the downright "dirty" of travel

i sometimes worry what people may think of my blog. not that i am writing it for people in particular as it is just some random writings to remember the positive aspects in life. however, i do not want people to think that my life is all "sunshine and roses".

i think i have made that plainly so when i am in school. i know i have complained frequently of how tired, stressed i am and just wanting a break from the assignments. however i don't know if i portray it so in my personal life. however, i do think that my personal life is just that, personal. sure there is bad, i think anyone would be lying to say that they have never had an arguement, or stressed on the person they love. however, sometimes i think we concentrate too much on the negative (which mark says is very easy to do) instead of striving to see the positive light, what one has learned and what to prevent the next time.

so in light of this, i am going to talk about the down and dirty (literally) of an experience that happened to myself in europe. this will show how my life is not roses and can (literally) stink!

mark and i used a wide variety of transportation while we were abroad. planes, trains, automobiles, boats and legs. what we enjoyed the most (as we do not get the same experience here) was train travel. trains were cozy, but still had room, air conditioned and we got the added bonus of gazing out the window checking out the different country side (i know, it sounds like kittens and puppy dogs).

then we boarded a train in italy. now i am by NO means insulting the transportation in italy as my scope is quite limited. BUT i will say that this train in particular was a little more rustic compared to what we had encountered in previous countries.

a little background on what got us to this train. we took a train from cardiff to london, where we were to meet a reserved airport taxi. unfortunately our train was late leaving from cardiff and the taxi left. mark (thankfully being assertive) got the taxi to come back, but wasting precious time as we needed to be on the plane boarding for italy at 11:15 am and we were in the taxi at 10. ugh. we managed to get to the airport at 10:45 (we may have been in panic mode, especially when seeing the monster lines to check in). however they called final check ins for pisa and off we went onto our plane. once in pisa, we caught a bus to the train station and caught our train with a mere 5 minutes to spare.

now you may ask, why is this important? well. with all the time constraints it left little in the way of a bathroom break for either of us. this brings us to the current train. as we were on our way to the cinque terre we rode in this train. it was okay although nothing to be exciting about as it did lack certain amenities like spacious seating and air conditioning that we praised about before. i had decided i needed to take a bathroom break. so off i went in search of a toilet on this giant train.

going through two train cars i found it. as i readied myself, sitting on the seat, i found it strange that i felt a gust of wind come up my back. i then proceeded to "relieve" myself, and mere moments later sheer panic came.

"omigoodness, omigoodness," i exclaimed as i felt tiny droplets come whoshing up, spraying my back.

stopping midstream i looked down and saw a giant hole in the toilet leading directly down to the ground. and yes by ground i mean the railway tracks. i just found out i was attempting to pee all over italy but they rejected that idea and the train gust brought it right back up to my back! not believing my luck (and yes, you think i would have learned) i attempted again. same result. stopping midstream again i slightly freaked (and oddly laughed at the complete absurdity of the situation) and attempted to work the tap of the sink.....yes you can believe that that did not work either (but it did as i found out from mark later on. apparently there was was a foot pedal that i couldn't see in panicked attempt for cleanliness).

out of the bathroom i left, a little smellier (that is an understatement) and i proceeded to tell mark of my mishaps. all this as i bathed in hand sanitizer. i don't think mark stopped laughing until he decided he needed to check this bathroom out. out he came, smug, strutting back to our seats, laughing again.

"what," i asked.
"the bathroom is obviously built for a man," he replied

grrrrr. so what is the lesson here folks as i strive to be positive.

LOOK BEFORE YOU PEE!

love

let her eat cake!

one of my favourite places that we visited was one that i had never considered even going to. this was all mark's doing as he was interested in taking a trip down to see versailles. i was even more inclined to say let's not do it as it was quite a debacle getting there in the first place.

that morning we were suppose to get up early to catch the metro that would take us to a train station that would get us to versailles. alas, with the late nights in paris we may have slept in a little. that mistake would cost us later on.

presently we got dressed and headed down to the metro from our place. that was when we found out the metro wasn't working in that area. signs posted said to take the bus. when we stopped at a bus stop it looked like it wasn't in service on the day we wanted. alas. by then we had acquired some friends from montana who were there for a photography class for their school. as we tried to figure it out, mark just thought, hey we have done it before, why don't we just walk it. the girls were not as inclined as they really wanted to wait for the bus. as we walked along the seine mark spotted a specific bus available just to take people down to the train for versailles. we gathered up the girls and off we went.

after all that hoopla we get there only to find the most extraordinary palace followed by the most extraordinary lines! AHHH. not only was there an hour and a half line up to get tickets, but there was a two hour line up just to get into the palace. hence we should of got up earlier! lol. this came the point where i kept silent but in my head was thinking, why does mark want to go here so bad, will this really be worth it? i am glad i kept it silent! he he he.

as we were in the first line-up two ladies came up to us and another man and wondered if we were together. we said no, but inquired and they proceeded to say that they had three tickets that they would sell us for the same value as they purchased them by mistake. done. the three of us went to the next line. then as we were in that line for roughly a half hour a young boy asked us if we would switch places with him and his mother who were quite close to the gates. asking why, the boy replied that his dad was waiting in the first line trying to get tickets. we agreed only if we could take the gentleman that went with us in the first place.

then we saw this:

the amount of gold, art, and just shear opulence was amazing. AND i know marie-antoinette did not have a role in everything but i decided to give her all the credit because it was amazing. mark just rolled his eyes at me. he he he. and even though there were swarms of people in the hall of mirrors it still held an awe factor. my favourite thing in the palace.

but little did we know the best was yet to come as we went outside into the gardens:

it was the lovely. here you could take rowing boats and paddle through out the whole lake (which was huge, we never even got to finish walking it!). drift over to marie-antoinette's personal headquarters (because on top of a palace one needs their own house). or just wander around (like we did) enjoying the flowers, swans and music playing in the background.

i enjoyed the music so much so (from the water fountain show):

that i felt the need to dance. it was lovely.

that was our versailles experience...
till next time!
love

lets talk italian

ciao.

i really don't know where to begin but since i started this blog with the idea of talking about travel, i feel i need to go into all of the types of travel we have done. we really did have a trip of a lifetime thanks to my brilliant husband who researched and planned this whole expedition. really, it was fantastic! because of this i am going to do blog posts devoted to certain parts of the trip that created fantastic memories for both of us.

first off is italy. in particular, the cinque terre, along the italian rivera. this encompasses the five villages starting from riomaggiore, manarola, corniglia, vernazza, and monterosso (where we were staying). this was the "vacation" from our vacation part of our journey. to elaborate, mark and i love to travel. and when we travel we don't stop. we go from museum to monument to landmark from early in the morning till late at night. cinque terre forced us to slow down, and it was absolutely lovely.

our days consisted of waking up, going for a hike or kayak to the next village. due to the 40 degree weather we were "forced" to take a dip into the mediterranean. This part was cool as you could access the sea from many areas around the coast. There were many people just diving off the cliffs, although that was a little to adventerous for my blood.

then we would have some pesto pizza or fresh pasta. life really can't get any better can it?? ooo wait, it does! we would stop nightly at this local cantina where a gentlemen took us under his wing to teach us all about the local liquors made in monterosso. i wish i got a picture of him as he was quite fantastic! our nights ended usually on our balcony, overlooking the sky and listening to the music from the streets, drinking the liquors we bought. too mushy!?? he he. well it was our honeymoon.

but lets get the honesty train out here too. there was quite a few jellyfish and unfortunately mark fell victim to one of them. the little rascals. after that we took on jellyfish watch when we jumped into water.

and the amusing antidote was all the "openness" in europe with the topless sunbathers. i can always count on mark to take to a place with nude sunbathers (wink wink).

here are a few pics of our journey...

this is just a few of our beach adventures. note the jellyfish and mark's marked hand (that by the way still has a mark). one of the towns, vernazza can be seen at the bottom, on one of our small hikes. and at the bottom corner is mark doing what he did everytime we took a dip. the starfish. apparently he thought it was amazing how much he could float in the water because of the salt content.

this little bit is of our lovers walk. hence all the hearts and such. it was quite an easy pathway containing "locks of love" and in a shelter enclosed area tons of writings of people expressing their love for each other. very cute!

here are some last random pics. kayaking, swimming, having gelato (we may have had gelato taste testing twice a day, purely for scientific reasons...and because it was hot....and because it was delicious!). the little kitty at the bottom was eying the seafood being cooked in the restaurant while the next girl found fantastic acoustics in a square and starting to sing phantom of the opera. at the bottom on the right hand side is a pill box. mark was pretty pumped to see that as they were made in the war years.

that's all for now.
love

we wed

okay so i lied...i am writing on here before i leave...but i was thinking of little moments about the wedding that i feel i need to write about before i forget them. so here they are (plus a few pics that i have acquired, once organized, i may post them in a better format):

• little children dancing
• decorated cars
• listening to dance music prior to walking down the aisle
• spitting out gum and hiding it where no one will know, except the bride and father were witness to it
• best ladies "all in" with a chant prior to walking down the aisle
• wedding party doing another chant prior to entering the reception
• mom's tears 
• mom and loy dancing to "marry you" through out the house
• love wall
• amazing mc
• family speeches
• our speeches
• seeing people i haven't seen in so long and others that i saw just the day before...all together
• the grass growing
• feeling at ease with everything and not worrying about anything
• officially saying i love you to the man i love
• saying husband for the first time
• old fashioned maritime fun with a lot of old fashioned western fun too
• tequila shots with cousins, uncles, aunts and moms
• seeing everyone come together to make the day as smooth as possible
• walking home with just each other, so we could be alone for the first time the whole day

there are so much more but these are a few. we both had an amazing day and couldn't have asked for anything to go any smoother. thanks to all that helped out! we love you so much and could feel all of your love to us! you are all so amazing.

love 

the last post for awhile

so this will sadly but happily be my last post for a bit. things are starting to get slightly hectic and i really can't think i am going to have much more time to write this lengthy blog till we get back from our fabulous trip.

first off i have to say that i celebrated this last weekend with a fabulous bang! my ladies and i headed to a spa for some glorious treatments. really, living a life of leisure does seem pretty fab at times. we started the morning lounging in our robes in hanging beds, drinking sparkling wine. then off to get some treatments (mine was a hot stone massage, facial and pedicure).

after that we headed to julios where we had quite a few bulldogs...more than a few. it got a little rowdy and ridiculous i am sure! :) the end was a sweet surprise and i feel the need to gloat about a pretty special guy.

anita had previously given mark a pretty rough time about how messy the car was. this was a big deal as mark agreed to be the designated driver for all of us (and this is no exaggeration) the car could only fit two passengers (even though it is a 5 passenger car). needless to say as we were at the bar anita continued the texts about her expectations of the chauffeur (all joking of course). well he sure came through...mark pulled up in a suit, hand delivering roses, with cheese, crackers, fruit and non alcoholic champagne in the clean car. he really is a keeper. sigh.....

OKAY that is all the mush i promise!!

overall i have to say that this process of planning a wedding has been pretty amazing. not so much the planning part (unless its crafty, he he) but to see all the people that you truly love and adore come together to show their support, love and help you every step of the way. i don't know what i could of done without so many of you. not only our immediate families, and friends but extended family and even co-workers! we both are tremendously blessed and lucky and hope to return the favor for all of you in our own little way!

so that is it. next is the big day. and the honeymoon. let the final celebrations begin! :)
love

summer lovin'

some things i must take time and appreciate. one of these "things" is the nice sunny weekend that we had (and it looks like it may continue). in appreciation i went out on each day. love. and with that appreciation i saw some of my favourite people in the world.

friday evening involved a walk down whyte, pizza, gelato, and crazy laughs with my two most lovely and crazy friends. cut to the corner left picture.

saturday involved a beach day that was a little slow to start (i killed the battery in the car...thank you to dj for coming to our rescue and putting the key in the ignition...SURPRISE, it started again, lol. oh dear). but it was well worth it once we go there with cute little babies and a sand castle making toddler LOVE THAT WE HUNG OUT IN THE SUN!

and sunday, really it was full of errands but who cannot appreciate how hot it can get for a poor little kitty who likes to hang by the fan. poor little guy. AND one cannot forget having a garden vegetable dinner and bbq by wendy and david....YUMMY!

ooo summer don't ever go!

love

challenge completed

Let's give a toast to Mark. He is okay. :). He he he.

For the real one we will have to see if I go through with it.

Love

challenge on

on this rainy canada day i am going to attempt to write a speech about a person i love. which brings to question, how you can sum up everything in roughly 5 minutes...what does one talk about. what does one say?

challenge is on....next up...actually getting up the nerve to say it! :)
love

Hot days

What does one do when the sun is out.

One could sit inside. Hang out by the air conditioning. Do some crafts. Watch a movie. Take care of a special lady.

Or one could go outside. Have some deep fried goodness. Look at the art exhibits at city hall. And hang out with a special lady and a equally special man.

Or even better. One could do both.

Love these summer days!
Love

the end of a "school year"

well we have both now officially finished our school years as of today. i know mine was awhile back but i feel it is cause for celebration as mark has officially finished his first year of teaching. woooo hoooo!! congratulations, hon.

i know that i have said that my year has been a tough one plenty of times. i think of the first semester and wonder how i got through it. BUT then i look at mark. i was in a fit of tears many times, mark was there for me on more than one occasion to listen to my tears, offer me cupcakes and tell me i am going to be okay. yet during all of this he was going through his own changes.

he worked harder than anyone i have ever seen, pushing himself to be better for his kids. AND i know his kids will have gotten a reward from it. both mark and his kids were lucky to have each other! AND if that was not cause for celebration his continuing contract was! so proud of you mark for all the hard work you have done!

this will definitely be a summer of well deserved rest, relaxation, partying and celebrating. i have to say mark deserves it....and so do i! *wink wink*

love

What happens when...

A bunch of girls get together to find shoes for the wedding? This is what happens.

They find fascinators and long white gloves and many more hilarious things to have fun with. Naturally I encouraged all of it but alas they would not go through with it.

So then the girls find beautiful shoes (that I absolutely adore by the way and am so glad they picked them). What happens after that?? More shopping of course plus spending time with a little wee one that is very dear and near to my heart.

All and all a fabulous way to spend a weekend!
love

a review of fun

wow...where have i been again? he he he. it has been an amazing week. starting with tons of babies and ending with some showering and love.

casey had a little boy last saturday. eek! that is the first little man in our small little amazing group. he is small, and ever so tiny. he he. jeaninne, and i went to her house on thursday and man oh man is it busy! he he. kudos to both the parents as they were holding up pretty well! AND the little sis sure showed tons of affection to her little bro. you will be a great big sister hon! :)

mark and i also took our hand in babysitting a cutie one night. although a babe she is just how we like them as she has full head control and can sit upright. thanks jeaninne for lending us your sweet one. we all had fun, except when it came to eating...he he he.

then i went to a shower thrown by those two amazing women plus one other...anita! i won't go into many details and will only show a shot of the four of us but know that it went well. i may have sweated a lot and got embarrassed slightly...he he he. those girls worked hard with an amazing spread full of sweets from an edible arrangements, to brownies, trifle, macaroons, and tarts....with some very bachelorette decorative gummies....

and it was sooo nice to see so many of my friends come together for a night of ridiculous girly fun. i love you all. these things truly make me feel overwhelmed with love and i cannot stress enough how much i appreciate everyone who showed up last night and to the previous showers i have had. especially to all of the women that have worked hard on those said showers to make them so special for me. it is truly remarkable. xoxox

so i guess the countdown is officially on now....mark will be coming home from his bachelor festivities late tonight...and it will soon be under a month that we will be getting hitched!

love

A week in my life

I love love love my summers. This is going to be the one thing I will miss once I start really working again. Although I guess I am still working now but it's different. Only cause I know what it feels like from before. He he. But anywho, summers are always the time I do many things. Mainly not caught up in a studying or researching. Frenzy.

Like this week for instance. I worked and worked another job. Then I ran and to increase my endurance a bit more I ran again with some strength training in between. I even got a chance to scrapbook! Eek I have missed that. And of course had to do one wedding thing, that license.

In between all that stuff I get to hang out with my wonderful and beautiful friends. Whether going out for dinner to some homemade Nepalese food or having a hot dog at a stand and going to a fun tiny candy store. Even attending a birthday party of someone you don't know and getting hilarious images of Borat at that party. He he he.

I love summer and what a wonderful week.

Love

love you till the end

i seriously love this song...it was what i kind of wanted our first dance to be but i had another one too and mark picked the other...he said these guys had weird voices...lol. but i seriously i love it!

so maybe if you are thinking of a first dance you should consider this one....



love

wedding happenings....

Well what can I say on the wedding front. I have to say I am at the point where I am enjoying it. Why you ask? Because its craft time! Something I love doing.

The cricut and my scrapbooking skills have taken on double duty. With the fabulous help from my mom, and absolutely fantastic bridesmaids we have done the invites, favors, banners, and other little things. This part I have to say has been fun. Especially the favor bags because I went a little wacky with the paper choices. He he.

It seems to be little things now. RSVP's are coming in daily. While Mark and I have to get our marriage certificate and refine some small details. Probably will be refining those details till the of the wedding.

Fun girlie stuff is coming up for me. An adult bridal shower. Tee hee. And getting my hair, make up and dress fitting. Love being a girl.

All of it is getting rather exciting I have to say!

Thats all for now.
Love

will me make so happy for the rest of my life...let me sleep on it

i don't know what this says about me but this is one of my favourite meatloaf songs...he he he


love

city chase

so i did something this weekend that i have wanted to do for the last five years. yes that is right...FIVE. when i first started dating mark we met up one time on a saturday in the summer time. we went for a walk around the city from mec, to an ice cream shop back to churchill square. during that said walk i saw many many many people running around in shirts looking for checkpoints. i didn't know then that it was the city chase...basically an amazing race in edmonton.

cut to me finding out about it three weeks ago. i was pumped and determined to do it. it took a little convincing on my part to get mark to do it but we did. AND IT WAS AWESOME! we found mark's cousins there and thankfully they were as we would not have been able to do it without them. their smartphones, knowledge and their buffering effect to prevent us from having a fighting meltdown proved useful. PLUS THEY WERE FUN! :)

what was it that we all did?? mark ate a worm, i held a snake, we climbed twelve flight of stairs, sculpted, did sit ups, played jack and jill with a bucket of water, rode segways, canoed to a quote, found a stranger to give a wagon ride, and i directed mark in the right direction blindfolded in a pool. it was fabulous and fun. perfect day, perfect weather AND i can't wait to do it next year! seriously it was awesome.

hope your weekend was just as fabulous!
love

grandfathers

with the wedding coming up you start to think about some of the people that won't be there. i have talked about my grammie often and it does make me sad that she never got the chance to meet mark. but two other people in particular that i have been thinking about are my grandfathers. both died before mark even came into the picture but both meant the world to me in some very different ways.

first there is grampie with the pipe, or grampie. he was my buddy and i was his. i loved him so much. he was always around to spoil me with strawberry pie, ice cream, or other sweet treats. when we went to visit them over the summer he took us to a local swimming hole in tay creek. he was always there to give me some penny money for candy or buy the family some doughnuts to eat with jam at the small conerstore. he read me stories, or just gave me cuddles when i was not in the right frame of mind like below. 

 

some of my favourite moments that always come to my mind when i think of grampie is sitting on the veranda at night. we would just sit, talk, watch the lightening bugs and listen to the night creatures. sometimes there were crickets, other times their were moose calls that would be made...but not by the moose, by my grampie. of course other memories included the tickle fights that would ensue when i sat in "his" chair, or having breakfast with just him when i was 18 years old. but the veranda moments were special and something that i will always treasure.

next is grumpy. i named him this after grumpy the care-bear. i don't know if many would have been offended but he was not as the name stuck with all the the other grandkids that followed me. he he. what comes to mind when i think of him is boundless energy. he seemed like he was always on the go, gardening, going to the market, chatting up a storm with anyone that he met (seriously there are videos of a train ride to prove as he met every single passenger). the off chance you would see him sitting he would be knitting. and he was an amazing knitter. i still have the last sweater that he made that i got a christmas time.

 

there are many stories of grumpy. apparently i ate his prized tomato when i was just three. but my favourite memories of him was when he came to visit us when i was around 15-16. he took the train up and we had an amazing week of fun. we played boggle and introduced him to spoons. a game that still gets us laughing as he loved it and loved the competition between jimi and him. he also took time out to look at my sketchbook. i think about it now and love that moment even more as he was legally blind and really couldn't see very well. BUT he made sure to compliment each and every drawing that i did. it still makes my heart go soft thinking of it.

those are just a few memories of two very dear men that i loved. i will be thinking of you...when i say i do...*wink wink*!
love

a shower of fun

last month i was lucky enough to have another shower thrown for me by mark's auntie jane. it was incredibly sweet of her to do it AND it was nice to see so many people come out to have some fun with games, food and such. it was nice to introduce my mom to a lot of mark's family, since she had rarely met any of them. it was a really great time.

here are a few of the happenings of the shower....from toilet paper wedding dresses, to bridal hats, to a fun drawing game!

 

thanks to all of you that came out. you really know how to make a girl feel special and loved! :)

love

how will i know...

its almost over for the season so of course i had to make a little shout out of this one....



love it