because you are a loyal reader...

this is for you! he he he...keep watching it gets so good and complicated!



p.s. check out this lovely link...its back!

love

he is back!

and as i confess to my horrible self control yesterday guess who shows up on my televison today!

jamie oliver and his food revolution!

the show is back! if you haven't seen it, check it out. enjoy him thouroughly. i feel like i am being put back on the right track again. he he he

love

i cracked...

i was so strong for so many months. four to be exact. but i just couldn't help myself. i have been thinking about it since friday. i came so close on that day to getting it but forced myself to drive away...unsatisfied. but it is study week. so on the way home after working both jobs i had to stop...i couldn't help myself...i bought...

MCDONALDS!

GASP, SHOCK, HORROR!!!  

and guess what??? it was worth every bite! so good. he he he. as i told mark, new years resolutions are meant to be broken. AND this has probably satisfied my cravings for another 4-5 months.

so what does one do after breaking their resolution? sign up for a half marathon of course! yes, i am torturing my body once again (i swear, it is just like hiking, i forget about all the pain once it's all over). august 21st is d-day!. i am going to try and be a little gentler on my body this year focusing more on strength training and resistance with a little less running. by that i mean running three times a week instead of the usual four. however, my ultimate goal to keep my cardio up by riding my bike to work like i did two years ago. hopefully i can keep it up! THAT ladies and gents, is my summer goal!

off to procrastinate...
love

date night for friday night

rented movies last night
choices were as follows
black swan
the fighter
tron
tangled

guess which one mark picked
*wink wink*
it was a disney one
with a girl
she had long
blond
hair.

heart him!

hug a tree today

feeling blue...hug a tree!

dear tracey...

won't you come out to play,

dear tracey. 

greet the brand new day...

the sun is out, the sky is blue

its beautiful and...

i will stop right there! but in all fun, april welcome back! i have missed you and your sunshine. the snow is finally melting. mark is having the utmost fun playing in puddles (or "getting rid of them"). i feel that i can run outside pretty soon. AND i am just feeling plain ol' happy right now!

the group projects are done. big shout out to both groups. we did awesome (even if no grades are back). i have to admit that i don't usually enjoy group work but when you have really good groups, it is all good! you get to know people, all the strengths come together and the weaknesses never come out (or hopefully not!). BUT they are a lot of work so i am glad to be done!

i have scrapped some photos two nights in a row now. i am almost astonished to see that i have completed our 2009 album in 3 months. it feels great. it was a bit more slack then my usual albums but i will have tons of trips to scrapbook in the near future (i developed all my pics for two hikes and two trips...those should take some time...)

i also have some ambitious goals for the summer. i was thinking that i would like to start biking again to work BUT also train for a half marathon again...that means a lot of workouts. (i hope you are ready for me ice)! and i just bought another punch pass so i am coming for you again hot and hatha yoga!! plus, the west coast trail is on our agenda this summer...hopefully i am not to crabby this time around as we are hiking with company. ;) no guarantees.

i think that is all i am going to say. i am updating my photo blog as we speak...sorry if it bores all of you. it does kind of crack me up on the amount of food pics that we both take. what can i say...we love food!

enjoy this lovely wednesday evening
love

today is a good day

1. i got one group project finished (we just have to present)
2. another group project is half way done (we just have to work on our presenting skills)
3. the sun is shining, spring is coming
4. i can start running outside again (with the bridge opened, means more variety)
5. a new grey's is on tonight (even if its a sad one)
6. i am going to start scrapbooking in roughly 5 minutes
7. i am seeing some friends saturday night for some "games" time
8. school is done in 4 more days!
9. finals are done in 20 more days!
10. my mom will be here in 20 more days just as i complete my last final exam!

happy days! :)

a little bit of mumford and a little bit of sons

and iiiiiiii love this song



love

where have i been?

my lack of blogging seems to indicate i have been up to something. but no i have not even been gone. what have i been doing?

• working (a bit more than i usually do)
• running (on a treadmill)
• hot yoga (is back in my life)
• weight training (ugh, but i am doing it)
• organizing my pictures (it really does take a long time)
• watching big love (i can't believe the show is over all ready!)
• hanging out with my wonderful friends (for a fun craft night and brunch)
• hanging out with my wonderful partner (for one failed movie attempt and a successful one)
• preparing for a lab (that acts out scenes of what could happen when we are working in the field)
• and the usual daily life things

so really, not that much but enough to keep me busy enough not to blog. so poor, i know! but summer is coming and i will be the blogs best friend!
love

where does the time go?

it seems like yesterday that i was "complaining" about the semester ahead. now i am sitting here, with all my midterms done and just two group projects to complete. wow. so fast, how it flies. i have one more semester down and this much closer to my goal (SCARY!!). but as i do my readings, tests, and assignments the answers come a lot easier than they used to...probably an indicator that i do know stuff.

i have been really getting into these albums lately. i (almost) have all of my 2009 pictures in an album. so exciting. i have just developed 2010 pictures and their album is on standby. it feels great to finally get some organization to my pictures!

i spent all of sunday cleaning and adding an addition to mark's shelves. it is huge! mark jokes that i am trying to kill him, as it would be quite a big load if that thing ever tip over (don't worry, i checked on the tipping factor). but i love the way it looks and it took a lot of his books (that were scattered everywhere) and put them in a place. i do have to say though, he has a lot of books. but as my mom says, you gotta love a person who reads...(guess the reader in my family?).

not much else going on. i dabble in wedding planning but nothing at all in seriousness. i am still enjoying the engagement phase that just involves thinking and no work is involved. we both have ideas of what we want, we just need a plan to get there. BUT i did buy a book! mark laughed as i bought a book to plan a plan. whatever, i welcome the reading. i know how to plan trips, ride a bike, do svanasana in yoga, and sing every word to la vie boheme but i have no idea how to plan a wedding. hopefully this book will help!

not much else going on. tomorrow is st. patty's day so i must think of a green recipe to make as i had a lot of fun doing it last year with our green milk and green pancakes. and i am getting together with my girlfriends this weekend which should be loads of fun and laughter and talking! 

till next time...
love

i heart you so much glee

this show is so fantastic



love

so how are those goals i set...

so let me reminisce on the goals i am hoping to accomplish this year. let's see the progression... :)

• scrapbooking: how i can i put this nicely? school is evil. ha ha. but to counteract its evilness i have found an album that lets me do a little scrapbooking/photo-journaling but so much simpler (and less time consuming) because it's set up like a photo album. a facebook friend of mine actually liked the person that created it hence how i stumbled upon it. they are right here. i have so far started on 2009 and am already in the month of may. i believe i will cave and do one for 2010. it makes me feel so good to have all my pictures in an album. i started to get into the serious habit of keeping them on my computer and never printing them so i feel like i have accomplished something in just the printing.  BUT i have not given up on scrapbooking in its entirety. as of now i am going to do tiny spreads of favourite pics and keep to scrapbooking my trips. PLUS that wedding album for a lovely friend. i should finish it since, sadly, they have been married for too long and now have a child (sick tracey). she did mention that i should finish it before i get married. sigh. did i mention i will never scrapbook my wedding album?
• travel: well i think you know of my experience thus far. yes i have been a very lucky gal! the plan for the west coast trail is still and it will probably be our vacation for the summer (or maybe the rest of the year). after the last two hikes that we have completed, this has to be easy, right? a friend of ours is on board to go with us (poor girl doesn't know what she is getting into and may actually regret being part of our bridal party after this, he he).
• reading: i am still reading "between a rock and a hard place". nearing the end though and i have to say, he is one graphic writer. OUCH that must have hurt. this was actually a book i started three years ago but (obviously) didn't finish. i have a couple of those lying around so i am working on finishing them up. the next one is "caught inside: a surfer's year on the california coast".
• take more photos: i have been doing this but kind of falling off the map a bit because frankly some of our day to day life is really not photo worthy. i still am trying but will see how far i keep it up (or shut it down all together). i have to say though, having my camera all the time does make for awesome photo opportunities when needed!
• eating healthy: another reason i shouldn't have this. if you look at it you will probably see how i sometimes don't eat so healthy. but i can't help it, chocolate is my ultimate downfall! :) BUT i can officially say i have yet to step inside a mcdonald's and it is march 8th. i can at least give myself some credit.
• exercise: who would have thought this would take a back-burner? well an accident involving a treadmill, two x-rays to determine its not broken, three weeks to heal the soft tissue damage and humiliation at the idea of returning to the gym has prevented me from working out. i was going to do it today but i HAD to catch up on school work...but i WILL do it tomorrow...i swear!
• AND a new goal to add to the mix: wedding planning. i have already recruited my bridal party to help in the planning (i have very experienced gals when it comes to this). so hopefully it will be okay. BUT i really have no interest in the planning stages at all right now. just enjoying being engaged and thinking of tiny ideas, and the honeymoon travels. planning will commence in the summer, when my mom comes to visit and i have time to do look at places and sample cake, tee hee! :)

so that is it. have a great wednesday!
love

the ending to our wonderous adventure

instead of going into the other things we did, i thought i would make it easier on myself and just do a little picture montage. this was our last full day on the island.

going to the markets

enjoying fruity drinks

visiting the dry cave

another day on the beach, this time snorkeling.

love

the hike

since i talked about half of our trip i feel like i should include the other bits. probably the most interesting part of our trip was the hike. i have described it already but it really was tough. the north coast trail was the hardest i have done thus far but this was a different kind of difficult. many inclines, tremendous heat and humidity played huge factors when we were trekking along. not to mention some fear factor bits when you look over the edge and see the steep declines right in front of you. what can i say, we worked hard.

the beginning of the trail. blue skies beautiful day

crazy roots on crazy trees

look at that ocean...sigh.

smiles. just passed approximately 3miles

due to the heat we stopped at many creeks just to cool off. at one said creek my camera happened to pop out of its waterproof case and take a dive into the refreshing water (oh the irony). needless to say i took that hard. i had taken 200 pics on the trip thus far and none could be seen in my broken camera. those last 3 miles were rough for me! :) i have since found out that everything was recoverable.

long way down.

the end point was the beginning of our adventure. we passed about 20 "residents" (and we have heard there are close to 50) who have set up camp to live there permanently. they are not living there legally but living there nicely (again, we have heard that people live in this area for roughly 1000$ a year). they plant various seeds and because of the climate things grow with no problems. just us looking we saw arugula, tomatoes, salad greens, limes, plantains, lemons, basil, and oregano BUT apparently there are papayas, mangoes, oranges further up the hill.

included within the residents are the nudists. so many times i wished my friends and family were there just so i could hear the funny witticisms they would say. case in point: getting water from the creek we look over and see a girl perched on a rock playing a ukulele. look over again...completely naked playing her ukulele. seriously it was like we entered the twilight zone and all that was in my head was "age of aquarius". its probably a good thing my camera broke...

one of the more hysterical aspects was how they get food shipped in. this is an 11 mile hike into camp therefore the residents need some supports from other places to bring in food. cut to the motor boat. looking over at the ocean, where professional surfers were surfing for the waves, we see a motor boat jetting into the surf.  next thing you know we see garbage bags being tossed into a wave from just behind its breaking crest and the boat zipping out before the next set could swamp it. INSANE! lol

in terms of us we were both pretty happy for other reasons ;) but it was cool to be immersed in a culture that was so different than the hiking culture.

our camera phones saved the day capturing out last images as we head out.

i don't know how it is possible but i am already dirty before even leaving. lol

love

she said...

 so Mark and I have been keeping a little secret...now that the family knows we will out ourselves to the facebook world and let you all know we are happily engaged ♥

 ~facebook message

we are back from an absolutely fantastic trip. not only did we have a delightful time, we had even more delightful news to share with our loved ones, both family and friends alike. it occurred soon after my last post.

we were hiking the kalalau trail. a hike i was later told is one of the top 10 hardest hikes in the usa, and rated 9/10 in difficulty. sigh. needless to say the reviewers were right. the combination of inclines, steep drops and (myself) dropping the camera in a creek, left us pretty weary (me a little worse than mark). things started to brighten up near the end of the day as mark set up camp in a nice solitary spot and we had supper under the sunset. we even saw some humpback whales breaching in the ocean.

the next morning being relaxed and feeling MUCH better, mark and i sat on a part of a wall that composed a heiau built by hawaiian natives long ago (mark wrote that bit...totally doesn't sound like me, he he he). i have to admit (although i really hate being a mush) it was an absolute perfect day. huge blue sky, sun shining, ocean in the background (with more whales surfacing) and being totally isolated from much of humanity. we sat there taking it all in when mark got up and said "tracey i love you, if you are willing to come here with me, then i will go anywhere with you. will you marry me?". then he got down on both knees with a ring in one hand. i wonder what my answer was...;)

YES! a very happy day. nothing more to say. pure bliss!

i later told him jokingly that i would be more than willing to go on more hikes if i have the promise of more shiny things in my future...we shall see about that one!

i hope you enjoy our mushy story, i promise i won't get totally mush on all of you in the future. however, mark did say we are allowed to be like this since we just got engaged!

love

aloha

thanks to my marvelous brother, it looks like i am able to make a blogpost (or maybe two) on this trip! thanks for lending us the laptop jim...its been a lifesaver a couple times thus far. we have arrived on the island of kaua'i. so far we've been having a marvelous time. it was a rough start when our plane got delayed (for six hours) in san fransico leaving us wondering about our connecting flight and haggling with our rental car company. BUT all worked out so the focus on the negative is gone.

yesterday was a day of rain, humidity and activity. we saw many sights with the fog giving a feeling of mysticism to the scenery. very nice! we took a try at paddle boarding. hard to balance but tons of fun! mark even attempted to surf...he did pretty good. we rented from a lady who moved here from b.c. in 1973. this has led me to coercing mark to live here...so far it is not working! :)

today was another busy day without the rain. we visited queens bath, kilauea lighthouse and (of course) melvin the parrot. not to mention drinking fresh coconut milk from the very thing itself! our activity of the day was surfing on hanalei beach. very fun although my wrist is paying for it now and probably will pay more tomorrow. i have many months after this for it to heal, right? i can already see mom rolling her eyes.

that sums up the trip thus far. but i must mention the food before i sign off. best burgers were from bubba's. we have tried ahi tuna (fabulous) and onaga (more fabulous). cooked with coconut oil (i think i going to bring it home by the gallon, jk) and speaking of coconut, we have enjoyed some coconut dates. everything has been way to good to us! it has been nice to stay in this condo (it has a dishwasher...eek) so we can cook all our meals for dinner...really do i ever have to go home???

tomorrow is the kalalau hike. hopefully all fairs well!

lots of love...till next time

post valentine's day

hope everyone had a very happy heart day. everything was pretty laid back here. mark once again came through with his personalized cards that i love ever so much. that, indian food (again), with a little bit of chocolate in the mix made me a very happy gal....ON TOP OF THAT, i was lucky enough to receive another valentine in the mail (LOVE YOU MOM AND DAD XOXOXOXOX)

actually speaking of my lovely parents. i was talking to them the night before and joked around with mom that valentine's was really for the women. therefore, girls shouldn't feel obligated to get their partners anything. guess what. that is just what she did, he he. dad gave her a card and roses, then asked if he got anything...mom sold me down the river saying that i said it was a women's day. lol. little did i know she would take me literally. ahh you both make me laugh so hard (especially since i talked to my beloved father today and he doesn't look/sound too crushed).

gotta go now. pretty tired since i have been studying (research no less). have to get as much down now before i see the sun, surf, sand and everything else wonderful that starts with an s!

love

hearts to you

since this blog is 1/3 love i thought i would make a shout out to all those people loving or being loved whether you are a:

mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, boyfriend, girlfriend, grandma, grandpa, uncle, aunt, cousin friend, co-worker or a lovely little furry creature!

the list can go on and on. just know that you are loved!  

happy valentine's day!

guess what?

1. the sun is shining. blue skies. melted snow. (maybe a run outside pretty soon)
2. had a movie date this weekend.
3. got him to watch one of my favourite friday night shows (he he he) and i watched one of his.
4. i am going on a trip in exactly 7 days. hiking. beaches. sun. relaxation. 
5. i am finished my paper. really it doesn't get any better than that sentence.
6. the swelling in my wrist has gone done. can't quite flex yet, but i am feeling wednesday will be my day!
7. we have left over indian food in the fridge at this very moment.
8. FINALLY jimi jam is coming over tonight!

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP! :)

be careful where you step!

hello again!

its been awhile i know BUT i do have the best excuse. i could only type with one hand. yes, that is correct, the other had undergone a sprain/strain. i don't know really, the x-rays just indicated there was soft tissue damage but no (thankfully) broken bones.

so how did this disaster occur? one word: treadmill. yes, i fell victim to a treadmill injury. i have heard of such injuries. AND i am now in good enough humor to laugh about it (the first two days...maybe not so much). what went down was this. i signed out treadmill number 6 (one i probably will never run on again). i got all my stuff ready, put my book down on the floor. stepped on to the treadmill and soon found myself on the gym floor. humiliated, shocked, embarrassed and wondering what the heck happened. one of the ladies at the gym ran right towards me. apparently she was working on the treadmill and left it running but went to go get some things. initially i felt a pain in my wrist but i thought i could work it out. so what did i do? continued to work-out for 40 minutes (was i in shock or just crazy?). the ladies at the gym came over to see how i was doing and i told them i am fine but i will know more the next day if any injuries set in. in seriousness i really just wanted them to go away because i was so embarrassed. i know they were concerned and trying to help but i just felt like a tool. everyone around me pretended like nothing ever occurred and just worked out their stress (although i am sure they had quite a laugh that morning) i think them working out just made me more self-conscience (but really i think if they all stopped i would have cried...lol). as the day progressed and the pain started to set in, in my wrist...i realized that i really did hurt it (and concluded that i must have landed on it). there were other sore tendons the next morning but nothing that a week of rest (i am sure) couldn't cure. but i did start to worry about being able to type AND being able to surf on our vacation two weeks from now.

the good news is i can type again. in great timing too as i really have to wrap up that (never-ending) paper. there is a bit of mild pain but not as bad as the last two days. i can't really move it back and forth or weight bear...but i can get my paper done so as far as i am concerned i am feeling (SO MUCH) better than yesterday and the day before.

plus the bonus sympathy from my parents is always good. times like these i need their comfort! love you both and thanks for being there!!!!

love