Saturday, March 23, 2019

Looking for Collaborators

Hi Friends, Business Owners!

I am looking to collaborate with any brand or business (obviously, I have to want to do it). Either local, Canadian or intentionally! A bit about me: I love Jesus, my husband, books, magazines, cats, sheep, dogs, hotels, travel, jewelry (I don't wear a lot, but I do like it!), make up, coffee, food, shopping, road trips, spas, computers, clothes, cars, houses, accessories, Starbucks, and taking long bubble baths. I have been married for nearly 12yrs. My husband loves gardening, and inventing and making thing work from pretty much nothing! I grew up on a sheep ranch, and still live within 2 hours of my parents. I love social media and blogging. I work as an Education Assistant, and I love my job. I also love summer, swimming, and spending time in the sun. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.


Randoms

Our car keeps working, despite the chatter! We have been driving it around town for nearly two months, and it seems fine. I know we have to get it fixed sometime, but maybe when we got our taxes back.

Two week spring break!

I love roasted veggies on a cooke sheet!!! I have done this a couple of times, and told my mom about it. Maybe I will do it for when I go there next.

My poor computer needs a new battery, but I am not spending the money to get a new battery for an old computer, so I am waiting until my brother in law hooks us up with one.

Remember when I had that weird heartburn for nearly a year? I think I actually have had it twice before...well, anyway, this morning, it has come back! I hope it goes away!

I got a greenhouse from Jysks earlier this week, and it's kinda cool :) Anker LOVES to garden. Me? I could honestly care less (well, that's not entirely true!), and it's too much work for me :) It gives him something to do and a talking point, so that is good.


Last night was a wild Friday night at our house. I read my book for a couple of hours, and it was lovely!! I started reading Danielle Steele's "In His Father's Footsteps" the other day, b/c we were waiting around for blood tests and X-rays, and I didn't bring my magazines and my current book that I am reading, and that was in the car to go to the library. Well, I started it, and it is quite good. I read more of it last night, and I am about half way through it.

I think I will get my sandals and shorts/capri's out this weekend/wk. I might even buy a pair from the thrift shop. We have been having some HOT days here lately! I think it even got up to 20C the other day...18c for sure! Bring out the shorts!!

Our cat is hilarious! I got some sheets from Walmart the other day, and I washed them, and I hadn't put them away yet, and I came home from somewhere to find this.......

Did I mention that they were CLEAN sheets??? I am NOT spending another $4 to clean them again (I would if we were allergic to cat hair, but we aren't), so I am leaving them as is. I WOULD have rewashed them if she had thrown up in them, just an FYI.

I thought I had blogged about this before, but I guess not....I got a new-to-me-purse a few weeks ago, and I really love it!!!

In case you don't think I clean, I actually did clean up a few weeks ago. I cleaned our bathroom, our kitchen, and I even cleaned out the microwave!

I met a friend (as well as many others) through a now defunct app/game on FB called Fluff Friends (Yes, I still miss it!). We talked a fair amount, but in October, we started talking and connecting even more (I love What's APP!). It has been a lot of fun. While we are different in many ways (she loves HP, GOT, and is more "nerdy" than me!), we also have a lot of the same (Christian, married, among other things). We talked through the WA  app, and FB messenger, which is fun. Her little girl just turned 4, and is a real sweetie! 

I was thisclose to going back to Calgary with Mom yesterday, as she was going back to help Grandma move back into her suite below my uncle and aunt's place. She had asked me to come along, since I had this coming week off. If I had NOTHING planned, I would have gone, but I had a few too many things going on (on their own, they weren't big things, but when you put them together,  it was a fair amount). I am sad about not going, as Mom and I would have had a great time together, but I am also kind of glad; I get to do things like blog, journal, sleep in, and hopefully get some stuff done my cleaning list!

I have 10 posts that I wanted to get written and published, and I just can't seem to get them out. I am blogging today (though none of those have gotten written...I wrote other ones), which is great, but I definitely don't know if I want to continue or not. I don't feel that a lot of people are reading it, and I had hoped to try to make some money doing it (collabs etc), but that hasn't happened yet. Though, to be fair, I haven't really tried very hard...(I have tried a bit on IG). I don't have many blog followers, and I don't get a lot comments. I don't even get a lot of traffic and views. There is still so much that I don't know about blogging, and still lots that I need to learn. And of course, all of that cuts into other areas of my life (work, more work-related learning, family, cleaning, marriage, etc). I also would love to go to a blogging/social media conference in Canada. I am in a few blogging groups on FB, but to be honest, I don't really go in/on them very much, and I NEVER post (mostly b/c of the silly rules they have!!). At any rate, I will still continue to blog, b/c I LOVE to write, and I enjoy it it (though I do hear that blogs are "dead"). I like "meeting" new people through blogging and IG. 

Spring Break: Wk 1

Have I told you that I am happy that I have two weeks of Spring Break??? I love my job (and the money!), but I also love me TWO WEEKS OFF!!! The public schools in our district did 2 weeks for a few years as an experiment, and this is the first year that they have gone back to 1 week. Anyway, I am happy that I have another week off (I work at a private school)!

So, with that, here are what I/we have been doing for the week 1 of SB:

**Technically, my Spring Break started on Tuesday night, March 12th, as I was going the next day to Calgary for the funeral. I will talk about that hopefully in another post, but I will start on Sunday, the day after we got back.**

Sunday:

Church (which, sorry to say was a bit boring...but it was nice to see people, so, yay!). I went and grabbed a $20 DVD player b/c the old player that I had in our room just stopped working, plus it had no remote, so it was kind of a pain to use. Then I fed our fish at school. Then I grabbed Anker, and we went for a dayte (what I call a date in the day) to McDonald's, and then we went to Canadian Tire to grab some seeds and goodies. I am not sure what I  did afterwards. I think I watched a couple of Hallmark movies, and hung out in the evening. I think I changed the sheets on our bed.

Monday:

I have no clue what I did that day. I think it was a pretty lazy day; I slept in, I read, watched tv, went to the library. Then I came home, and relaxed some more. I had plans on my meeting my friend half way so that we could go to Bible Study together, but my sister called just as I was about to leave, so I wanted to chat with her. I still got to Bible Study; I just went on my own.

Tuesday:

I think I slept in, and I relaxed for awhile in the morning. I ran a few errands, and then I picked up my teacher to take her to the airport. We had a coffee first (duh!), which was nice, b/c it gave us a chance to get caught up. After dropping her off, I went to the school to get wifi, and did an instastory until I had to meet my cousin (well, my mom's cousin's wife) for coffee, again at Starbucks. We had a nice chat, and then I went to the library and hung out there for a couple of  hours. I came home, and I am sure that we had dinner in the evening. I uploaded A TON of pics onto IG/FB, whilst catching up on my shows.

Wednesday:

The First Day of Spring! K wanted to me to Babysit J for a couple of hours (H was at gramma's), and of course it was at 9 am, and of course, I didn't sleep well the night before! Oh well...J and I had fun..he has discovered the buttons on the DVD player, so that's fun :) We played outside (I had hoped to take him to get a donut (or a TimBit), but he wouldn't get in the stroller! So, we just played outside.   I had lunch with K (I also did a Day in the Life on my Instastories), and then I went to my dentist appointment. I have been having problems with a sore tooth for a couple years, and they think they have found out what is wrong. Of course, it is still bothersome, but they said to give it another week, as it was kind of being irritated while they were checking my bite, etc. I went to Jysks to pick up a few things. I was actually looking for a new duvet cover, and Anker wanted to me to pick up a greenhouse that he had found on their site. I didn't find the duvet, but I did some containers to put junk in. I actually love the greenhouse, too! I went to Starbucks, and to Walmart. I grabbed another container, the 11th season of TBBT, bananas, cucumber, TurboTax system, and I think that is all. I grabbed some groceries on the way home, and we had chicken dinner. I even roasted some veggies, I think! I also indulged, and I got some Mary Brown's taters, and they are SO GOOD! Anker and I did our taxes, and then I read magazines, and watched more of my shows (I think?), and read magazines in the evening.

Thursday:

I relaxed in the morning (I think I started on a movie), and then Anker and I ran a few errands, and ended up going for lunch/supper. We went to Edo Japan. Anker had a rice bowl, and I had their sushi. It was good, but I think next time, I will ask them to make me fresh sushi, as the ones I had (in the to go containers) were a bit dry. We also went to the dollar store. We came back home, and I went outside for the first time this year, and watched Anker garden, while I read my book. I just hung out in the evening, and I did laundry. I probably did an instastory, and watched instastories, and I hung out. I know that I didn't watch any shows/movies from our PVR, cause I only watched the one movie (which took all day!). I did do a quick run to the library, and then came home. I visited our neighbour (my friend's parents) for an hour or so. THEN I came home and I finished my movie (Our Family Wedding).



Friday:

I woke up at 830, and I started watching another movie, called Life of the Party (it was ok). Then I left at around 1130, and I grabbed lunch at McDs (I love their $5 meals!), and then I went to the library for a couple of hours, and then I met my friend and her boys for coffee. We ended up going to the park near my house, and we sat outside, which was nice. Red Beard has probably the BEST iced tea (yes, better than my favourite coffee shop!) hands down! Their cookie was pretty good, too. After our visit, I had an appointment downtown. Afterwards, I had 45 minutes left in my parking, which I didn't want to waste, so I thought I would walk around downtown. It was a beautiful day, and I don't get to walk around d/t much, so it was kind of fun. I thought I would try out Swiss Pastry. They have the BEST fruit torte pastries around (I have had them a few times at parties), and I wanted to try it again, and didn't disappoint. I came home, for awhile, and then I left b/c Anker was using the saw (he had to go and buy a new one yesterday), to cut up his garden boxes, and it was driving me insane! I went to a little park down the street, and he called me when he was done. I read a bit, and I listened to music on tv. We had a late supper of sandwiches, and I also finished my movie.
 Arnold Palmer and a cookie from RB.


                                                     Torte and Tea from SP. Yum!

 Saturday:

So far, I slept in, and I read some books and magazines from the library, and helped Anker with something. I am at Starbucks right now, and I will head to the library for a bit, and then babysit the boys this evening.

So, that is Week 1 of Spring Break! Like I said in the previous post, I will probably do a bit of cleaning this coming week, as we have company coming over.

Favourite 5

Happy Saturday, Friends! It is beautiful here in Kamloops! It is currently 16c (60F) right now! I haven't taken out my capri's/Shorts, and sandals yet, but I will probably bring them out soon :)

Here are my fives from the last week :

1) Spring is Here!

Anker has been so excited to get gardening since, oh, I don't know, January?...so he is feverishly been working at it. He has decided to go with regular "ground gardening" vs boxed/raised boxes this year, so he spent a lot of time the last couple of days ripping things apart. I actually went out and sat on our chair swing for the first time this year.


2) Good Books

I am **still** reading "The Librarian of Auschwitz", and I may have started on a Danielle Steel book :) Hey, it has some history in it...:)


3) Road Trip

Ok, so this technically happened last week (of which I will try to blog about...probably in the fall..lol), but since I didn't do an FoF last week, I am putting this on this week. I went with Dad, Mom, Isaac (the youngest of we 7 kids!), and H. We went for my grandpa's funeral/celebration of life last week, and we had a wonderful time (both in and out of the car!). H was a perfect traveller, and he had NO ELECTRONIC DEVICES! Did I mention that the trip was 8 hours each way?

4) Safety

I actually nearly got plowed over by a gas truck yesterday (true story), and it actually did shake me up a bit. I am thankful that I had looked AGAIN before turning!

5) Daytes, Babysitting, Downtime

I will blog more about it soon (I hope!), but this week has been busy, but fun! Anker and I had a dayte (what I call a day date), I babysat the boys (and will do so tonight), and of course, reading and relaxing :) I will probably clean up a bit next week, as my brother and his family are coming to stay the night, so I have to clean out our spare room (it has become a junk room (me and Anker), and work room (Anker), so we have to clean it out. Did I tell you that we get 2 weeks off for Spring Break (which is another favourite of mine for this week!)???

Linking up with :





Monday, March 11, 2019

TBBT Asks: What are Your Favourite Things/Must Haves?

I haven't done a TBBT Asks in FOREVER, so I thought I would quickly do one up :) I could have combined the last FoF and this one, but I thought I would do two :)

What are my favourite things???

1) Family
I love my family. Both sides. Yes, we are big and loud, we argue, and sometimes even nosey, but we are there for each other through thick and thin.

2) Sushi
I love me some sushi:) I could love off sushi. Ok, maybe not live off it, but I love it :)

3) Jesus/Bible/Church/Worship Songs
You get the idea. My spiritual life sometimes, (ok, mostly) what it should be, but I love Jesus, even if my actions and words don't convey it :(

4) Hallmark Movies

I am STILL in a Hallmark move stage. I have watched a few non-HM ones, but I always seem to go back them. I also have gotten into the Aurora Teagarden Mystery movies as of this weekend. I love Garage Sale Mysteries, Gourmet Detective, Flower Shop Mystery, and Murder She Baked series. They are HM movies with a bit of a twist, so you still feel like you are watching something with a BIT of a storyline, but not with all the gore, and violence of a "regular" murder/mystery movie.

5) Daniell Steel Books (ok, ALL books!)

I love me some DS books :) I might start a few next week while I am off work.

6) My Job

I love my job. The end.

7) Starbucks

Ok, these are not in order :) Hahah! I love me  some Starbucks....:)

Oh wait...are we doing "must haves"?...well the things above still qualify!

8) Sleep
I love my sleep!!! Especially when I can SLEEP in!

9) Library
I love my library time. That is almost more a "must have" than Starbucks!

10) Magazines
I love my magazines! Especially US and People!

I will try to add some more pics, but it is late, and I wanted to get this written, published and posted before I get to bed.

Linking up with The Blended Blog

Friday Favourites/IWD

Happy Friday, friends!!! I will probably post this tomorrow (Saturday), but I wanted to get a bit of a start on this. I haven't done an FoF in AGES! Here are some faves from the week:

1) It is International Women's Day! I didn't realize that this was such a long standing holiday. I thought that we are started celebrating it in the last 10 or so years, but I googled it, and it has been around for over 100 years! I am thankful that I am surrounded by amazing and wonderful women! I love that women are rising up, and making a name for themselves. We really are a hearty bunch!!!

2) Spring Break

Ok, so it is still a week away, BUT....I am still looking forward to it, so I am counting on my list.

3) Healthy (-ish)

I have been very healthy (as in not getting the cold for flu), for which I am very thankful! I can really only attribute that to God (and the flu shot!), as I really have no other reason as to why I haven't gotten sick yet. Another round of something has been going around town, and a few people at school have been out with it. I am just thankful that I haven't gotten it (yet).

4) Movie w/ Girls

This happened last week, but I am putting it on the list :) My mom, and sisters-in-law who were here, went to the movie, on the Basis of Sex, and I can tell you that it is an amazing movie, and I will probably end up buying it. It was fabulous!!!!


***March 11, 2019***
5) Breakfast Cookies

I made these breakfast cookies the other day (ok, week), and they were SO good!!! They are GF (if you use GF-certified oats) low sugar, and packed with lots of punch!!! I would make them again, for sure!




Friday, March 8, 2019

Where I Live/Where I am From

Well, I had hoped to have this out long before today, but last week was INSANELY busy, and this week, I HAD the time to blog, I just haven't really FELT like blogging :) Ha!

Well, I have talked about this a few weeks ago, so I guess I had better make good on my promise, and do what I had set out to do! #blogginggoals

Three years ago (almost to the DAY!) I joined up with a fellow blogger about talking about our hometowns. You can find the link hereHere is where you can find what I talked about. I have talked about on/in my IG stories. But if you missed any of those, here is a quick recap: I wanted to a bit of a project (for lack of a better word), and to talk a bit about where I am from (or where I live), and I wanted you all to do the same. If you don't have blog, you can post on IG/FB; in either stories or feed, or both! With Spring Break looming (can I get an AMEN?), and summer on our minds (hello, sunshine and warm days!), we are all probably looking at places to travel to (heck, maybe even move to!), so I thought this would be a fun way to share either where you live (currently) or where you are from.

Here are a few rules:

It has to be somewhere where you have lived, either past or present. If you don't want to talk about your current community for privacy reasons (which is totally ok), post about either where you lived in the past, or your area (or county). For instance, if you live in Vernon, but don't to particularly say you live there, you can post about the Okanogan Valley. You can also talk about your county, but please keep it to the area (IE: Don't give a description of your state or province, or even your country), as it can otherwise be too broad. Feel free to use descriptions of your area from their website (I guess you probably should say where you found it from), and of course, post some pictures! Preferably your own, but if you see one that you want to use, make sure you credit the picture-taking people!

I think I have created my FIRST link party!!! I hope it works! If not, put your blog post in the comments.

Ok! So, here goes!

I am going to talk about my current city where I live (and have for nearly 15 years consecutively!), which is Kamloops, B.C (Canada). I will probably reference a lot to the city's website page, as their description of it really is the best.

Kamloops is in the heart of the Interior of British Columbia. We are are the gateway to Vancouver (commonly called "the Coast"), the Okanogan, and right on the TransCanada Highway. To the north is Edmonton, AB, so as you can see, it really IS the traveller's hub.

Kamloops is the English translation from the Shuswap (First Nations) Tk'emlups, which means "Where the rivers meet", or "meeting of the waters". The North Thompson and South Thompson meet up in Kamloops (I grew up in a small town about two hours north, fittingly called The North Thompson Valley). Kamloops is a city of about 90,000 (funnily, enough, I didn't find this on the COK site...I found it here. I won't bore you with the history of our fair city (though it is exciting!), but if you would like to find out more, you can go here. Also, you can go here to view some stats.

Kamloops is very dry, and arid, and it can get VERY hot in the summer! There are a fair number of orchards around town (apples, peaches, cherries, apricots, to name a few), and it isn't uncommon for your neighbour to have a cherry tree or two in their yard!

Kamloops' claim to fame (among others), is that we call ourselves the Tournament Capital of Canada.  Why, you ask? Because a lot of sporting events are here. Swim meets, ball games, soccer games (tournaments); you name it...we probably have had it played here. We are also proud of our Blazers Hockey Team, and a host of other sport teams (JR/Bantam hockey, baseball, as well as our university's Wolfpack Athletics/Sports Team). We also host the only Music in the Park program of its kind in BC (if I am correct). It starts on Canada Day, and continues until the end of August. This is a free event, where people can come (rain or shine), and listen to local (and not so local) talent play in the band stand, and relax on their lawn chairs, or on blankets. We are proud hosts of Western Theatre Canada (which I may or may not have just found out that it is based here). There are a host of other things that happen in our town, the would take ages to mention; Santa Clause parade, Kamloopa Powwow, Cowboy Festival, Famers' MarketBoogie the Bridge, to name a few. I could go on and on about the events, but I think you get the gist. We also have an outdoor summer theatre which runs for about 6 weeks in the summer, called Project X Theatre. We also have three large venues where games are played and plays played and musical acts perform!

We have 82 parks; 3 or 4 water parks, 3 or 4 indoor pools, 1 or 2 outdoor pools, miles of walking/riding trails, and we also have a bike park! We have a few really nice beaches (next to the river), an airport, a Costco, a Walmart, a hospital, two sets of rail road tracks, 1 really good mall, and about 3 other semi-decent malls. We have two movie theatres, 5 rinks (including the one downtown), 8 or 9 Starbucks' (I had to throw that in!!), three of which are not "real", but serves their drinks (like the ones that are in Target), 20 large grocery stores (that doesn't include Walmart and Costco, and small, local grocery stores, of which there are probably 10), and, well, you get the picture! I love our downtown in the summer. It comes alive with the sound of music! Really, it does! I love it when April and May roll around, and people start playing on the street, the patios start opening up, and the merchants put their stuff on the sidewalk to sell. Oh yah, we also have two libraries, and an art gallery, and a museum (including a children's museum, which is actually pretty good!).

We live in the part of town where it is probably the hottest, and the gets the most sunlight, and the least amount of moisture in town. Kamloops is a hilly city (oh, the hills!), but where we live is flat, so that is awesome! I would say that Kamloops is a (mostly!) a friendly city. We love hosting events, and we are pretty community-minded city. Our sister city is Uji, Japan, which I think that means that dignitaries visits each others cities.

What drives our community? We have a university, and I would call us a university town (or city). We have a few mills, 3 mines (including one an hour away, which is a big employer), railways (CP and CN), lots of events are hosted here, as I have stated above, and since we are the largest urban in the area, we serve A LOT of small communities; people don't think twice about coming into town who live 2 or even 3 hours away. The hospital, BCLC (lottery), and the university are the top 3 employers in our town. And of course, tourism. Via Rail comes through here, and every summer, this town becomes a mecca full of tourists :)

So, there you have it! I love our city!!!

Here are a few pictures. I will try to add some more this weekend, but for now, here are just a few!


I hope the link up works :)
Yay! It worked!!! Please hashtag #whereilive or #whereiamfrom on all Social Media platforms :)

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Click here to enter


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A Little Catch Up & A Small Rant(and a Surprise!)

Howdy! Well, as my aunt says, "I'm so far behind, I'm ahead", so I think I will take a page from her play book and just st...