Rollerblading Adventures

This weekend, for our three year anniversary, Dan and I were suppose to head out to Waterton to do some camping and hiking. Unfortunately, there has been flood warnings south of Alberta, so we decided to play it safe, and hang around Edmonton this weekend, and go to Waterton when the weather gets nicer.

On Sunday, it was super sunny and nice out, so we went to buy me some new rollerblades! I'm not much of a rollerblader - I know how to do it, but I'm not very confident yet. My skills depend on the level (incline, flat, decline) of the pavement. I'm pretty good with incline and flat, but anything with decline, I cannot do very well. That- and stopping. Oh boy, stopping consists of reaching out my hands to grasp the closest branch, person, or tree!

Dan and I went to the River Valley so I could test the new blades out. Dan decided to run (he's not big on rollerblading). So for once, I could catch up to him without much effort! hehe. Anyways, I didn't do too bad. Only one big wipeout! Too bad my camera got stolen, or I would have taken a picture of the marks I got from it! It was definitely comparable to my wipeout from running a couple years ago (with Simon)!

There were so many people jogging, biking, rollerblading, etc. in the rivervalley. It really felt awesome to be outside in beautiful nature, with the sun shining. As I was blading past people, they would smile at me, as it was probably quite obvious that I was a "newbie" to rollerblading - since no one else wore kneepads!!!

My favorite was whenever D and I came to a decine, he had to hold me (as if we were tango dancing) and I would have my break on, and together, we would go down the hill. We got tons of smiles from people passing by - probably b/c we looked so cute. Hehe ;o) So although we didn't get to go to Waterton, we still had a nice time outdoors! Yay!

Dan wanted me to post this pic up. I think he looks freaky, he thinks he looks funny. Anyways, last friday, he played poker (something he claims he is not good at, and something he has not played in a good long while) - and ended up winning $60. Of course I tried to coax him into spending it on me ;o)

Jenn & Steve's Wedding

Jenn and Steve got married on the weekend and unfortunately, I did not have my camera (since it was stolen) so there won't be any photos on my blog for awhile. The day started out early, with me, Sarah, and Jill (Jenn's bridesmaids)and Jenn, going to a higher class salon called "Headlines" to get our hair done. I got mine done "funky and pretty" - and that's what I got! It was a nice updo, with some braids and spikey twists pulled together behind my head. Jenn looked amazing, with her hair all curled and put up, with a tiara in front. She was a bit freaked when it came to the make-up, since she NEVER wears make-up. She thought she didn't look like herself, but we all rest assured her that she looked beautiful (and she did).

We went to Jenn's mom's place to eat, and get ready for the ceremony for the next couple hours. Andrea, who's a make-up artist, came over to do the bridesmaids' makeup (Thanks Andrea! You're the best!) . Jenn's dad came to pick us up and drive us to the church (called Our Lady Queen of Poland).

Oops, I thought that the wedding ceremony began at 1:30pm (but it actually started at 1), so Dan arrived a bit late. That's ok though. The ceremony was beautiful, I loved the way Steve looked at Jenn while the priest did some readings. You could tell he was so in love and amazed by how beautiful she looked. Of course, Jenn was bawling during the wedding vows- which triggered me to shed some tears too.

Afterwards, the whole groom and bridal party stayed behind to get photos done. Next, the whole party went to the legistature grounds to get photos done. This LITERALLY took ALL afternoon (from about 2:15 to 5:15pm). Mainly b/c the photographer had never done a wedding before, as she is a professional photograher for ANIMALS. Yes, I'm a bit puzzled over that one still, too. However, she turned out to be pretty professional and we were a pretty patient bridal party. I just hope the pix turn out good for Jenn and Steve's sake.

We finally arrived at the hall for the reception around 6:15. Rob (groomsman) and I were both MCing together. We did awesome - totally great team work. It's fun to co-Mc with someone b/c it totally takes the pressure off. We tag teamed it pretty nicely. It helped that Rob is one of the funniest people I've ever met. He can have a pretty sick sense of humor, but he was a good boy and kept it clean the whole night (I'm impressed, Rob)!

Micelle and I told the story of how Jenn and Steve met to the guests - and to make a very long story short, this wedding would not have happened if it wasn't for us! Basically, two summers ago, Michelle, Jenn and I had a girls night out, and we went to a pub called Wolly Bolly's. Some guys approached us, and Steve was one of them. Now, the most important "person" in Jenn's romantic life at that time was her freakin' cat, so we were really thrilled when we saw Jenn and Steve hittig it off with a good convo. Jenn got more and more intoxicated through out the night, and started to make out with this other guy (who was Steve's co-worker)- who was wearing practically the same shirt as Steve! Michelle and I were quite upset about Jenn not hooking up with Steve, and we clearly expressed this to Steve. He was pretty good about it. Later, when we couldn't find Jenn, I started to get panicky and mad (b/c she had told me she was going to be right back, but she didn't show up after five minutes). I really did not trust the guy she was with, and Steve helped us look for Jenn. He gave me his business card to call him if we still didn't find her. Finally, Michelle found her in the bathroom, and we dragged Jenn back into my car (I was DD). I lectured Jenn as soon as we got into the car, and she started to tell us she made out with the WRONG GUY- and that she HAD MEANT TO make out with Steve!!!! So when we got back to Jenn's, Michelle and I MADE her call Steve, and tell him the truth - that she was really interested in him and had mistakened the other guy for him! He was nice enough to forgive her, and they went out on their first date a few days after that and have been together since! I like that story alot. Of course, when Miche and I told it at the wedding, we toned down the story, and replaced "making-out" with "dancing". ;o)

Rob and I received many compliments about our MCing, and apparently, many of the guests thought I was quite hilarious with my stories and the way I carried myself (It definitely helped to have a couple Ceasars to get me relaxed). I remember one point, after dinner and before the speeches, that the owner of the hall came up to me to tell me that all the staff go home, and the bar (it was an open bar)was going to be closed once the speeches began. I misunderstood this as "Last call for alcohol" and "stocked up" on the drinks. So when it was time to start the speeches, I had asked someone from head table to pass me one of my drinks (I had three different drinks at my seat), and made a comment to the crowd that I had "stocked up" because I thought the bar wasn't going to open again that night, but luckily, I was wrong. Oops!

One of the highlights of the evening was Jenn's REALLY COOL uncle, Dean, did something for her. When Jenn was a little girl, everyone bugged Uncle Dean to shave off his moustache (even his wife, Barb, has never seen him clean shaven!) So he said he would shave it off the day Jenn got married. Well...when Jenn got engaged, and announced the news to Uncle Dean, he was quite excited...until Jenn reminded him of what he had said twenty years back. He was a good sport, and kept his word. It was a whole ten minute show of him shaving. He looked even more handsome and at least five years younger!!! Barb was sure purring, hooting and hollering at the new sight of her hubby.

All in all, the wedding was fun, people were entertained and I think everything went according to how Jenn and Steve wanted it to go- and I didn't say anything stupid! YAY!!!!

ALSO, CONGRATS TO JACKIE AND CLAYTON WHO GOT ENGAGED THE SAME DAY!!!! But that's a story for a different day!

Thieves!

I haven't updated in awhile - mainly because of school, but also because our (as in my family) house got broken into on Wednesday, probably late afternoon. We're assuming it was at least two young adolescents because of the items they took, and the things they did to our house.

They had gone into our backyard shed, found some gardening gloves and tools to pry open the kitchen window (which is right beside the shed) to get into the house. They pretty much turned mine and my brother's room inside out, and upside down. All my desk drawers were left opened, my memory boxes were all opened, my closet and the drawers inside were opened - even the back of my picture frames were opened. They did not take much from me, aside from my prized posession - my camera!!! (GRRRR). Lucikly, there were no important photos on there. They also took my purse (which did not have any cash), but was nice enough to leave behind hair elastics, a chapstick, and my little cute stuffed dog keychain that was attached to my purse. I think a nice butterfly necklace and a free movie pass was in the purse.

They also took some Cineplex Odeon Platnam Plus movie tickets (six to be exact)from my room. My mom still had the receipt for when she bought them, and it indicated the numbers printed on each ticket -so I called every Cineplex Odeon theatre to see if they could keep track of the numbers on the tickets, to find the thieves that way. Unfortunately, there are so many of these tickets that come to through everyday, that they don't have the time to be searching. Even if they did find the culprits, tehy could easily say that it was a gift. But seriously! I think that if they REALLY wanted to catch them, they could!!!! . But I understand, the crime just isn't that big of a deal in the bigger scheme of things.

They took my bro's laptop (which is useless to them b/c it's locked with a password), and some old credit cards, an old cell phone and old cheques (haha, i hope they try to use them!) from my bro.

Ok, all that stuff was not that bad - but they had the nerve to take OUR INTERNET MODEM, CABLES and HUB!!!!! That was probably what pissed me off the most, since everyone knows how much I need my email/internet fix!!! (Obviously, this has now been taken care of, and my internet is back up and running! YAY!) I am just SUPER thankful they did not take my computer (probably b/c it's so shitty) b/c I have so much valuable school stuff on here. I know, I'm such a nerd.

The funniest items they took were brand new toothbrushes and new chapstick from our daily supply closet. In addition, they ate a chocolate bar that has been sitting in my room for over 2 years. Ewww.

They had to go as low as slashing up our nice, leather couches, and putting a pop can in our freezer to let it explode. Bastards!

Really, despite all this, I am not really angry (what's the point?) I just want these kids to get some help (must be the fact that I have softened since I counsel inmates). The ironic thing is, I'm usually at home doing schoolwork on Wednesdays, but that day, I had decided to go work at the jail. I'm wondering if it was a coincidence or if these kids had watched us leave (creepy!)

My dad stayed home on Friday all day, to talk with the insurance dude and although I've always laughed at the radio ads about Alarm Force - we actually ended up getting on installed. The theives also took a couple of our spare keys, and dad thinks they must have tried calling 3 times on Friday to see if we were home. Each time he answered, they would hang up.

Anyway, short funny story about the Alarm. My whole family gathered around the telephone (this is how you arm/disarm it) to learn how to arm/disarm the system. Well, dad decided to show us how to arm it, but as soon as he did it, he realized that he didn't know how to disarm it! So picture this - the four of us huddling in the kitchen, motion sensors all around us...alarm is armed and we were trying to minimize our movements as much as possible. Poor mom was getting a bit mad, talking through clenched teeth, "Hurry up, figure it out! I dont' want to stand here all night!" Too late. The motion sensors must have detected some movement and started to beep intensely.

Suddenly...a voice comes over "STOP! THIS IS ALARM FORCE!!!!" And then an operator comes on, "Hello, is everything okay?" We said yes and told her we were trying out the new alarm. She asked for a password code (so that we could identify ourselves), and then she said goodbye. PAUSE . We frantically shouted for her to come back, and luckily, she did, and we asked her how to disarm the system. She walked us through it step by step, and hung up when we were successful. It was quite an amusing experience.