Quadding

Life is Happening

I'm fighting obesity and encouraging everyone else to as well

I went to Utah

I realized just how much I love these little people and living with them.

I went to Hawaii.

I did a photoshoot with my cousin Brittany.

I started working.

I'm loving my new crew

I'm dating this boy.

I'm happy. Really happy with life.

Christmas Happenings Dec. 21-23

Visiting Royall's New House

(which sadly I didn't take a single picture of our time together)
Royall and her cute family recently moved to Lethbridge. Which as it turns out is very convenient for me since I love getting to see Royall and now she lives so close. Her, Dani and I all got together and Royall fed us a wonderful lunch and then we chatted for quite a while. Moments like these are among my favourites. It just was so nice to get together and catch up.  I love that Royall lives in Lethbridge now, and her house is lovely, as is Jonas. He was so cute and even gave me a kiss when I left. It was really darling.

Ryder's Soccer Game
I missed most of Ryder's game, but seeing as he spent a bunch of time spinning in circles, I'm thinking I didn't miss a ton. But he was cute out there, trying to kick the ball. Its cute how grown up Ryder is getting, playing sports and what not.

 Reese was pretty cute too. She's kinda a funny little child. Sometimes I go "Reesey!" And she goes "Whaaat?" And I go "Whaaaat?" And it goes back and forth. I just think its funny.

Christmas Shopping

I had several days that made me feel like a super hipster. I kinda like it. And probably should have done an outfit post about it. But Christmas Shopping is such a weird time. I felt pretty over shopping upon arriving in Lethbridge. Because it is such effort and so many people. But of course no shopping is complete without repeatedly stalking something I want. And I stalked it real good.  

LCI Alumni Basketball Game
Dave told me about this Alumni game and since I kinda love Alaya and Cathy, I made sure that they were coming. Please admire the circle scarf I made for Cathy. She unintentionally was very team spirit with her green and gold. And she fully supported my hipster glasses.

I was surprised that the alumni game was actually pretty good. I fully expected old men getting beat down by some high school students. But they were neither fat nor getting beat down. The old men definitely beat the highschoolers. And it was a pretty entertaining time. It was weird being in my high school. I haven't been back since I stopped coaching the JV Rugby team about five years ago. The school is the exact same though. So I'm pretty sure I didn't miss anything. 

Jesse's Surprise
Jesse was planning on staying in Hawaii for Christmas. So it was a lovely surprise when Maikal called me down and out popped Jesse. I couldn't have been more excited. Jesse, the person I hang out with. He's my adventure friend. And I was definitely missing him when he wasn't coming home.

It was a fun surprise for everyone, having Jess show up.

The Not Thanksgiving Part II

I won't lie, getting to see my family at American Thanksgiving was nice, but it wasn't what prompted my trip. Of course, as things turned out, I had it re-confirmed for me how my family will forever be there for me. Other plans may fall through, expectations may turn dour, but my family will always rise above that. I feel very lucky that I have such a foundation in my life, that I can take a limb, but if that branch should break, that my family is there to catch me.

So in continuation with my favourite parts of my not thanksgiving weekend:

CHINESE FOOD

Family tradition is to get together and eat at the Mandarin. Its just what we do. The chinese food is pretty top notch. And the fact that we gather all together and take up half the restaurant is comical. I had to re-tell my mugging story about four times and the main responses were that first and foremost, that the boy cousins were disappointed that years of being with them didn't teach me to punch and hit and inflict any punishment on my muggers. The second response (from a much smaller portion of Aunties) was that they were horrified that I would ever walk around by myself. To each I rolled my eyes. Even though those kids were doing a terrible thing to me, I honestly could not bring myself to hit them back. No, I didn't go easily. I defended myself by trying to keep them away. But there was no offensive attack. Its a hard mentality to get over, the feeling that inflicting pain on someone else is bad, especially since on occasion it can be called for.

Since the mugging, I keep thinking about how I ought to have punched and kicked them back rather than just passively trying to keep them away. But I can't change my actions. But I do think my cousins and brothers are right - they were attacking me, and I needed to do more than just try to keep them off, I needed to more proactively defended myself. But its easy for them to say I should have done that after the fact. Especially, since I have never needed to defend myself in such a manner before.

As for never walking alone; As a single person I have always felt that I cannot afford to be afraid to be alone and to be afraid of where I live. Because there is nothing I can do about being alone. And if I only went outside with someone else, I would honestly very rarely go outside. I live alone. I need to be ok walking alone. I need to be ok on my own. I like being unafraid, even when people think I'm foolish for it. I know pretty much everyone thinks that I ought to have such fear now; It would be a rational response. But I am not a fearful sort of person. And I don't want to be. Has walking outside in the dark by myself been tough? Yes. Which is something I quite honestly didn't expect, considering I wasn't afraid while the whole situation was occurring or immediately thereafter. But that kind of fear is unacceptable to me. I don't want to live in fear, however justified it may be. Of course, this experience has affected me. But I've had worse things to get over than a fear of walking alone. And I absolutely plan on working past the small fear that has settled in my subconscious.

NATALIE
Sometimes I forget how seriously funny Nat and Dave are. And how its a shame that I live so far away and don't get to spend much time with them. So it was kinda wonderful that this weekend allowed me to spend some serious quality time with Nat. We hung around the house and chatted, and I really liked it. As sister-in-laws go, I'm pretty sure I've been very lucky. Because both of mine are beyond great.

WEDDINGS THAT ARE MORE ABOUT THE 
COUSIN SLASH FAMILY TIME

Is it rude that I pretty much only like some weddings because of the people I get to be there with?
Because thats pretty regularly the case. We got some lovely malts from a gas station - because where else would you get them from really - and did some major dodging of some stranger danger hugger. Tiffany is a quick learner. Good work team.

And last but not least...

COUSIN GAME NIGHT.

After Chinese food we head over to Maikal and Brittany's to play games. After making me demonstrate some self defense moves we played several rounds of Werewolf (which is a rad game). I loved the cousins. A little bit though, they were the quickest rounds of Werewolf I've ever played, and kinda lame. Which is a shame considering Werewolf in Edmonton used to be a staple. The Cousins are great though. Always are. My favourite part was that we played the entire game in Maikal and Brittany's bedroom on their super bed.


Long and short of it - I probably wouldn't come home again for American Thanksgiving. Which may never be an issue depending on where I end up in life. Basically I think weekend trips are kind of a bust and never really turn out for me. I'm glad I got to be apart of these highlighted good parts. But for future reference I think I'll pass.