Quick Update

Not really much to update on. Pretty much just the same stuff as my last update.
As most of you know, my mom is having a baby, she's due in March. This morning she went into pre-labor. She was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and was dilated to 2. Had to go to the hospital and they had her stay overnight. As far as I know, the labor hasn't been stopped, so I may have a baby sister by the end of tomorrow. As long as everything is ok, I'm excited! :)
I'm really looking forward to starting school in the fall. Will get to meet a lot more people and actually use my brain! Sick of being bored all the time.
I got my hair cut super short. Really not a huge fan of it, but a lot of people seem to like it. I suppose I'm stuck with it for now.
Lethbridge doesn't have much snow. I find that funny because all of my friends in Michigan kept talking about how cold it'd be here and how much snow would be here, and they all have more snow there.
That's about it. Hope all is well with everyone!

Random Thoughts on Love

There's a difference between loving someone and being in love with them. I love many people, that's how I am, how I choose to be. I'd like to believe I'm loved back by at least a few of those whom I love. I don't believe I'm truly in love with anyone, nor have I ever been. I've thought I was a few times, looking back now, I see I was way off. Being in love really seems to be just an idea. I'd like to experience it, but I'm not sure I believe I ever will. It's just another one of those things that gets pounded into our minds as we grow up. And we spend our lives searching for perfection. Well, more for a love that is perfect. Nothing can be perfect, so we are wasting our lives chasing after a lie. I'll be the first to admit that up until recently, I was chasing after the idea of love... I finally realized it was getting me absolutely nowhere. Chasing after the idea of love will only get you hurt. Instead, go for happiness, something that is going to help you in life. Now, I'm not saying that love is unattainable, or that it's impossible to fall in love. I'm saying that our perception of love is wrong. We want love to be perfect. We want a spouse that we never fight with, never disagree with, who will do exactly what we want when we want... But no marriage is perfect. No relationship is perfect. No friendship is perfect. Because no single person is perfect. We all have our flaws, we all do things that someone else won't like, and there are things that other do that we don't like. 

Just my thoughts.

UPDATE TIME :)

Friends, family, and other loved ones, I've been in my new home for 15 days. Doesn't seem like long, but I already absolutely love it here! 

I still have a lot of paperwork and such to do before I can officially start my life here. In order to get a job or start school, I need proof of my citizenship, which, unfortunately can take up to 5 months to get processed. In the mean time, I'll be doing things around the house to earn some extra money, as well as help with my phone bill, and I will be volunteering at the thrift shop so I don't completely lose my mind from being home ALL the time. 

I have been meeting some people through Joel, for those who may not know who that is, he's my step uncle and is 10 days younger than I am. But, I'd kind of like to start meeting my own friends. Joel and I will eventually get sick of each other, can't imagine it'll be too long before that happens. With me not starting school until the Fall semester, it's a bit difficult to make friends on my own, but I'll figure it out :) 

I find it funny that before I moved, all of my friends were talking about how much snow I'd have to deal with and how cold it would be. Well, jokes on Michigan :) All of our snow here in Southern Alberta is almost completely gone, and it's been around 40 degrees (Fahrenheit) the last few days. It's just SUPER windy, but that is expected here.

  

Ran into a bit of a situation today. Went to the dentist (for the first time in... no clue how long) to get a cavity taken care of. All they did today was take an x-ray and tell me I have to have a root canal. So now I get the joy of going BACK to the dreaded dentist office and get a lovely root canal on Wednesday, and THEN the filling. Can't you just feel my excitement? Yeah, me either. But, after that my mouth will be feeling better, thankfully :) 

As most of you may have seen on Facebook, the status that is... "2013 Pay-It-Forward: The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime in the next calendar year, a handmade/ homemade/ crafted item. There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me. The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status. Go! Create! Do! Don't forget to message me your address!" Well, I am participating, except, I didn't limit myself to just 5 people, I believe I have a list of 9. Pinterest has become my savior for craft ideas, and as I make each gift, I'm planing on posting it on here along with who it's for, how I made it, and why I chose the gift for that person. I wouldn't mind adding more people to my list, so, if you'd like, and are friends with me on Facebook, SEND ME YOUR ADDRESS! :) Please! 

Anyway, I believe that is all I have to update you (my fellow readers, at least I'm hopeful there's a few) on. 

Much love from Alberta!!!! 

OH! Forgot to mention, Hope everyone had a fun filled and safe New Years! 

Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve went very well. I was a bit nervous knowing I was going to be meeting a bunch of new family that I had never met before, that in itself is a little scary. But everyone was so nice and loving and made me feel like part of the family already! It was very nice! I even got a few gifts from family I had never met before :)

Christmas Day was amazing as well. Woke up early and had my Papa's blueberry pancakes that i haven't had in a really long time. Then we went to church, which was pretty hard because I miss my grandma a lot and all of her old friends were there. But that is ok. Then we opened more presents at home. Later, I got to meet more people. People who aren't technically family, but may as well be. They're all super nice :)

Boxing Day, for those who don't know, is the day after Christmas. Everything is on sale. So, kind of the same as Black Friday in the States, except we have that too :P Anyway. Joel and I went to the mall to see what kind of deals there were. I got a pair of sweat pants that were originally $35, for $10. They are super comfy :) Then I got my new phone! Got the iPhone 5 for only $30!!!! How awesome is that?!

Hope everyone else had a super amazing Christmas and got to spend lots of time with friends and family.

Final Day of the Trip

We left Lewistown at about 6:15am and made it home by 11. 

The car ride today was pretty uneventful. I slept for a good portion of it. I'm extremely happy to have made it to my new home without any problems with the weather or any trouble at the boarder. 

Now, I just have a lot of paperwork to fill out and figure out and have to meet with people at the University. 

Travel Day #3

Well... I got a full 7 hours of sleep last night, which felt amazing! 

Today we left at 5:50am (Chicago/Minnesota time), always early when traveling with my papa. It was only 8°F out. TOO COLD!!!!! Got to watch the beautiful sunrise at 7:45 temperature dropped to 5°. Of course we were headed west so its completely behind us. Good thing for side mirrors :) We got breakfast at 8 at Burger King, were back on the road in less than 15 minutes, we are people on a mission, if you can't tell! Made it to North Dakota at 9, definitely the land of absolutely NOTHING. I ended up sleeping most of the way through North Dakota. We stopped around noon to have lunch in Dickinson, had Dairy Queen since everywhere else was super busy. I think every fast food place in that town is understaffed, just in case anyone wants to move to North Dakota for work. :) 

Made it to Lewistown, Montana before 5:30pm Mountain time. That means we were on the road for a little over 12 hours. Needless to say, I am sick of being in the car. 

Got dinner at Pizza Hut and now we are just relaxing. 

Weather was cold all day and pretty windy. For a little bit in Montana in snowed lightly, but the roads have been really clear, thankfully. Supposed to get some snow tonight and going to super cold!

The day as whole was pretty uneventful and I napped a LOT. Almost caught up on my sleep from not sleeping at all Thursday night. 

Tomorrow we have about 5 hours in the car, plus however long it takes at the boarder. I'm not really looking forward to dealing with that. Hopefully they decide to be nice for once. 

Will write again tomorrow night!! 

Love you all!! <3

Day #2 of my Trip West

Today went pretty well. Except for the fact that I only got about an hour and a half of sleep last night, and we were in the car leaving Holland at 3AM (Michigan time). As we were leaving Holland, and headed out of Michigan, the weather was a bit scary. Extremely windy and raining like crazy, thankfully it was still warm so none of it froze while we were still in Michigan. The raining stopped once we got through Indiana. Snow started appearing shortly after the rain stopped. We made it to Chicago around 5:30AM (Chicago time, so it took about 3 and a half hours to get there). Around 7AM (Chicago time), we stopped to get gas and have breakfast at McDonald's. That stop was very short. Somewhere between 8 and 8:30 (I ended up taking a nap), we made it to Wisconsin. At 9, we stopped in Wisconsin Dells at another McDonald's to get coffee, after that I called my mom and talked for a bit :) At noon, we stopped in Hudson for lunch, we got Taco Bell. After that we were headed to St. Paul, Minnesota to go see my little Miss Jaden and visit her for a bit in the hospital. We arrived there around 12:45, Jaden was still in PT so we had to wait a few minutes before she got back to her room. It was worth it! She is such a trooper and doing really well in her recovery! I just love seeing her smile. While we were at the hospital, I made up my mind that being a pediatric nurse instead of just an RN is really where my heart lies. Might take an extra year or two of schooling, but I'll figure it all out and it'll be worth it. After the visit with Jaden, we still had 2 hours left in the car until we arrived outside of Brainerd. Around 4 we arrived at the Bardolph's. We had a nice time chatting and catching up and had an amazing dinner. It was pretty hard at first being here without my grandma. The last time I was in this house, she was here too. I miss her like crazy.
After a long 13 hours in the car, a whirlwind of emotions, and next to no sleep, I'm finally sitting in my bed for the night and ready to fall asleep!
Starting our day tomorrow at 6am, have another LONG day in the car ahead of us. 12 hours! We'll be staying the night in Lewistown, Montana (I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's where).
I will write again tomorrow before going to bed!
Hope you enjoy reading about my journey across the country!
Love you all! :)