Same old, same old

I've got writers block. Well sort of. I've got things on my mind but I don't know how to articulate them onto here, or even if I should. I haven't blogged in ages, and I feel bad because I check back almost daily to see if any of you guys have updated your blogs. The other problem is that there really isn't anything new in my life! I get asked that question anytime I catch up with an old friend, or work with someone I haven't seen in a while. Even then I have no solid answer. "Oh you know, same old same old." The funny part is how true that is. But I want to blog. I want to tell you something new and exciting, or even give you a window into our lives. So lets see if I can muster up some news.

My good friend Stephanie May got married to her brave warrior Chad Vandermeulen this past Saturday. Engagement announcement here. They are just the beginning of many friends my age getting married, and I will still be single. Which is okay, I want to wait for my perfect match as patiently as possible.

Only a month left before I go back to school. Doing my first in class practicum this semester and I am really quite nervous. Sad that summer is almost over, but yet excited to change up the daily routine again.

I officially joined PartyLite as a consultant, and am slowly trying to build my business. It's exciting and frustrating all at the same time.

Getting excited for Cortona in January! The remainder of preparations won't happen until October or later, but I think I have the money portion prepared. Mom and I have also been planning (and dreaming) about our three week trip together after my semester is done. Right now it looks like we're doing London, Italy, Czech (Prague), Austria (Vienna), maybe Greece, maybe Turkey, maybe Germany. We're stuck between seeing as much as possible, and allowing time to spend extra days in our favourites.

There are other things going on in my life, but I'm not ready to blog about them at this point. If the timing becomes appropriate, you will know. If not, consider it unimportant. Funny though, I came up with more to talk about than I expected. Interesting how that sometimes happens isn't it?

Kittens make my world go round

I could sit outside for hours watching these guys play. Best part of Spring/Summer by far. The remarkable part of this year is watching how quickly they grow - and being able to see the difference each time a new batch of babies are born. I remember when the first batch was the size of the third batch. My how time flies.

On a side note, the last time I posted about kittens was last summer - when Ebony and Charlie were babies. Now they each have their own litter of kittens.

This is...my life.

Again, I realized that it has been days since I lasted posted. Sometimes I really don't know what to write about - there isn't much exciting going on in my life, and any thoughts/emotions I have are basically the same as the last post. Except maybe not as violent. I supposed I need to remember that the daily happenings here are boring to me, but they may still be of interest to you.

• Re: Apologies. Still angry, but getting better. I find my refuge in the Lord, because there is nowhere else to go, no one else to turn to, and no one else can make it better. And even that is a slow process. I wrote him a letter, since that seems to be the only way I can communicate without screaming and crying. Haven't given it to him yet and I don't think it will do any good. But at least I'll have said my peace. He's never going to give me the apology I desire, so I think I just need to accept that.
• I gave my room the most extensive cleaning that it has ever received since we moved to Alberta. I sorted out my closet, under my bed, etc. and I discovered that I'm a serious packrat. For example, I found an old La Senza bag under my bed, and inside this bag were...more bags...and a shoebox. Inside the shoebox were...even more bags! I threw out a large garbage bag of stuff I could burn, and a second large garbage bag of stuff to go to Salvation army. I even found two old backpacks stashed in the back - both broken and unuseable. Why?!
• I finished the end of summer swim lessons. No more being a drowned rat for at least a month! Yay!! We've also started our annual pool shutdown. The pools will be closed for two weeks, and in this time we have the opportunity to do some cleaning that we can only do when there are no public in the building. So far we've: drained all four pools (leisure pool, lane pool, hot tub and whirlpool), scrubbed a few equipment/janitor room floors with grime away (an acid complex cleaner), organized these equipment/janitor rooms, CLR'd the slide (and accidently stripped some paint off it too), and began cleaning/organizing one of our mechanical rooms. As hard of work as it is...I'm enjoying it! I come home exhausted, but I feel like I've accomplished something. Also, it is cool seeing all the pools empty. The lane pool alone holds over 80 million litres of water. Wow.
• At the moment I'm watching American Outlaws (one of my favorite movies of all time - highly recommend it), making supper (marinated salmon and rice), and getting ready for one more day of shutdown before we head off camping in Saskatchewan. Last big excitement before school starts next Thursday. Ugh.

Well that sums up my life for the past few weeks...hope you enjoyed the brief insight to my life. Ciao till next time.

Anticipation

In reflection of my last post, I find myself in a state of anticipation. Not necessarily a state of looking forward to anything, as in being excited about everything that is to come. Some things yes, I'm excited for. But some things not so much. In the next few days, weeks, and months, here are some of the things I am anticipating:

• The end of summer swim lessons. I enjoy teaching, this is why I am taking Education at the University. However, I am tired of being wet and chlorinated every day. I look forward to being dry for more than 3 days in a row.
• Leduc Recreation Centre Pool's annual shutdown. I still have to go to work, partially because I am a supervisor at the pool, and I am (surprisingly) of use to them at this time. This one is more of an anticipation because it involves alot of cleaning. Not just every day wipe the windows type of cleaning. Actual dirt-on-your-knees cleaning. However, I do look forward to possibly learning something new about how the pool works though.
• Camping! Last camping trip of the summer before I head back to school and we're headed to Saskatchewan. Yes!! Saskatchewan has better lakes than Alberta - by far. We are joining another family from our church for a few days in Meadow Lake.
• The start of the 09/10 school year. Definitely just an anticipation. This means studying, lack of a social life, and more moths in my wallet.
• Taking my IPT (first education practicum) second semester. Not sure yet if this is just an anticipation or something more exciting. I'm nervous, yet excited to do something more related to my career.
• SNOWBOARDING! Please do not be upset with me, and understand that I LOVE summer. But I can not wait to shred some powder and get back on the mountains. I'm planning a trip to Panorama in BC for reading week with some friends.

That is all that is on my mind at the moment. I know there is probably more, since I tend to stress and worry about needless things. Big breath...one step at a time. Here we go.

Lightening: 1 Puny Humans: 0

Re: Thunderstorms

I still love thunderstorms. I still love to watch the massive display of raw power, and hear its crash just seconds later. I think its cool, and I think it makes cool pictures. I don't like to work on these nights - for several reasons. 1) I'm stuck inside, and unable to watch the storm 2) I'm focused on protecting other people while they are at the pool 3) The roads are usually a gong show afterwards on my way home.

All this you already knew about me. What is new, is my blatant realization of exactly how dangerous and powerful these storms really are. This last one that hit central Alberta spanned from Red Deer/Camrose to Edmonton/Devon/Leduc area. Again, I was working. Here is the effect of the storm on some of these locations.

Leduc: Trees on powerlines, cops having a nightmare with roads. Large objects previously thought unmovable flying across the sky. Lost connection with Leduc's major power source - blackout across 90% of Leduc. The only place with power? The pool. This is because you have to do some serious damage to make us get more than a power surge. You have to kill a transformer entirely. We had a few power surges, causing the lights to go out for about 10 minutes at a time, a few alarms to go off, and fire/ems to show up because the alarms go off. Our roof is being repaired, so it rained inside the building alot more than usual.

Devon (aka my house): When my parents got home they discovered that our big glass patio table had been shattered by the hail. Not just cracked. Shattered. Our garden was flattened, and our patio swing canopy was mangled. Leaves, branches, and sometimes full trees everywhere. The Devon outdoor pool had to deal with large tree branches in the pool. No worries, they clear it the second it looks like lightening.

Camrose: Big Valley Jamboree was on this weekend, and you may or may not have seen this on the news. The insane wind caused their main, big performance stage to flip, trapping people underneath. At least one person was presumed dead before the end of the night, and there were at least 15 people in critical condition. The last day of the event was cancelled.

Yep. Lightening/Hail/Wind gets a score of one, and the pathetic humans get none.

Something New and Exciting

It would seem there are quite a few of us struggling with writers block. I noticed that I hadn't blogged in a few days, and I felt the need for an update. However, I don't know what to write on either!! Even browsing a few of your blogs I didn't pick up any ideas in particular. I don't even do anything overly exciting to tell you what I've been up to. :( For example... Since I last blogged I have:
- been to work
- taught adorable children how to swim
- completed some
- incompleted others
- seen Transformers 2 (for the second time) in IMAX (for the first time)
- cleaned my room,
- let it get messy again
- paid bills
- got depressed at my lack of spending cash
- cheered up at the thought of getting paid on Friday
- got depressed at my debt from travelling such that getting paid does not result in spending cash
- browsed pictures from Europe and cheered up again
- gone shopping anyways
- had a weiner roast with Colette
- started planning "Kyra & Colette in Europe - take 2"
- slept in
- stayed up late
- watched most of the first season of The Mentalist (strongly recommend it)
- added to and counted up my movie collection (I'm at 80 - averaging each at $20 that would be $1600 worth of movies - wow)
- baked cookies
- baked cookies again
- got a swimsuit sunburn
- read the Twilight saga for the second time
- reminded myself why I dislike the lane pool at work so much (pool chemistry is frustrating sometimes...most of the time...always)
- got the oil changed in my car
- went camping at a friends cabin
- went camping with the fam

etc....

Tonight I'm going to see The Proposal with my Mom. We are in much need of a Mother/Daughter date. I'm no longer a little kid (even if my outward appearance deceives you), and we need time to work on being friends instead of just parent & child. I've wanted to see this movie for a while, but since all the other movies I want to see I've already made plans to see with friends, this one is for my Mom. I guess that's all I really do each week - work, sleep, and go see movies with friends. It's the easiest thing to do when you want to hang out - no matter how different your work schedules are, usually there is a late enough - or early enough - show playing somewhere in Edmonton. However, I seriously need something spontaneous to do. Something completely random that I can go camera happy with and just have a grand ol' time.

Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! Well I suppose looking at the clock now, Canada Day was technically yesterday. Happy Canada Day nonetheless. I certainly hope you got the chance to enjoy some Canada Day festivities - such as a parade - or my personal favorite - FIREWORKS! Oh how I love fireworks. I get totally mesmerized watching fireworks. All those pretty colors and flashing lights. Ahhh. I had to work tonight, but conveniently, the Leduc fireworks are situated in the baseball diamonds right next to the Rec Center where I work. Second convenience: I am a pool supervisor, I have the key to the roof. Best seats in the house, guaranteed. All day we heard rumors of a fabulously huge fireworks (sing.) 16 1/2, whatever that means. Biggest one in Canada, never before used in Canada. Straight from China. I had originally thought it would be in Edmonton, but it was in the Leduc Rep, and everyone was convinced it would be in Leduc. So sweet! Best seats in the house, for the best fireworks show in Canada. NOT. Unless we got ourselves so hyped up that we missed it, there were no special fireworks. Just the same ones we see every year. Normally I wouldn't object - like I said, I love fireworks! But they told me there would be a fireworks known as the nuke. I'm so disappointed! Maybe the other disappointment is due to Disneyland fireworks. Once you've seen those, well, nothing ever compares. Road trip anyone?

Thunderstorms

One of my favorite things about spring/early summer is the thunderstorms. I always sit on my bed watching out the window for every flash of lightening. As I get older the urge to go outside and get soaked increases. Last night we had a thunderstorm - but I was stuck at work! Ugh! Instead of frolicking in the pouring rain and watching the beautiful flashes of electricity I was watching children splash around inside. It didn't even last until we left work. Nope, when it was time to leave it had all cleared up and was sunny! I missed most of the spring thunderstorms while I was in Europe, and I can't even get a good one now that I'm back. Not fair.

My "real" summer begins today. That's because summer swimming lessons begin today. I get to teach all four sessions of lessons, and I really don't mind. I'm taking Education in University, so I'd better love what I do. The only problem with teaching swimming lessons so much is the perma-stench of chlorine that engrains itself into my skin. I'll have a weeks worth of hot showers before it goes away. Yuck.

Finally, the highlight of my day. Colette comes home tonight!!! Lucky bum has still been in Europe for all of June. Taking some classes, but nevertheless, still in Europe. I won't see her until tomorrow at work, but I'm so excited! Unfortunate souls, also known as coworkers, that have to put up with our reunion. Muwahahahaha.

Baking Cookies

Hopefully you've made your way over here without a problem. Cobblestone Chronicles is idling quiet until I can revive my travel needs. In the meantime, I thought I could continue to share my thoughts, feelings and what goes on in this side of the world. I've discovered I always feel better after I've expressed my emotions. Even when those emotions started out good! I'm now quite settled in to my "regular" summer routine. Sleeping in, relaxing, and then going to work. Unfortunately I don't see my family as often with this schedule, and I also don't see alot of my friends that I don't already work with. But I gotta work to support my habits... (I'm sure you know the feeling.) Today is a 'day off'. A day off? Isn't every day a day off if you get to sleep in? Yesterday was a day off as well. Two days without heading in to the pool to watch people swim! Yay!! To celebrate, my Mom took me out to get pedicures done. Silly thought, I work in super-chlorinated, very wet environment. How long could it possibly last?? So I got bright metallic blue toenails. Why not have fun with it! Today I'm baking cookies. I think I do more 'work' on my days off. My reasoning today was as follows. 1. Its not hot like it was yesterday 2. Fresh baking always makes the house warm and inviting 3. I love fresh cookies.

Oh, and as a side note: If you haven't already - go see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Never as good as the first one (movies are like that I guess), but still pretty intense! Check it out!!