What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas....unless you write a blog.

A series of complete and utterly unfortunate events lead my lovely and I to a most adventurous (and to us a somewhat disastrous) vacation. He he. As I look back and told my mom about the experience it really wasn't meant to be at this time. I am not one to always believe in the fates of the world, but it helps as it is said and done and I must continue to 'carry on'. He he.

It started when I misplaced my wallet and left it in the waiting area for pre-boarders. Luckily someone caught it and delivered it to the unaware me when I was on the plane. But the boarding passes were missing. Aw. Just a little reprint no issues at all in Vancouver.

Cut to Vegas and the rental car. Our mind lapses left us with no rental as I had a credit card and an expired license and my lovely had a license but no credit card. Note to self, in most all circumstances one needs both. Quick thinking called the bank. Nada. Called my brother as I know the location of the card. Dearest brother of mine - who I love so much - and has proven to be great in these kinds of silly circumstances - spent his Saturday trying to locate a mailing agency to deliver the card by Sunday or Monday. Unfortunate for all of us no luck as most were closed on Sundays and with New Years no card would come till Wednesday.

Now you may be wondering. Why a rental in Vegas? True true. But we never intended on vacationing in Vegas. First world problem I know. The truth being we wanted to hike the Grand Canyon and thus packed for that kind of trip, and most importantly budgeted for that kind of trip. ;)

Thus brings the next possible solution. People go on tours all the time. Surely we could take a bus there. Nope, they did not want our luggage. Sigh. Nor the helicopter rides and the greyhound would not go far enough.

Was there any rental company we could go through. Two. One much better than the other. But alas no cars. And the other....well you can check out the reviews. Lets just say we wanted to be alive after this was all said and done.

So what does one finally do when all has failed. Get a bit angry at self, maybe cry a little. Then set sights on a solution, cancel previous bookings and look into having fun in the one day we would be there. Remember tight budget for this vacay so we had to make the short stay count.

What did we do:
Soak in a hot pool, devour a buffet, walk the strip, admire the various people dressed as: showgirls, cupids, chewbacca, Winnie the Pooh, Spider-Man, batman, bane, religious protestors (they probably were not dressing up), dance to the bellagio fountains numerous times, people watch and read numerous signs, absorb the lights, see a cirque show, drink from a cup that may have 10 oz. of alcohol, play the horse races by betting on horses named after your pet and husband, win money, play penny slots, lose money, laugh with your husband as he is the only one in the world that you want to be with in any moment let alone that moment, lean on husband and love him as his vacation dreams were shattered too. Make vow to try again. Say good bye to Vegas and bring in the new year at home in comfort.

Hoping and wishing next year will have continued good fortune, learning, and growth for all of us.

Love

Christmas in Stanley part 7

Many of the same wonderful moments.
Seeing a cousin from west but in the east.
Seeing an uncle and young cousin after his hockey game.
Watching 'its a wonderful life'.
Tormenting aka loving the cat.
Listening to the rain from outside my bedroom window when I woke up.

And another. Going for a walk in the woods with my dad. Reminded me of another small memory I had when I was small. When Sherwood Park was small. When there wasn't a micheals, a home hardware, a clinic, a superstore, or a cloverbar ranch. There was our area and not to far away there was a woods area. We would spot deer, run around, pick wild flowers for mom (more me than dad) and enjoy the presence of nature and the peace (dad was peaceful, me not so much) of the nice walk. That is what we did today. Walk in the snow, look at the fallen trees from the big snowfall, admire the sprigs (aka two year old trees that dad planted) and spot deer tracks. It was nice.

Good trip.
Continue to eat the many sweets that mom worked ever so hard to make.
Laugh and joke at the table. BINGO, Tracey.
Slowly pack and prep for a good bye.

Nice beginning and middle to my Christmas season.

Love

Christmas in Stanley part 6

What does one do on a Friday when holidays

1. Watch your father feed the birds.
2. Go visit your grandmother for some tea and cookies
3. See a market and eat more
4. My I oh my there is a lot of eating over the holidays
5. Watch muppets family Christmas a brother/sister tradition

Wow really need to work out tomorrow!

Love

Christmas in Stanley part 5

Lets leave the country!

- up at 8 and out of the country by 11.
- a visit to wardens
- a talk with my aunt
- a snooze in the car
- back in Canada
- window shopping with mom in too cute stores
- dinner with cousins and aunts

Fun days all around!
Love

Christmas in Stanley part 4

No rules today. Just go with it.

- take your old cat for a walk on a leash in your shorts and flip flops in the falling snow
- watch another Christmas movie, miracle on 34th street
- go shopping with my mother dearest
- admire mom's snowman
- ponder what to do when there is a power outage
- sit outside with white wine and talk while your dad BBQ's stirfryon the BBQ
- go inside cause you thought you may have heard zombies and you promised your husband that you would try to stay alive during the apocalypse
- play card games and create barricades

The end is near. He he.

Love

Christmas in Stanley part 3

The rules on this fine winter day:

1. Go for walk around the land, making jokes with mom and listening to stories from dad
2. Spot a partridge, deer tracks, rabbit tracks and fox tracks
3. Stop for occasional photo op with parents
4. Eat homemade granola
5. Go to the theater and as per tradition watch the new Peter Jackson movie: The Hobbit
6. Have a snowball fight with my brother in the parking lot
7. Sit by a cozy fire

Reward: I could get used to this. He he.

Love

Christmas in Stanley part 2

The rules for this day:

1. Watch White Christmas and sing 'sisters, sisters' out loud. Optional is a dance number.
2. Spot three deer when driving and note the beauty of nature
3. Visit a great aunt and sample sweets
4. Brag to husband about the amount of buttertarts that have been consumed
5. Workout...tomorrow
6. Eat lobster gifted by a generous aunt and uncle (thanks Keith and Cheryl)
7. Put air in flat tires and note that your husband may have been right, you should really learn how to change a flat.
8. Laugh with family. Love with family.

What shall tomorrow bring?
Love

Christmas in Stanley part 1

The rules for today:

1. Eat a buttertart for breakfast followed by dad's blueberry pancakes and mom's fruit salad
2. Wrap the final bit of presents while watching The Family Stone
3. Hang out in pajamas for the morning and through out the day
4. Bug the cat for just a tiny bit, enough that he still loves you and may reward you with a cuddle (it has yet to happen)
5. Have aunts and uncles over for some Christmas love and food

Reward:
A fantastic holiday day.
Love

A list of things needing to do before one goes away

What does one do when one has a day off from finishing school but right before going away.
- see old friends and old job. fun morning of visiting and shenanigans with my old coworkers and old clients.
- get the last of my Christmas shopping done and maybe, possibly get myself a small something with gift cards I received for my birthday. wink wink.
- clean the house. it's kind of funny I did this as my mentality is to come home to cleanliness, but someone is still living in said house.
- pack. kind of important considering I needed things to wear.
- go out for dinner with someone that I love.
- visit more lovelies that I won't see in awhile at the hospital.
- know that you are coming back to someone that is so important (and I must say heroic as he changed a flat with no qualms, doubly impressed).

See you soon
Love and hugs

Christmas

The presents are bought and wrapped
The decorations are up in the house
The lights are strung on the balcony
The music is playing in the background
The movies are waiting to be watched
The goodies are waiting to be eaten
The Christmas spirit is everywhere
I think tomorrow is a good time to go to my 'second' home and celebrate
I heart you Christmas time!

Love

the hike...

as we prep to go on one this upcoming mind i started to think of the past hike attempt we did this summer. this hike took a LOT of compromise and work to come about. mark loves loves loves hiking with all his heart. when we initially thought of going to europe our three week trip had a two week hike planted firmly in the middle. needless to say i wasn't very pleased, and made it quite known. in the end we figured it out, all was well and a week hike was planned.

i have to say, with all the hustle and bustle in paris, i (yes its true) was looking forward to a little escape into the mountains. seeing nature in its finest. what we soon realized was that canada is pretty fantastic and really just impossible to beat! way to go our country.

to play fair, our one attempt at hiking did not fair well. we went in pretty sick doing this climb. it was suppose to be a 5 hour hike that took us 8 hours to do. we had 1500mL between the two of us and ran out of water about 5 hours in. when we went to get the to the water source, unfortunately they had closed up for the day, leaving us significantly parched. we did find water, but not in the most hiker responsible way. AND to top it off. the pass between the swiss/france border that we worked so hard to cross. many took the gondala to do the same. leaving us a lttle weary and defeated.

but we came out with plenty of stories, wonderful pictures and (still some) spectacular sights. AND i did get to do my running in the mountains once in the swiss alps. in addition we saw plenty of olympics in between our sleep deprived sickness. that was the one motivator that brought us to london to continue our wonderful european getaway.

love

The end is near.

Three more shifts and I will no longer have the word student in my signature. Not yet a registered nurse either as more studying needs to occur for that. What will it be? Graduate nurse. Wow. It seems so surreal. The first three years seemed to fly. But the last one was long and tiring. Anytime you make me do as many papers as I did it will always seem long. He he. Needless to say I am pretty pumped.

This last course, my preceptorship, I have been pretty silent on. Maybe it's because I really don't want to jinx it. But I can honestly say I love it. It is in my future to do this. I have had so many unbelievable opportunities that other clinicals were never able to provide. I had the privilege to be part of people's lives and be in there homes. I have also had the opportunity to contemplate and think about various topics that I had to learn in theory. Boundaries, empowerment, providing teaching and understanding, death and dying, not to mention more skills and opportunities to do in clinical. I have laughed and listened to fantastic stories that people lead in their lives. These are skills that I will take to my next place but as a paid employee. Eek.

It has been quite a magnificent journey. And this is just the beginning. I have met friends and patients, colleagues, mentors, and teachers that have altered my perceptions, and thoughts for what I can only hope is better. Can I ask for any more?

Here is to the next stage as a GN.

Love

Birthday week continues

On the first day of birthday week my true love gave to me a birthday dinner with my friends
On the second day of birthday week my true love gave to me 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends
On the third day of birthday week my true love gave to me a card from my nan, 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends.
On the fourth day (and actual day) of birthday week my true love gave to me many lovely presents, a visit from my brother, a card from my nan, 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends.
On the fifth day of birthday week my true love gave to me a parcel in the mail, many lovely presents, a visit from my brother, a card from my nan, 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends.
On the sixth day of birthday week my true love gave to me leftover Chinese food, a parcel in the mail, many lovely presents, a visit from my brother, a card from my nan, 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends.
On the seventh day of birthday week my true love gave to me a movie date with popcorn, leftover Chinese food, a parcel in the mail, many lovely presents, a visit from my brother, a card from my nan, 4 cupcakes and a birthday dinner with my friends.

He he. Lets be honest. Although he is mighty awesome not all the credit goes to my love. Parents, more parents, siblings of us both, grandparents, friends, social networking sites and FaceTime has made for a great week, hehe.

Thanks and love

A shout out to the lovelies in my life

You know you have fabulous friends when you can laugh so hard that you cry. And that laughing that made you cry was inflicted by near silliness of doing sound effects and impersonations. Those same friends start the debate of the difference between men and women as we chide one another of our differences. They drink wine and dine on delicious homemade awesomeness made by Markness. They play games, eat cupcakes and just all around make you feel so special.

Thanks to all of you for making a girl feel special and celebrate her birthday.

I love you all!