weekends are happy

I was right. That friday was amazing. I got my toes done by a little chinese man, it was entertaining making him attempt nail art :) We had Sushi Cushi lunch which was amazing, then cooked dinner at my place. YUM Dance parties were had and it was a good time. I unfortunately didn't take any pictures.
Last weekend was also very good. Mom and Dad came in on Friday, and Colin too. We had a family dinner, it was nice--just missing lindz. Saturday after a huge breakfast Colin and I headed off to Steinbach Mennonite Village to explore our heritage. It was really neat to read some of the information and take pics all over menno-ville.

Then we got lost trying to find New Bothwell, I wanted to go to the cheese factory. When we finally found it, it was closed. We met up with friends in the evening for the corn maze, which was sooooo fun. We almost got kicked out, the boys were throwing corn and nearly took out some children. They had to take off running to escape the "maze patrol". Overall a good weekend.
Works not too bad, I'm at a hall right by the apartment this week. It's nice waking up at 705 and being at work by 720.
peace out
ps. it's cold now.

I'm so excited to spend time with friends today. I love the people in my life!!! Details will follow, but I see cocktails, guacamole, and dance parties on the horizon. (after a sushi lunch and a mani/pedi...Good day!!)

I haven't had a moment

Aly and I in our new apartment...first morning (after finally getting all our stuff in at 11pm the night before)

I told you that I would suck at this! The last month has been rediculous. Packing up all my belongings and moving out of my lil firehouse....all the way approximately 5 blocks across town :) I no longer live alone, my little sister is my roomie and it's been great so far. A few moving days were slightly stressful, cleaning, throwing crap out, organizing...all that fun stuff that everyone loves. We're now basically settled in. We still need to get pictures up on the wall, which will happen after we paint over the previous tennants nail holes.
I can't tell you how much I love having my lil sis around. Even if we're not up to much, at least there's company. Like this afternoon she sat and did homework in the living room and I washed walls. We hit the gym for a half hour while our pizza dough rose, and now it's just come out of the oven. So I'm gonna go. I will not promise that I'll get better at this, but I will say that I'll make an effort to give updates a little more frequently.

Pump drill

Training at the academy the other day with Engine 101, Rescue 5, Ladder 2 and us Engine 26. It was nice to go over some pumping, although I'd already gone through the exact same day two months ago. So I took pictures--much to everyone's excitement.

Nothing else really exciting to report. Although I watched Nancy Drew the other night, was almost embarrassed to rent it, and then ended up getting pretty freaked out watching it--even more embarrassing!!

stick your face on my fridge

I love pictures. I love being surrounded by my friends and family. I love looking at their joyful faces and remembering what was so darn funny at that moment in time. It makes me happy. Last night Cecile and I went on a dollarama mission to find pineapple stuff, and balloons to make a pinata. I hate going to dollarama because I always end up buying stuff that I don't need, like yesterday's sleeping mask purchase. I guess I can justify it, cause I sleep during the day a lot and so I need it to keep the light out??. HAha but I tried it out last night and woke up this morning with it on the floor somewhere.
The dollarama purchase that I do not regret is a page of magnet. It's sticky on one side and it perfect for putting pictures on and cutting out. I stayed up until 2am picking pictures of the people I'm crazy about and trying to fit them onto one page. Yes it could have waited until this morning...but I had a surge of energy and just needed their faces on my fridge.

your mind says go but your body says no...that's muscular dystrophy

So it's apparent from my blog that when I go back to work I am too tired/busy to do much else. But since it's gross outside, looks like my four days off will actually be used for relaxing instead of gallivanting to the beach or something.
I volunteered for Muscular Dystrophy today. They have a drive at Safeway's across Winnipeg to raise money for research and equipment for people with MD. The fire department has always been a huge supporter of MD so I thought I'd do my part on this rainy Saturday. I was the first person there this morning and was on my own at the table for almost two hours. I find it super awkward to ask people for money. I also have "phantom shyness". haha, I have myself convinced that I'm shy or something. Then at some point my brain remembers that I'm definately not!! So once I started talking to customers and getting some of the employees to come check out the display I felt way more comfortable. A few ladies that have MD showed up to volunteer with their families. It was really interesting because I've never met anyone with muscular dystrophy before. The one woman is 40 and only found out she had it 4 years ago. I can't even imagine how devastating that would be. She said that she went through a period of anger, and that it was really frustrating through the diagnosis process. Today she is a happy woman, sitting in her wheelchair with her 13month old grandbaby in her arms. I give these people a lot of credit for the bravery and strength that they have to battle this disease.

i am not creative at all

I am super jealous of my friend Cecile. She is creative. I am not. Cecile spent hours painting her dining room ceiling with an intricate design, I made up a lame card game once. Cecile buys ugly furniture and puts hours of sweat and love into it and turns it into something beautiful, I....spray paint things black. haha. BUT times are changing! I decided that I wanted a nine-drawer dresser to for my bedroom. I've been hunting for weeks wherever I go. Cecile even took me out to smelly second hand stores, couldn't find anything that caught my eye. I came home to Brandon this week to hang out with my family and I stopped in at a used furniture store downtown and found this beautiful behemoth of a dresser. 9 drawers just like i wanted. I didn't get a "before" picture unfortunately because we poured paint stripper on it the moment it got into the garage. It was painted white over some grey-ish stain. I've been in the garage all week with paint stripper and a heat gun...and plenty of fumes which make for interesting thought patterns. I've mostly finished the drawers, they're sanded down and just have the sides and the parts between the drawers to sand on the actual dresser.
I can't believe I've had the patience to work on this all week. It feels pretty good to look at something and know that you've made it good. I'd like to thank Cecile for inspiring me to find my creative side, and my dad for all his tools and stuff. haha