First time for everything

It has been a long time coming,
but I finally did it,
I finally drove to Saskatoon.
It was my first trip to the toon,
and now I can't figure out why
it took me so long to get there.

It was a great weekend as far as weather goes too, which may have added to the greatness I attribute to Saskatoon, because it was the first hot weekend of the year. And I love all things hot:
food
weather
candies
boys

So the fact that the sun was hot and shining and we did such things as played soccer and football, went to a walk-in DQ, and had a bbq while lounging and tanning on the balcony... definitely contributed to my love of the weekend and my first time in Saskatoon.

Another first occurred Friday afternoon.
I was Trent's patient.
Yep.

Even after being a clinical teacher for the U of A's 2nd year dental students and knowing how chaotic it is and how little they know - I still got in the chair.
Trent is brilliant though, so I really wasn't afraid.
And I put a lot of trust in the fact that he kinda likes me and would therefore do his very best and try very hard not to hurt me - especially because he knows I know what he's doing.

It was a great afternoon. We even made friends with the middle-aged dental hygienist who didn't used to like Trent because she thought he was a slacker and didn't respect dental hygienists. Turns out, once she knew he was dating one, all the wrath melted away and she became very friendly and ended up finding some burnished calculus on the mesial of my 33 (that's a shout out to my dentally inclined friends - sorry to the rest of you) and got rid of it for me and my papilla was already looking much better even by Sunday.

We went 5 pin bowling Friday night with a great crew and had a friendly competition between couples (dating or strangers, we paired everyone up) and Trent and I totally dominated. But that wasn't a first :)

Side story: I was totally kicking Trent's butt (because yes I was secretly competing with my partner) the entire first game, right up to the final frame. Somehow in that 10th frame he managed to not only catch up, but beat me. Seriously?! I was so frustrated and shocked. I had been schooling him. I don't know how he managed to pull out that win. Dang luck.

So Saskatoon isn't that bad, I really quite liked it even. Okay I loved it.

Colourful Night

Not a lot of pics because I was a little pre-occupied, but it was a good night.

I love a lot of things and a good reason to dress up is one of them; be it costume or ball gown, I'll take it. So I didn't quite have a ball gown on hand... but some girls did.

We had a great committee put together, how I got made co-chair is beyond me.



Lindsay was in charge of decorations and she is brilliant. She came to our second meeting with full sketches of how the gym would look. And it looked good. Even in sketch form. Several exhausting hours later and 12 too many trips up and down the giant ladder, the gym started to look like the sketches.




Full with red carpet and piano man at the entrance (I just don't have a pic of the piano man because I actually never had a chance to go out to the entrance night of... kinda sad really - hope it was grand)


Why didn't I ever get to see the entrance? Well as it turns out being made co-chair turned into being made co-mc.


But don't worry, busy as the night was, there is always time for a little photo opp...

It would seem wrong not to acknowledge

GLEE!!!!!!
TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!

Need I really say more?
No.
You know.
We are united in our love of Degrassi meets Highschool Musical drama and music and scandals.
The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here.
T - 2.5 hours

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMy-6kJP0jY

Easterness

My family loves traditions. Like, move over Tevye the Frache's are in town and they LOVE tradition! Why do we do what we do? "Tradition!"

As such, it being Easter weekend last weekend, what do the Frache's do? Dye eggs at grandma's and hunt for them the next day before easter dinner! These things are a given. Why? Tradition!






Dying easter eggs is so much fun. I wish I did it more than once a year. But perhaps then I wouldn't love it as much.





I love family, holidays, and yes - traditions!

Name's on the list but face is a blank

It has been brought to my attention that it has been much too long since the castle's last blog entry. Where have I been you ask? Funny, my bishop is wondering the same thing. I finally got a phone call today saying that the bishop wants to meet with me. I moved into Millcreek at the beginning of December. I have never met the bishop. We are strangers to each other. Now don't go thinking I'm innactive. I am very active. Ask Bishop Willoughby. He has seen me more Sundays since Christmas break than my own bishop.

You see, I have been MIA from Edmonton weekends 9 out of 12 Sundays since Christmas. I plead innocence though. I can't help that all of my friends decided to get married in February and March this year. Or that Michelle decided it'd be cool to spend a month in the hospital, causing me such anxiety that I simply had to go down and take her outside because she hadn't felt the sun in 2 weeks by the time I came to her relief!

I think I've had perfectly reasonable explanations for my absenteeism.

The only unfortunate thing is that I don't really foresee my attendance record in Millcreek improving any time soon... for example I'm going to Saskatoon this weekend so count me out once again (though last time I was at church, my name still wasn't on the attendance record so hey they can't be missing me that much). But it only conitues from there: I'll be going down to Lethbridge to play with Kortney before she gets married; she's getting married; you can count on a couple more sask trips; then it's summer and I hope everyone knows where my priority location is in the summer; and I'm going to Europe for a month June 23 - July 22. So as you can see... despite the fact that I have a career and really do spend plenty of time in Edmonton... my bishop may never know that... but now you do.

My apologies for the lack of update (Michelle et al.) but I was busy running around trying to make everyone happy. Happy now?

I am an Olympian!

So while the internet has been on the fritz here at the castle, I've been off making spontaneous decisions. Like the one I made to go to the Olympics. Yep. Just up and bought a plane ticket and flew out a couple days later. Just because I could. And I wanted to. So from talking to Trent Monday night, to buying the plane ticket Tuesday and flying out Thursday, I randomly found myself at the Russia vs.Slovakia hockey game Thursday night. AND IT WAS FANTASTIC.

Trent had bought us "reduced visibility tickets." We weren't entirely sure what that really meant and there was no way of knowing what would be reducing our visibility until we arrived. We were in row 5, in the corner, we had a great view of the ice.


We were so close we could feel the body checks.


Trent and I had no idea what our obstruction supposedly was... until the game really got going...
I love Russian fans.

And they loved me.


Lauren told me to do something epic while at the Olympics. Like kiss in an epic moment or place or while doing something epic. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do to fulfill this request. Especially because I'm not really one for PDA.
Then the kiss-cam hit Trent and I during first intermission. I've never been on a kiss cam before (to my relief) and out of the 18,630 people in that arena, what were the odds? I think it was an epic first. So Lauren, you are welcome. I'm pretty much an Olympian, I mean, I was Olympic kiss-cammed, be serious! Epic.

Such a good game. So much fun. So glad I came.

We also got to go to the Sweden vs. Belarus and Germany vs. Belarus games. So great. I love Eastern Europeans. They make the best fans.




Here's our little Olympic crew.


It was such a good trip, such a good time. The streets were packed and crazy at all hours of the day; we trekked all over trying to decide where to eat and ended up in east hastings by the end of the night; the weather was gorgeous (who goes to the WINTER olympics and wears a t-shirt?); Trent, Kris and I (but mostly Kris) are deliberately in the background of so many tourist's photos; got tickets beside each other but separated by a pole; made friends on the sky train... So many good stories, so many good times. But long story short.
I WENT TO THE OLYMPICS AND LOVED IT! and...


I'm pretty much an Olympian. I held the torch.

why i love my roommates. (part one)

dearest cathy left me a cupcake and this note yesterday.

i devoured the adorable cupcake far too quickly to get a photo,

but seriously people.

this is why i love my roommate.

dear cathy,

you're wonderful.

love,

-lauren

now, lets get one thing straight...

....are these guys?

because i would consider dating the one with the handlebar mustache. 

we've watched it at least 37 times today.

try not to.

....seriously.

What, what you looking at?

STOP STARING AT ME!

Starers come in many shapes and sizes... but they come nonetheless.

Over the past two days I have experienced three different types of starers:

1) The Obvious Starer
The Obvious Starer is someone who just blatantly stares and never tries to hide it. Obviously. Allow me to introduce you to exhibit A: my patient yesterday just sat and stared up at my eyes the entire appointment. Do you know how awkward it is to sit there, and know that someone is making eye contact with you, but you're not making eye contact with them? So awkward.

2) The Sneaky Starer
Where the Obvious Starer had no discretion, the Sneaky Starer has a covert plan to be able to stare - which is almost more creepy. Exhibit B is another patient who I had seen once last week, but needed to come in for a second appointment. Last week he just wore the clear safety glasses because he didn't care about the light. This week he brought his own sunglasses to wear to block the light. Funny, last week the light didn't seem to bother you at all sir... I soon discovered his purpose. Although the glasses block the light from his eyes, they do not block his eyes from being seen. With the bright light shining down, Sneaky Starer was still busted.

3) The Stalker Starer
This is a completely different kind of starer. You can feel this gaze even when you're not looking, but when you look - still staring! Some Stalker Starers have decency enough to avert their eyes quickly when the person they are staring at looks their way. Not exhibit C. This crew is literally just that - a crew. The construction crew outside my room at work. The building next door is under construction and they're re-doing the outside. I have a giant window that makes up that entire side wall. They all stare. And I always bust them. And they never look away. I bust them in my peripherals all the time and have given up looking back because it doesn't change a thing. Awkward, creepy Stalker Starers.

sweet dreams

i just barely opened my eyes to the real world, waking from a dream that was, by far, the greatest of all my dreams of the past few weeks. (if you want to know more, talk to me. ha.)

i'm almost tempted to keep the events of the dream just between me and the other members of the castle, selfishly hoarding all of the pleasantries to ourselves. however, simply because i know how much a number of you would enjoy this, i will share. (dang. you're lucky i passed kindergarten and learned how to do so.)

SO,

in my dream,

mark sailing (aka. puck, from glee) was mormon.

he was in my ward.

he was also in med school.

oh, and, did i mention, he was my boyfriend?

ha. 

best. dream. of. my. LIFE.

i imagine he would sing "sweet caroline" to me daily, 

and we would become some sort of family band after a lengthy courtship 

and four-month engagement 

and a temple wedding sometime in the fall. 

don't even lie to me and tell me you don't think he's hot...

even if you are a finn fan...

i hope i continue to have dreams that are just as beautiful.

 

Money in the Bank

So tonight at waterpolo I just wanted to keep throwing out ridiculous phrases whenever my team did something great. Phrases like:
- It must be payday, because that was money in the bank!
- When it rains, it pours, and it looks like there's a storm comin!
- Someone hand that boy a towel, because he's just been un-dressed!

I managed to keep them to myself, especially when Mike Bennett scored our first goal and all I wanted to say was, "Man, you just got scored on by a BLIND boy! How DOES that make you feel?!" I behaved myself, though. But for some reason the lines just kept coming to mind.

Perhaps because today I DID put money in the bank. Which is where that first line came from... right off the top of my head - yep, ridiculous just comes that natural to me.
Anyways, Melissa, this one's for you:

MY FIRST PAYCHECK! WOO WOO!

Confident, Not Cocky

Apparently the gauntlet has been thrown down. I have picked it up and kindly returned it to the clumsy girls who dropped it. Who might those girls be, you ask? None other than Bonnie and Melissa. The "friendly" competition between North and South has been set. The perimeters? Who can log the most gym hours between team Bonnissa and team Brittathy. Ironic that it also happens to be blondes vs. brunnettes - it just kinda happened that way. There's a cap set for each day of 2 hours per person so that no one gets any crazy-hardcore-hospitalize-themself ideas. It's probably for my own good.

Now two hours may seem like a long time to spend at the gym to the untrained reader. Don't be fooled. Two hours may easily be spent when you do 30 min bike, 30 min free-weights for arms, 30 min weights for legs, and a final 30 min bike/treadmill. Which is exactly what Bonnie and I did every day last week.

Today was Day 1 of the challenge and Bonnie and Melissa successfully logged their 2 hours together. Brittney and I had a bit different day.(PS. Brittney is my teammate and the inspiration for the entire operation. And may the record show, Brittney started her own self-competition first, I joined and then brought Bonnie with me when she got back from Dubai. So Bonnie and Melissa - you're welcome.) Mine and Brittney's schedules did not match up today. So not only did we each log two hours, but they were done with our own individual motivation to boot. And let me tell ya, I'm re-thinking the two hour cap because I worked out and then played waterpolo... I coulda logged 3 hours easy today. There weren't even any girl subs so it was a legit hour workout in that pool and one of the toughest games my team has played yet.

Dear Bonnissa, I think you dropped something? I hope it wasn't an accident. Don't you know the North always wins?

Something to say for irony...

So as it turns out, I love to build epic caves.
First one: snow.
Second one: sheets.

I have discovered the link in my fort building: Jeff Spackman. He's the only one that was present for both.

Last weekend, the greatest fort of all time was constructed. It's a good thing I had JUST bought new sheets, so that we had enough to construct this wonderful monstrosity.



It took some serious contemplation and arranging, but once we took a second to think about it - badda boom, badda bing!




The most brilliant idea was using the nest to heighten the roof.
(Mind you, some of the construction pics are from the expansion we did the next night)

This is the original fort crew...



But there were plenty more good times to be had in the fort...










There may have been a lot of roommate bonding in the fort. It really brought us together. We may have had a few roommate sleepovers over the course of the week...
but sadly, it came down today, 9 days later.

I think I'm going to build a fort in my bedroom next.

PS.

Did I really not mention mini-golfing in the vacant Leishman house in Picture Butte?? Well, let me tell you... that house is huge and we divided into teams and mini-golfed through all three floors! Such a good time.



Yes, my ball ended up under a table, and they made me crawl under and putt it out.

There was a ramp off the loft, detours through connected closets, and last but not least - a hole to drop the ball down.

Did I mention that there was a fire pole in that hole? Because there was. A FIRE POLE! In her house! I can only imagine the greatness of the Leishman's childhood in this house.




Just one last good time over Christmas break.