would go on a boy trip. Enter his friend Brett who seriously could almost (almost) outplan me… within 2 weeks they were booked to Punta Cana, swimming with Sharks and all.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand then my cruise falls through. BAM. I won’t go into the details as I don’t want to openly offend anyone, but let’s just say our dear Kim deserves much better than THAT! So, we decided that since it fell through, and since Johnny had already planned and paid for his trip, we would go on our own scrappy trip anyway! So two months later and a lot of searching for a good place, we booked it! I wanted Kim to have the best experience possible, since this will be her first time to a hot and sunny destination… I think this will suffice!

Enter the Gran Bahia Principe Tulum! Yeehaw! We got a great deal for this 4.5 star resort… I can’t wait to bask in the sun and like Kim says – we can finally say we are going THIS YEAR! Ha! March 4th, and we are off for a week! I can’t wait to show her around the area and all the amazing sights. And of course, to drink a cold Corona on the beach in Playa


Well folks, that’s it for now. I know I promised something Scrappy, but I haven’t done a stitch of work since the beginning of December. I plan to rectify that this week. I have a few sketches that I want to create layouts out of. Here’s one of them by Anna Bowkis, provided on this website: http://www.pencillines.com



I love how simple it is. I think we (or I, anyway) tend to complicate our layouts. So my theme for this one is, “less is more”. I’ll let you know what I come up with!

Have a great day all!

- Tara :)