My crazy brother

Who knew that my brother had it in him?

Lookn' good!

You know you are old when...

... your younger brother is graduating from high school. That means that my own graduation was 6 years ago. Wow! He is that same little boy that some of my friends remember singing West Side Story tunes with us.

He is all grown up now - and I am proud of him!

Today he wears the gown and the hat that looks stupid on everyone! And then to the party where everyone is dressed in their best. And my mom will be biting her nails because Matthew has not told her what he is wearing. And has told me that it is surprising! But his date went with him a second time to the tux rental place to make sure that he matches her white dress - so things can't be that bad!

Here is to my little brother - though he may be a foot taller than me, will always be my little brother - Congratulations on your Graduation!

It has been awhile.

Sorry it has been so long. Please don't give up on me. Working full time is a drag. There just isn't enough time in the day. Logan and I have been spending much of our free time on the internet trying to find 2 bedroom places to rent. Apparently the house boom has created a housing shortage. Not only are there too many people moving here a day - they have put a stop to any new building contracts until they catch up on what they are trying to do now. So that means that the 2 bedroom or more places and being snatched up as quickly as places to buy. That, and the people doing the renting don't return calls - because they don't have to. Renters will pursue them - they don't have to call you back. So you have to keep calling and calling.

Today we walked to a place right behind us. The actual apartment looked great. And she assured us that they were renovating the whole building. Right now, it had plastic runners over the forest green, worn out shag carpet, with brown glass hanging by a chain light fixtures in the halls and stairs. Not a great first impression.

It was nice - but didn't blow us away and she said that they were going to be making a decision today so someone could move in July 1st. So, count us out!

I am trying to contact (hound) two places right now. Cross your fingers. One is a duplex with 3 bedrooms, a fire pit in the back yard and a washer and dryer to ourselves (a huge plus for me - I hate shared - there are no rules or etiquette to it and people take your clothes out of the machines and put there's in!). The other is a row house/townhouse bi-level in the area we are in now. I haven't seen it - but if it is the ones I think it is we will be very lucky!!

Misc information

Red Leaf Studios, our wedding photographers, have posted on their website our two large collages they have put together for us. We will be receiving them in 16x20 prints. I think they are beautiful. To check them out:
www.red-leaf-studios.com
at the bottom right corner (under the images) click "client access"
on the second page click our picture
the password is "glass".
Enjoy!



Today is my good friend Nicole Olszewski's 21st birthday!

Happy Birthday!!

As promised, here is a photo of one of the four blankets I made! Two of the others were diagonal line patters and the fourth was blocks of colours.

Emotions got in the way.

Nearly a year after the wedding I am finally sitting down with all of the video I have collected to put it together. When you ask most people if anything went wrong on their wedding day, they will have a story. For me, I had so many great people helping me that it was damn near perfect. My only regret - MY emotions getting in the way when I got to the mic.

I had everything planned and put together, except a speech on paper. It was in my head, of course, but when you get up in front of all of those people that are there because they love you. Wow. Nothing beats that. So, sure enough, I nearly loose it. Logan saved the day with a little humor - but I no longer could put two words together. There were so many people that I wish I would have thanked publicly!!!

To make matters worse - I have been watching the raw footage from our extremely stupid videographer. I am seeing things that I never would have had the chance to see. There were so many people doing things I had no idea were even going on. So here is my short list of thank you's that I wish I could have said in front of everyone while I had the mic.

Nicole: my stage manager. You really pulled everything together. I can never thank you enough. And after watching all that you did - you really were everything I had hoped and knew that you would be!

Alexis, Danielle & Nicolle: You lovely ladies arrived to the dinner and were in there right away to help light the millions of candles that I had laid out and expected one person to light (above all of the other things that I had asked her to do). I thank you. I had no idea.

Jesse, Ben & Jason: Thank you for helping clean up the church! And Ben for helping strike the lights at the end of the night!!!



Uncle Gord & Auntie Shelley: For helping us find our place in Calgary (a GREAT place might I add) and help us feel comfortable there. Especially for making Logan feel not so alone for the 8 months while he was there by himself!




And perhaps my biggest thank you:
To the Zubick Family: You showed up days early. Were involved in making every aspect perfect. From Brad running out to get whatever it was we needed. To Kathleen making those decisions that just needed to be made and getting the job done!! And my beautiful little ones who helped more than some of the big kids! To Patrick for being the best program boy ever (there is a great shot of you on the video doing your thing). To all of you for averting the program crisis when they mysteriously made it back to our house after the rehearsal! And for all of the countless things that I got to see you help with on the video - and for the millions of other things that I did not see. I don't know what I would have done without you guys!!!!!!!!

It really touches the heart to see so many people going out of their way to help make our day the perfect day that it was!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Today's post is dedicated to my dad!

To his birthday (June 7th) and to today (Father's Day)!

I miss you - and I love you!

Cheers ! To my Dad!

My sister is moving to Calgary!!!

I am happy to announce that my sister has been accepted to SAIT here in Calgary, in the Respiratory Technician Program. She will be moving here in August. I couldn't be happier.

In order to assist my sister, Logan and I have been looking at finding a two bedroom place to rent. (At first we were thinking of buying. HA. With house prices rising $1100 a day, the houses are prices three times what they are worth. We can't even afford a condo smaller than our apartment). There are a couple of cute houses posted on the internet that we are planning on looking at. I really hope that we can find a place that is as great as the place we have now.

I love our little apartment. I can walk to the theatres to work, and am really close to WestJet headquarters. We are also really close to the Chinook for Logan. It is inexpensive and all of the flooring, tiles and appliances are new! We are very lucky to have found this place. I hope there is a two bedroom place out there that will rival our current home!

Hey Amanda, how far away is Summerland from the airports WestJet flies into: Kelowna, Prince George , Vancouver or Abbotsford? I would love to come out there and see you guys.

Is there any end in sight?!?

Today is the 3 billionth day of rain in a row. I don't really know what is going on. It is the middle of June and I don't think we have seen any sun. Today looked promising. We got up late, and headed out to check out some places. The sun was shining. Sure there were tiny showers while the sun was out - but it seemed harmless. After hitting up the grocery store (and the liquor store), we came home to enjoy a martini on the balcony. We had a pleasant hour and a half before I headed in to start dinner. It was still sunny and warm as I walked through the door to the kitchen, Logan started the BBQ and headed in to help. Five minutes later there is a huge crack of thunder and the clouds opened. That was twenty minutes ago. The lightning is bright, the thunder is wall shaking and the rain is coming down in sheets. And still our chicken and asparagus cooks away. Oh wait, it is now coming down sideways. This rain has got to stop or it is going to flood like last year. Not that we have to worry - being on the 4th floor of an apartment that is on a huge hill.

It is now official

I wrote my final yesterday. 98%. Whoo hooo!
Tomorrow is my last day of training.
I am officiall an employee now - as you can see from my very official ID.

Pics from the trip home

One of my priority stops while in Regina was visiting new parents Lani & Regan Baisley. This is Lani with 4 week old Sydney Paige. Very Cute!















I also really liked this picture from the plane. As I was saying a couple of days ago - dark and gloomy in Regina and Calgary - but beautiful from above.

Short weekend home

Two days are not long enough to be home and visit. It is always great to get home but it is always stressful. Trying to see even half the people that you should is impossible. So you make a mental list of people that you are going to see this visit and catch the others next visit. Once again I did not achieve this list!

I had a great time at the casino with my family - spending time with my grandparents I love! I also had the opportunity to see Lani and her husband Regan and their 4 week old baby, Sydney Paige. Beautiful baby! We also got to visit, shortly, with Owien and Alana that are expecting at the end of July. Turned out to be a baby weekend.

I got to give out two of the four blankets I made while I was unemployed. They are very cute (if I do say so myself) flannelette quilts. The third went to Amanda and her "kicky boots" in Summerland, and the fourth is yet to be given. The camera is in Regina with Logan so I will put a picture of the blankets on the blog tomorrow.

My favorite thing about flying.

It's not the snack mix or the child sized cup of pop, or even the WestJet song we were serenaded with tonight - it is the clouds. Both flights this weekend were from cloudy city to cloudy city. As you climb through the air you leave the dreary, gray light and disappear into white. And if you are lucky - as we were on the way home tonight - it is not a solid band of clouds but there are gaps. There were empty pockets of space so you could see the other clouds and their shapes and levels. And then you burst through and it is like a fluffy carpet - and in this case the sun was setting so they were glowing pink. It is fascinating to me the different ways clouds are shaped - and how soft they look. And from above, no matter how thick and gray below, they don't look that menacing. The sun is out and it is like you could run around on the layer of cotton candy.

If I see another hand in the air...

Today was the end of the second of four weeks of training for WestJet, and I couldn't be more frustrated. The class moves so slowly that I might kill someone - I'm actually not sure how I have not done so yet. The class style is "wait for everyone to be on the same page". There are some people out there that I am unsure how they get to work every morning. And the groans are getting louder as they ask for clarification on the same thing for the fifty thousandth time!

Today we spent the entire day with a different "teacher" for Customer Care. We were talking about call flow and how to fill dead air while we are typing or looking something up. The teacher says "it could be as simple as an open ended question about why they are traveling - so instead of saying "So you are going to your daughter's wedding" say "tell me about the wedding plans"". This lady actually put up her hand to ask for a definition of an open ended question and if she could get a couple more examples of "good ones". And the worst part is that she used to teach. I know that this may not be the appropriate forum to vent - but HOLY CRAP!

In lighter news - we used my fight prevailed for the first time yesterday - Logan flew to Regina. I have to say that I felt so proud while I was walking through the airport that I almost wanted to put on my WestJet ID. It is cheesy but I have never been so brainwashed by a company - I am really proud to be associated with them.

Best job perks ever!

On Friday - for the last few hours of training I sat on the phones with a lady that has worked there for 4 1/2 years. One of her first questions was "have they showed you how to look up your flight perks?" They had not. As a WestJet employee I pay $2.50 for a plane ticket anywhere in Canada WestJet (and a couple other airlines) fly. Of course, we have to pay the GST, Airport Improvement Fees and Surcharges. Every airport is different.

To fly out of Calgary I will be paying $23
out of Regina $18
out of Toronto $7

to name a few! I am so excited about this job. So, needless to say - we will be flying all over the place this summer!

The only bad news is - I do not get "buddy" passes until I finish my probation. So not until Aug. So for the rest of you, no cheap flying yet (except the mom's who are down as my "parent passes").

Just as much a keener as ever.

In high school, and university to a lesser degree, I was all about marks. I worked as hard as I could to get perfect grade while putting in as little effort as possible. Today, and this whole WestJet experience, are just further proof. Yesterday on a little quiz I got 100%. Today we were to write an exam that we were allowed to bring in a cheat sheet for. Even though I did not feel as though the material was challenging enough to warrant a cheat sheet - I made a beautiful sheet. The teacher featured mine as a good example of choosing important information. When the exams were returned at the end of the day I saw 30.5/31. I asked about the 1/2 mark (knowing that I was right). He said that he would check it out and let me know if I could have that half mark back.

Meanwhile, in order to "pass" and continue to work you have to achieve 85%. Over half the class did not meet that bench mark. There I am, at the front of the class discussing 1/2 a mark.

Oh well, old habits die hard.