Thankful for my Booty

Beth and I just wanted to go for a nice little walk.
For quite some time I had been wanting to check out an area in Kamloops known simply as The Hoodoos. I thought it looked pretty neat and wanted to check it out. So on Saturday afternoon we left for a nice little jaunt through the hills.

 

(These are Hoodoos. They look small, don't be deceived, they are massive.)

 

 

It was not a jaunt.

And it wasn't very nice either.

 

What I had been told was a nice little walk, was a hike. The first part of our hike took us along the side of a mountain. I'd classify this area as a moderate trail. Fairly narrow, a steady incline, loose rocks etc. Nothing unmanageable for us. We reached the mid-point on the mountain and had the decision to continue down, or keep going up to the top of the bluffs. After humming and hawing for a few minutes we realized that it was unlikely that we would ever do this hike again in the near future, and we were already (what we thought was) halfway there. And so we continued. 

 

At this point the trail definitely became difficult. Trails were narrow paths on the sides of steep drops, loose gravel and rocks, climbing up gravel and dirtslides using roots, grass, trees, shrubs and the occassional solid rock to get footing as we climbed the never ending hill. In the end we ended up at the top of the bluffs seen in the background of the following picture (not the first set of bluffs, but the ones in the background).

 

(in the foreground/centre is the hoodoos, see how small they are? There's a picture later on showing how big they are)

It was very challenging getting to the top. Every once in a while a rock would come loose and start tumbling down the side of the hill, and it would fall, and fall, and fall, and fall. The only thing that kept me going at points was the fact that there was a sixty year old lady on the trail a few hundred yards behind me, and I was determined to not let her beat me to the top.

The top was pretty magnificent. It was a beautiful, sunny, windy day. The perfect day for our hike really, the sun was out and the breeze kept us cool.

 (please ignore the crazy wind-swept hair of awesomeness)

(That is Kamloops in the background)



 

 

And then it was time to go down.

And here is where the adventure begins.

 

First of all, we had to climb down all the treacherous-deathly-slopes that we had climbed up half an hour before. We pretty much surfed down gravel slides. As we were going down we kept joking that a fall only counted if our butt actually touched the ground, if we landed on our heels or hands first, it didn't count as a fall. I lost track of how many times I slipped and fell or almost-fell. It was funny and we laughed a lot throughout this process.

 

The problem came when we reached the mountain mid-point where we had originally stopped. There was a fork in the trail - go back the way we had came, or take the other route that also led to the bottom. We opted for a different way down. It was a much more difficult way down than the way we had taken up. Lots of gullies, and rocks, and boulders and sand. And that was when we were officially ON the trail.

 

Then we somehow were kinda on the trail, kinda not on the trail. Mostly we were making our own way down the slopes or through an almost dry creek bed. Boulders, rocks, gravel, sand, bushes. It was not plesant, doable, but definitely not the trail system we were supposed to be on. I wasn't worried though because I could see the truck and knew we were going the right way, we were near water, we had lots of daylight left, it was all good, sucky travelling, but no worries.

 

So we are hiking down through this dry creek bed and we come to a fairly steep 15 foot drop water-fall area that we had to climb down. Like I said, the water is mostly dried up, and the waterfall has step-like rocks going down it. It's steep, but with the right footing Bethany shimmied across it and down the side. My turn. I did OK, for about 3 feet. Then the rocks disintigrated and I fell the rest of the way down. See, hoodoos are deceptively not made of rock. They are made of hard-packed rock-like sand. And beause it is still spring, the water they absorbed over the winter, combined with the recent rains we have had, made them quite a bit weaker than they would be in the summer after being baked in Kamloops desert heat all day every day.

 

So anyways, I fell down the waterfall into the bottom of the ravine/creek bed. It was terrifying. As I was falling the only thing I was screaming in my head was, "don't break a bone, don't break a bone. Kamloops Search and Rescue better have HAWT volunteers this year to come save me!" When I finally hit the bottom, I litterally laid there, in the water, and asked myself if I was still alive. When I realized I was still alive, I checked to see if I was broken anywhere. Luckily, I was not broken, sore and ripped up, definitely, but not broken. I think yesterday was the only day I was actually happy with the fact that I am not super skinny and still have a booty. It took the brunt of that fall.

 

Anyways, I did not break anything, but there is not a doubt in my mind that if I had broken something we would have had to call Search and Rescue. We were in such a remote ravine. And then on the radio tomorrow we would have been the "two inexperienced hikers took on more than they could chew at Cinnamon Ridge" that the radio would have made fun of and an example of.

 

Yeah, get out of that with a broken leg or arm.
We kept going down the creek bed after I stopped shaking, and I almost cried when our creekbed turned into a legit waterfall that was impossible to get over. And so we hiked back up. Which was good, because then we found a trail and were able to get down with no more problems.

I have mixed feelings about yesterday. On the one hand, I was super proud that we hiked up and down that entire thing - and mostly without the help of a trail system, but on the other hand, it was pretty sucky. Do I need to do it again? Probably not. :)

 



 

"You do know they are h.core right?"

Every once in a while a few random strangers end up sleeping on my couch. I love it! It's usually people we hear about through the church who need a place to stay for a few days, sometimes it is friends of friends who need a place to crash. My sisters and I have an unspoken pact that our door is always open to whoever need it so long as they have a good reference.

Last year Bethany spent a few months backpacking through Thailand and Cambodia. Our guests this weekend were people she had connected with through that trip.

As we were sitting around on Friday afternoon talking and chatting I learned that our guests had brought their bikes with them, being the generous, outgoing host that I am, I excitedly exclaimed that I would LOVE to go biking with them on Saturday morning. Everyone laughed and was happy. As was I, until 4 seconds later when Bethany asked, "you do know that they are h.core downhill mountain bikers right?"

I didn't.

But I had already committed.

So the next morning we loaded up the bikes and drove to Kamloops Bike Ranch where my new (and incredibly patient) friends taught me how to downhill mountain bike.

Rule 1. Don't sit down.
(So grateful this was rule one or my dreams of one day having children would be squashed)

Rule 2. Keep your weight back.
(I'm thinking this was my problem in August when I tried downhill biking and fell off my bike)

Rule 3. It is ok to go slow (or walk) down certain areas until you are comfortable.
(Thank you!)

I was excited to learn and to try this new sport. They loaned me a sweet top-of-the-line bike, and it looked awesome with my dinky little bike helmet. After unloading the bikes at the top of the mountain, learning the rules and starting down the road I started to get nervous. Especially as we picked up speed and headed toward some very steep birms (tight corners). Things were not looking good for me.  But I pushed through my fears, walked a bit, biked a bit, and made it down the mountain without crashing or dying.

Round two, I was going so incredibly h.core down a double black diamond, doing flips and jumps, and totally ripping things up, (yeah right) I got a flat tire.

And on the third time down, low and behold we realized that we had been going down blue and black runs, and that there were actually green runs available for newbies like me. Someone had smashed the signs! (hooligans). I put myself on the green run and the rest of my morning was GREAT. I'm not saying the green runs were 'easy', but I definitely only felt like I cheated death three times on the way down instead of constantly on the other runs.

 

The view from the top. Looking west toward Kamloops

 

This is part of the ranch. Notice how there are many different ridges. You do not want to end up on the wrong one or you will have a hard time getting back to where you need to be.

 

Finially got the hang of it! This here is right after a narrow (i.e. 1 foot wide) section of trail that ran up the side of the bluff. If you fell off the trail you fell down the side of the cliff oh... probably 200 feet into a rocky ravine. I'm pretty happy in this picture. Having tons of fun.

Remember what I said about getting on the wrong ridge? Yeah... I don't know how I got onto this one, but I did. It took some work to get back to the main trail and in-bounds area. Not as much work as 20minutes later when I REALLY got lost and had to do a big hike to get back to where I wanted to be.

 

All in all, it was a fantastic morning. I had a lot of fun, tried something new, laughed a lot, screamed a bit, and totally want to do it again! 

Christy Came!

I've mentioned them before - those people that I consider my 'Always Friends'.

And this one time, last month, one of them super awesomely, and super randomly showed up on my doorstep.

It all started when my uber motivated friend Christy decided that in the year 2013 she was going to learn to do 25 new things. She asked for suggestions from friends and family of what they would like to teach her and she said that she would arrange travelling to the location as well as the cost of any supplies. I jokingly suggested she fly 3000km to Kamloops where I would gladly teach her to snowboard. And so she hopped on a plane and came.

You can read her story here.

It was great. Christy also teaches grade 5, so she taught a few fun classes for me, I observed her teaching skills, she watched me, I gave her a personal tour of Kamloops and then on my couch, over a bowl of rice krispy squares, we talked, and talked, and talked. Ten years of friendship, three years since we saw each other last. We talked. We talked about happy things, we discussed solutions to stressful things, we giggled, we reminiced, we laughed, she let me mourn and be angry and held my hand as I poured out the last few unhappy months. She was my friend and she came to me to learn, to have fun, to let me be sad, and to cheer me up. I have so much love for her and am so thankful for her role in my life story.

And then I taught her to snowboard. And she was actually impressively amazing, a natural. Really. But read her story to hear about it. I know that the snowboarding was the reason she came, but to me it was secondary. To me the important part was sharing a thing that I love, in a place that I love, and spending time with a person I love.

I love always friends.

Open to suggestions...

Well, officially the word went out this week.
I need a change.
And so next September I will not be returning to teaching.
What I'm doing is still up in the air. My only criteria is that is can't be teaching, it has to be something new, and should involve some sort of adventure. I have no idea what to do and I am taking suggestions.

Such as the following ones from my students.

Go to Hollywood
Go to Hollywood and meet Zac Efron
Go on a Disney cruise with Zac Efron
Kiss Zac Efron (hmmm. I'm sensing a theme)
Meet Zac Efron, snowboard in the winter, 3 weeks at Disney World, get a boyfriend. (Ok. I'll get right on that...)
You should be a firefighter because there are a lot of hot fire fighter men. Wink... wink...
Be a famous trivia show host
Become popular and be crazy with money and buy a year supply of bacon (bacon is delicious)
Hunt Yeti in Alaska (would be good research for my book)
Belly button lint collector
Bungee jump off the grand canyon (I would pee my pants, but it would be amazing)
Be a model in a magazine
Give tips to girls/boys about dating (to which my response was a very sarcastic 'oh yeah, because clearly I am sooooo good at dating...)
Travel to Guatemala and be a missionary for a month
Be a lonely and crazy old cat lady (currently in progress)
Go to Mexico and pet dolphins and zipline and take a tour of the tekela (tequila) factory
Go to Peru and see Machu Pichu
Be a stunt double
Find Bigfoot
Work in Las Vegas (I would be a terrible showgirl)

 If you have an idea, let me know!

Top 10 February

I was thinking this week about how I haven't blogged much. And then I thought about how it is *that time* of year when life just all around is no fun. It reminded me of this post from last year.

So I was going to write another list of my top ten sucky moments of February 2013, but I don't like to be like that. I like to be happy. And so, tonight I bring you in photo's, reasons why February doesn't actually suck as much as I think it does.

#1 Night Skiing

 #2 Snowboarding

 #3 Falling off a cliff into out-of-bounds and narrowly escaping death by tree-smashing, only to find this view of the Rockies.

 #4 Adult Jolly Jumpers.
(Apparently this was my favourite thing to do as a baby. Coincidentally, I still love it)

 #5 Being an awesome teacher and dissecting fish for my students.

 #6 Seeing this instead of the front of a church on a Sunday morning.

 7. Many, many, many, long drives, with views in the distance.

 8. Sunsets that pictures can not capture.

 9. Sharing special days with lovely people.

 9. Funny winter art (and my super awesome jacket that I love)

10. Old Friends who are Always Friends who come visit from the other side of the country for whirlwind visits. 

50 Shades of Grey meets Harry and the Hendersons

I know this might sound ridiculous, but I want you to know I have been thinking about it a lot. (And by "a lot" I mean since this time last night.)

My life is in turmoil right now, and so, I figure the best way to deal with unhappiness is to run away from it. Can I get an 'amen'?

And so, even though I will run from my problems, I can't not have a plan. I am a type-a, oldest born, semi-ocd personality after all.

And so, the plan.

Sasquatch Romance Novelist.

That's right. Romance novels about beloved big foots. (Big feets?)

See, in my line of thinking over the last 22 hours, I realzed that if zombies and sparkley vampires can be made loveable, AND famous, so can sasquatches. AND if I get started right now I'll be able to totally corner the market. I'll be a billionaire!

It will be amazing!

Plus, my stories will have everything that anyone could ever want from a novel. A hint of the fantastical (because we don't really know for sure if big foots/feets exist), adventure (as they try to survive in a world where humans fear them and try to kill them), a seemingly impossible love (because we all know there are only like 3 sasquatches in the world so it's especially hard for them to find their one true love. On that note, it is also similarly hard to find a good Christian man... just like sasquatches there are only 3 and they are hiding in the woods scared of humans - or at least me...), and the novels will also have  a wonderful beautiful setting. I'm thinking somewhere rugged and exotic. Vancouver Island or the Yukon or northern Manitoba or something.

It will be great. I like to describe it as "50 Shades of Grey meets Harry and the Hendersons."

And then, after my novel series (a set of six) becomes wildly popular with tweens around the world, it will be turned into a set of movies. Seven movies. Because we all know that makes sense. Six books and seven movies. (I'm glowering at you Harry Potter and Twilight and The Hunger Games). I'll milk it for all it's worth. Ryan Gosling will play the lead sasquatch. I'll play the female he has been searching for. I pick me because I'm a better actress than Kristen Stewart, but mostly  because I want to kiss Ryan Gosling. Yeah. That would be real nice.... sigh.

So there's my plan.
Buy my books.

Dog and Cat People

This video made me laugh a lot this week. Seriously, I laughed a lot.

We all know that there are two types of people in the world, Cat People and Dog People. And you can't be both, you are either one or the other. And generally you are loyal to your pet of choice and refuse to like the other kind of pet.

Which brings me to the time that my boyfriend (a dog person), got a cat. After weeks of looking at dogs, and researching dogs, and picking what type of dog he wanted to get, and drooling over dogs, and picking out what kind of truck he wanted that would be best for the dog, he got a cat.

And not even a cute kitten! A full out cat!
Ew!

The best part of this cat-tail (see what I did there?), is that he kept the cat for 2 hours. Then called the guy he got it from and sent it back. At least he made a valiant attempt at being a cat person. Two hours is a long time to have a cat!

I like it Hot

Ok, so ya'll know that I love travelling, and doing/seeing super random things and over my Christmas Holidays I got to do just that - see AND do, something totally random. Something wonderful and highly recommended. This:

Ainsworth Hot Springs

Now, what you see here is just the tip of the iceberg of this wonderful, wonderful, hidden gem in the BC Kootenies. After a perilous, death-defying drive down 'a short-cut' (aka death-cut, seriously), we arrived at Ainsworth Hot Springs and our lovely on-the-lake condo.  The pool you see above is the warm-pool. There also was a cold pool (6 degrees for those of us willing to attempt a polar dip/mini-heart-attack before jumping into the) hot pool.

Now the cool thing about the hot pool, is that the hot mineral-filled water that naturally filters into it from the mountain, also flows through caves. Caves you can go into. Caves you can swim through.

Um, yes. WAY cool.

I love getting away. I love it. I love the drive, and the ferry, and the seeing of a new amazing thing that God has placed on this earth. I love napping and staying in my pajamas till noon. I love swimming, and watching too much tv, and singing loudly in the car. I love spending time away with people who make me happy. So good. I'm so thankful for my mini-vacation.

Life Changing

Amazingly enough, this year for Christmas I got a pretty smoking awesome Christmas present. A new snowboard and bindings. NEW! Brand new!

I've been snowboarding since I first moved to BC, so this is my 7th season now. And for the last 7 years, I have been using a board that was so graciously given to me by my best friend. It is the 'giving board'. It was given to her, she gave it to me, now I will give it to someone else. It is old, and heavy and covered with decals from all the mountains it has seen in its 15 year life. It served me well.

But deep down, I must confess to you, I coveted. I coveted others snowboards. So shiny, and light, and slim, and smooth. But alas, I could never bring myself to make such a large, expensive purchase for myself. Money needs to go to important things, rent, food, gas, rice krispy squares, etc. You know - life things.

But this year, (coincidently enough on the first day of christmas), I was given a new snowboard. It is gold and white and shiny and sleek and beautiful and light and smooth and amazing.

On Saturday night we took me and my new board out. And oh mylanta, it was AMAZING.

I can't even convey to you the amazingness of having a board that doesn't weigh 45lbs. That isn't 4 inches thick, That isn't chipped and scarred from years of beginners learning to snowboard with it.

It was, and I quote myself after my first run, "life changing."

So smooth. So gentle. So soft. So easy to maneuver and adapt to, and go down the hill with. It was the most amazing night of snowboarding I have ever experienced. I'm going to love it, and use it, all.the.time.

PLUS, I look really cool.

The Bethlehem Star

Yesterday near the end of the day, I was invited to do two things I love to do. Take a random, last minute road trip, and go see something I had never seen before.

So after school, after running home to put on my long underwear, I headed to Vernon to see The Bethlehem Star. A live-nativity story at Emmanuel Baptist Church.

People. Hear me, hear me, it was amazing! When you arrive you are ushered through a Bethlehem market place complete with a bag of shekles that you can use to buy things, animals, 50 stalls of vendors selling everything you would expect to find in Bethlehem, music, and Roman soldiers.

After the chaos of the market place you end up in the Roman-Games, where I totally won a prize for killing a rubber chicken by slingshotting a marshmallow at it's head.

Then to the photo-booth where they dressed you up a-la-Mary-and-Joseph.
I picked the gnarly rooster as my prop. I thought that would be awesome.

After the market and the games, everyone went into the church for a 15 minute Nativity play followed by hot chocolate, cookies, and approximately 20 scenes of frozen people portraying scenes from the Christmas story as well as scenes of how people spend Christmas. They were frozen, and amazing. The only way you could tell that the people weren't mannequins was because you could see them breathing or their eyes move once in a while. It was phenomenal.

It was seriously a great night out. And all completely free! The church did such an amazing job with this outreach and I'm totally going again next year. Super cool.

Booty-Not-Liscious (aka 70)



I feel kinda hypocritical right now, because honestly, I'm sitting here on the couch eating a chocolate bar as I write this blog about loosing 70 pounds. But then I think, "Hey, Nikki, you just lost SEVENTY pounds! Eat a chocolate bar! Just don't eat 12..."

 

Quick recap: Here is me before: Well over 200lbs.



 

Here is me now, at a foxy 148lbs!

I thought I'd do some research to see how much 70lbs is the equivalent to, just to put it into perspective for myself and for you. 70 is just a number, but after all my work, it is a big deal that means a lot to me. So, here is a list of things that weigh 70 lbs.

- An 11 year old boy
- $34019 in one dollar bills
- 80 cans of beer
- 175 apples
- 2.25 cinder blocks
 - 5 bicycles
- 300 kittens or sticks of butter
- 50 bibles (the big 'ol KJV version, not the ap)
- A husky dog
- 4 blood hounds
- 3.5 tires
- 3 two year olds

FYI, I'm not at my goal yet, so close, so close. And when I get there, I will TOTALLY do the skinny-Nikki posing in her fat pants cheesy photo. I'm excited about that picture!

Be inspired my friends, it is possible!

A Much Needed Get-Away

I know we all have those times when we just need to get away. We need to not be in our homes, our communities, our churches, or our jobs. And we need to go somewhere different - not necessarily far away or exotic, but just somewhere different.

Oh boy did I need to get away a few weeks ago! So bad. Being in Kamloops and in my home and job was actually painful.

So I left my plans till the last minute, packed my car up with my snowboard gear, some clothes, my ipod, camera, and wallet and headed for the Rockies.

The plan was to meet my dear, good, friend Lillian in Banff for a weekend of snowboarding, relaxing, eating out, visiting, laughing, talking, and encouraging eachother in our friendship and faith. I left on Thursday night, planning on meeting Lillian sometime on Friday. As my travels progressed, Lillians plans changed about 18 times (not unusual). I stopped in Golden for the night, slept in, read my book and continued on my journey.

The roads were glorious, dry, and traffic free. On Thursday night I noticed I was low on gas and decided to fill up in the morning before I left Golden.

Yeah... I forgot to do that.

I drove for about 45 minutes before I remembered that I didn't have very much gas. Shoot. My options were to turn around, drive 45 minutes back to Golden, or hold out another 30 minutes and hope there was gas in this tiny little village I knew I would pass through. I had a 50/50 chance of having enough gas to make it to Banff. Luckily, the little town had one pump. And I got gas.

Then plans changed, and now I was to meet Lillian in Calgary. No biggie, it was only and hour past Banff. I continued on my drive. I had gas, I had some good tunes on, I was rolling.

But my windshield wipers didn't work.

Not a major problem, since the roads were dry, but I realized that if the roads became wet, I would have a little situation on my hand. The wiper blades would swipe, but there was no washer fluid coming out.

I stopped in Banff, thinking maybe the fluid was low. I stopped at a gas station, topped it up, and then walked around town, drank some Chai, read more of my book, visited my very first Lulu Lemon, and played tourist for a few hours. Unfortunately, as I tested the wipers while I was leaving, they still did not work. I found a garage and asked for help. They were gracious enough to let me know that the soonest they could fit me in was next week. Not acceptable. They were nice enough to take a look and speculated that my washer fluid was frozen. All I needed to do was park my car in my heated garage and let the fluid thaw. I don't usually bring a heated garage with me on vacation - and I suppose if we are being honest, I should say that even if I wanted to, I don't own one.

I drove a little further to Canmore and hoped against hope that they would be able to help me. Luckily the Canadian Tire had a heated garage, so I parked m car and chilled out in Canadian Tire for two hours. FYI, as a woman, I found it very difficult to kill two hours in a Canadian Tire.

Two hours later, car fixed, back on the road. First stop in Calgary: Swiss Chalet. I love BC, but it's lackage of Swiss Chalet gives it a -3000 points in my books.

Oh delicious festive special, I love you so much.

Plans change again, Lillian still hasn't left Edmonton. She doesn't expect to arrive in Calgary till close to 10. I decide to shop and kill time with a movie.

Movie over. Plans change again. The roads are terrible. It has taken them 1.5 hours to do a normal 15 minute drive. Is it safe or even worth coming? I tell her to let our hosts know that I'm coming over without her. I totally invite myself over and in and the Snowboarders for Christ Crew were totally welcoming and friendly and super gracious and nice. We chilled for a while. Lillian crawled into the room at 2am.

9am found us at Lake Louise ready to go. A quick prayer on the hill for safety and ministry and we were off. The first ones to make tracks on the upper part of the mountain - not just for the day, but for the season! Amazing.  A great day, bluebird skies, friendly people, quiet hill, fresh powder, warm sunshine on our backs. I was exhausted by the time we got home, but it was worth it.

Sunday was me and Lillian time. Church, lunch, and a visit to Heritage Park - the Calgary equivalent of Barkerville.

Driving home on Sunday/Monday was good too. Just me and my i-pod, my thoughts, and my prayers. A little solo retreat for the last few hours.

I came home feeling relaxed, refreshed, and ready to face another week of life.

I need to get away more often.

Poutine

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Calgary Alberta. And when I say 'opportunity' I actually mean, I ended up there kinda randomly. But that is another story. Despite how and why I was there, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

a. Because gas was $1.05/l as opposed to the $1.31/l in BC
b. Because I got to go to Swiss Chalet for the first time in YEARS
c. Because I got to see my dear, good, awesome, friend Lillian
d. Because I got to go snowboarding at Lake Louise

Be jealous of it all. Because it was amazing.

The highlight was spending time with Lillian. Whom I love. Whom I met in a parking lot six years ago, and consider one of my bestest people. The only thing we disagree on is food. Lillian loves any and all ethnic foods, me, not so much. Give me mashed potatoes and gravy any day. On Sunday we were driving around Calgary trying to find somewhere to eat. Lillian kept suggesting Thai, Vietnameese, Sushi, Korean, all sorts of random ethnic foods. I just wanted something straight-up Canadian.

We found a resturaunt called "The National" which, conveniently enough, was a Canadian resturaunt that only served traditionally ethnic Canadian food. Corn dogs, burgers, pork, maple-flavoured-everything etc.

Now, I consider myself a proud Canadian. I love this country that I live in, the freedoms we have here, our land, our diversity, and our food. Including our national dish - poutine. But I had NO idea that you could order the following types of poutine:

 



One Year

Happy one year anniversary to me and my little sister!

 

It's been a great year. So much fun, so much laughter, so much silliness, and so much acting like an 8 year old. I love my mini-me. Think about volunteering and changing a life.

Sully was taken hostage by a mouse

The other morning I woke from a deep slumber to the sound of a shrill shriek coming from the hallway. Being the good sister that I am, I ignored it and went back to sleep, it was after all five am. Priorities people, priorities.

When I did finally decide to wake up, I walked with sleep filled eyes to the bathroom, passing as I usually do, our storage closet. Somehow through the haze of early morning I noticed a bright blue note on the door. The note read:

"Do not open this door. There is a very large, very disgusting mouse in here. It scared me and it is really big and scary and me no likey."

Ahh,
A mouse.

I'm not sure that I've mentioned it before, but my sisters have zero initiative when it comes to dealing with things that need to be done. The cover of the light in our kitchen was sitting on the floor for six months before our friend Caleb finally fixed it. We've needed a cable for our dvd player for 4 months, no one will go get it, Vanessa is hilariously terrible at leaving her leftovers in the fridge, forever. I know what you are thinking, 'Your sisters have zero intiative? What about you Nikki?' In my defense, I am the one who does pretty much everything that needs to be done (gardens, cleaning, decorating, cooking, dishes, designing sweet garden gnomes to decorate our yard, paying bills etc) and when I say "I'm not dealing with the light fixture" I don't think it's too much to ask for one of them to fix the problem.

Anyways.
Now we have a serious problem.
A mouse.

I don't likey either.

And so the mouse was locked in the storage room. Holding all our sweet posessions hostage. My Dr. Quinn tapes, all our games, photo albums, Christian romance novels, stationery, DVD's. This mouse was causing a serious inconvenience. We had a games night planned AND I had a very upsetting week and NEEDED a dose of Sully. He is the medicine that cures all my problems. (Ohhh I totally need to blog about how Dr. Quinn has gotten me through every tough situation in my life - true story.)

It's weeks like this where boyfriends would be REALLY handy.

It would also be really handy if we weren't so SLOW in realizing that my best friend Tiersa grows mice for a living. (She sells them to pet stores).

It took us four days to remember that Tiersa could easily fix our mouse problem.

And so, the bestie-iest of best friends came over on Tuesday night and saved my Dr. Quinn collection - for which I will be eternally thankful.

Turns out the mouse was already dead. We dehydrated it by locking it in the room for four days with no water.

Hauntings

So those of you who have been following my adventures via my facebook, probably know that this past week I was doing some hauntings in Kamloops.

 

It's the week before Halloween and all sorts of organizations are capitalizing on the scare factor of this time of year and putting together events to lure people into their organizations and businesses to make some money or raise awareness. For the last six nights I have been working with the Laughing Stock Theatre Company to bring alive the spirits of a few famous dead Kamloopsians.

 

Now whether or not you believe in ghosts has nothing to do with what I've been doing. I don't find Halloween particularly sinful or evil, and we all know that I will take any opportunity given to me to dress up.

 

From Tuesday - Friday night our crew of six haunted various places around Kamloops as we worked with the Kamloops Museum and Archives on their annual Haunted Kamloops Tour. This tour travels around the city and tells the story of Kamloops' past. It's super interesting and we actors added a new dimension to their tour as we popped up from behind gravestones, or showed up in the museum. We each had a monologue prepared to share with the people and educate them a bit more about Kamloops. I played Queeenie - an 'actual' ghost that haunts the museum. Apparently she likes to play with taps, flush toilets, slam doors, and people have seen her reflection in the display cases. I'm not convinced. But I scared some people pretty good. 

 

 

 On Saturday and Sunday night our troupe drove out to Tranquille Farm to haunt their corn maze. Now if you have ever been to Tranquille Farm (also known as Padova), you know that this is most likely the creepiest place in the world. It's an old institution for people who had tuberculosis. It was built in 1907 and shut down in the 80s. Since then it has pretty much just sat around decomposing. It's super creepy. Teenagers always break in and look around and my friends have all had some wierd experiences there. Even my Christian friends who don't believe in ghosts have seen some wierd, strange, creepy things. Anyways, the point is, this place is creepy. So you are already being creeped out by being on the property, then things like this walk out at you. In the dark.

It was amazing.

I scared so many people so, so , so bad!

My favourite thing to do was hide in the corn and then just jump out at people. I also liked to creep up behind them when they were reading one of the many information plaques and just stand there until they turned around and saw me a foot away from them. They would scream so much. The best was when this one guy screamed like a girl, then coughed, and said, "uh, yeah. I'm not scared... I just had to make that girl feel good about herself." (Sure you did buddy, sure you did.)

I had a few key lines that I would say too as the night progressed.

"He promised me forever, and I'll wait forever!"

"Have you seen my little boy? I can't find him. I keep looking and I can't find him. Where is my little boy?" (I liked doing that to like 6 year olds and then I'd describe my little kid to look like exactly what the kid looked like. And then have this dreamy voice and make no eye contact, super creepy.)

"Shhhhhhhh, they'll find me!"

And occasionally I'd just run down the aisles and scream like a mad woman. Sometimes two or three of us would end up trapping a group of people and then it would be really fun for us!

So much screaming, so much fun for me. It was SUPER difficult to stay in character and not laugh at people, because some people have the funniest reaction. This one 13 year old full out threw his bag of popcorn at my face and fell down as he screamed like a girl.

Then there was the two young guys and their girlfriends, and the guys screamed and hid behind their girlfriends.

It was a busy six nights, but it was a lot of fun and kept me occupied. I'm totally doing it again next year.

Happy Halloween!

Skim Milk - let's not get too crazy...

I had some amazing plans for this Thanksgiving Weekend that got cancelled at the last minute. So instead of my super-awesome-fun-random plans (which may or may not have included smashing pumpkins off of Hells Gate), I decided that in order to make it up to myself, I would spoil myself with a very special Kamloops-Style thanksgiving.

I'm halfway through the weekend and so far my special Kamloops Thanksgiving weekend has included the following:

Exciting, big purchases like milk. (skim, lets not make this weekend toooooo crazy!)

Being lazy and sleeping in all the way until 7am!

Running.

Exploring the magic world of my over-stuffed, very dirty storage room. As I was cleaning it out I pretened I was on my way to Narnia. This Narnia however did not involve James MacAvoy (who is stupid anyways), but instead involved fun, environmentally friendly things like snow tires, extra car oil, camping supplies, a broken fishing pole, way too many tennis balls for one person to own - especially when that person hasn't played tennis for 14 months, Jehovah Witnesses (no joke) and a surprising number of bungee cords that I don't even remember purchasing.

Searching for my 'work sheet' - you know, that old blanket that you use for painting and carrying dirty things - it's covered in 47 different colours of paint, dead leaves, twigs, dirt, and oil stains. When I described it to Vanessa as I was looking for it, she looked me straight in the eye and said "oh, the one that is on my bed?"

Then I put on my Barkerville outfit, bonnet, apron and pretended I was a pioneer as I harvested my garden. Ok, maybe I didn't put on the outfit or bonnet, but I did harvest my garden.

So, as you can see, I've had a VERY exciting, fun-filled weekend. And the good news is that it is only half over! Who knows what exciting things tomorrow might bring!!! I'm thinking a turkey-coma, maybe some rummykub with my pops, a bit o' tv, a nap, maybe even, and I don't want to get tooooo nuts here, but perhaps I'll even read a book! My blood pressure is going up just thinking of all the excitement tomorrow holds for me!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Dairy Products.

Sometimes I don't understand how I come from the family I come from.

Don't get me wrong, I love them to pieces, they are fantastic. But sometimes... just.... how?????

We have a tradition in my immediate family where we get together on occassion for family dinners. Usually at my parents place, usually it involves some great mom-made-food and it always involves quite  a bit of joking around and laughing.

The other night was no different. We were sitting around the table sharing about our lives and giggling, eating our salad when Vanessa pipes up, "This cheese is weird. It's fine, just kinda has a weird taste and consistency."

"Uh... that's because it is egg, not cheese." I interject.

"Oh whatever Nikki," my mom says, "they are both dairy products, I can see why she would get confused."

I raise my brow and look at her. She continues eating. No one says anything. I look at my sisters, deadpan expressions on their faces. I look at my dad, he gives me the "really? She said that? And no one is questioning it?" look.

I start sniggering. Which sets my dad off. My mom and sisters sit there oblivious. Finally I have to break out in laughter and tell them that eggs and cheese are both NOT dairy products. Then Mom, and Vanessa realize their blunder and giggle along with us.

Minutes go by. New topics come up. Bethany looks up from her plate, "So... I don't get why that was funny. The thing about cheese and eggs not being diary products. They are both dairy right?"

Dear Twenties

Dear Twenties,
     First of all I would like to thank you for starting off so wonderfully. I still remember my 20th birthday party on the patio at some resturaunt in Hamilton. (Clearly my mind is starting to go because I don't remember the name of the resturaunt.) I remember that it was a princess themed party and that everyone who came was forced by Karmyn and Christy to wear pink princess party hats. It was fun and ridiculous and it was great to feel so loved and appreciated.
    Year 20 was one of my best years ever. It was filled with fun, friends, shenanigans, university classes, staying up late, napping because of staying up late, road trips, music, dorm life, awesome summer jobs, discovering who I am as a child of God.
     As we progressed through the years I continued to be blessed with friendships, travel across Canada, America, and Europe, my first car, the death of my first car in a cornfield in Nebraska, my first hitch-hiking adventure (in Romania), Greyhound bussing across Canada (thanks to the death of my beloved first car Cheyenne), good food, seeing new sights and learning and embracing my leadership, speaking, and teaching skills.
      I learned in my twenties that my sisters are not just sisters, but that they are valuable, wonderful, hilarious people that I count among my closest friends. To the chagrin of my sisters, I learned to play the violin. To the chagrin of my buttocks, I learned to snowboard. I learned to be content with who I am. I learned to accept my singleness. I learned how to exercise and eat right and have a smoking new body because of it.
     I worked as a bathroom cleaner, historical interpreter, museum assistant, camp counseller, pizza store manager, baby-sitter, youth pastor, waitress and teacher.
     I gained and kept many wonderful friends. I also lost friends.
     I watched almost every single one of my friends get married and/or start having children.
     I was a bridesmaid, wedding MC, life-coach, moral-compass, pastor, friend, and prayer partner.
     I vacationed on a houseboat, went to Vegas, saw the ocean for the first time, canoed part of the Bowron Chain of Lakes, climbed some mountains, floated down rivers, camped for 8 weeks straight, cliff jumped, white-water rafted, and snowboarded a black diamond.
     I paid off my student loans and am officially the proud owner of 2 very expensive pieces of paper.
     I became a big sister to a great 7 year old.
     I volunteered hundreds of hours.
     I remain close with all my people in Ontario.

Twenties, I loved you. I will look back fondly on the 10 years we spent together and although I lament your passing, and am hesitant to look toward the future, I'm praying and hoping and planning on making my 30's as awesome and epic as my 20's were. We are two weeks in already, and so far they have been pretty great.

Thank you,
Sincerely,
Nikki
    

I was "THAT" person.

On Wednesday, I was "THAT" person.
The person you look at and say, "really? Reeeeaaaallly? You're going to do that? Why? Why? Why? And HOW?"

Here's the situation. I had just spent a glorious few days on Vancouver Island visiting with some friends and family. I had seen the ocean, visited Victoria for the first time, tried some new running trails, watched some goats live on roofs, been for my first ever motorcycle ride, chilled out, laughed and just had a great, great, vacation.

Wednesday rolled around and it was finally time to finish my vacation (sigh), and return to Kamloops (bigger sigh). I aimed to get on the 4:40 ferry knowing that if I didn't catch it, that there was another one at 5:20. I was *this* close to getting on the 4:40 ferry. I ended up being the 5th car in line for the next sailing. Frustrating, but not as frustrating as it could have been. I was sitting there in my car reflecting on the great vaction I just had, about how fun Barkerville was this summer, and how sad I was to return back to Kamloops and work. The sun was shining, it was warm, a sea breeze was flowing through my open windows and I decided that since I had to wait, I was going to tip my chair back and have a nap. After all, technically I was still on vacation and I knew that I had a long drive ahead of me once the ferry docked in Vancouver.

So I tipped my chair back and promptly fell asleep.

Did the sound of the horn announcing the 5:20 ferry arrival wake me? No.
Did the sound of the speakers announcing the loading process awake me? No.
Did the sound of over 100 cars driving off the ferry wake me? No.

You know what woke me? The parking attendent knocking on my window and pointing out that all the cars ahead of me had loaded onto the ferry and that I was blocking the road for everyone else.

Embarrassing.

But, dang, it was a GREAT nap!