Quick update on the lack of activity...

So... for those of you who don't know I was recently diagnosed with a high glucose count and warned that with out some changes I would very soon be listing into the world of diabetes.  Scary wake up call.  I've had some moments, but so far the adjustments to my diet and exercise have been going well.  Plus for me on the side effect side, working with a nutritionist to learn how to eat has helped me to loose some frustrating extra weight.  :)  

Living through the holiday season with no options for desserts?  This has been tough.  I am very thankful to all the wonderful people who have been giving me recipes for all the foods I want to try but can't. I know when I get these level under control I am going to enjoy making all the tasty holiday treats for myself a little later next year.  Over the last month I have made some awesome steps toward getting this under control and expect to be living a little more normally by January.  I have been really encouraged by all the support from those of you who know as I have been going through this :)  More to follow as I go :)   

Galiano Island Day Trip

Waters around Galiano Island

A flower along the road ;)  

 In August I realized I hadn't made any plans for my weekend off and wanted to get out for a day.  I took the ferry out to Galiano Island.  The plan was ferry out in the morning, catch the noon ferry back and run  my errands in the States before heading home.  There was supposed to be an art and wine festival that sounded like fun.  

The ferry ride over was fun.  I grabbed some breakfast at a random table and pulled out my trusty book, a sure conversation killer, right... The cafeteria slowly cleared around me but it was still pretty full.  A gentleman asked if he could sit on the other side of the table from me.  No problem, except he wasn't taking the book hint.  Hmmmm, no problem. I can carry on a polite conversation, except by the end of my breakfast this old guy has declared himself as my Island tour guide and I'm to meet him at his car for a ride.  Whoa, I listened to my mom when she told me never to get in a car with a stranger.  So I politely excused myself to walk the deck of the ferry, ducked into the restroom when I was out of his site and promptly changed my top and put on a hat. :)  Yes, I carry a change of clothes, I had planned to hike and didn't want to run errands in a sweaty top. As soon as the ferry docked I could see the guy looking for me, so I did the polite thing again.  I hid in the crowd ducked my shoulders and moved with the crowd off the island.  

Fun little pies at the Bakery

I explored around and discovered the art part of the festival was the town's weekly farmers market... OK, and the wine part wasn't starting until 13:00.  Blah, what a bust.  I'm so ready to leave, problem, the noon ferry doesn't operate on weekends, Argh.  No problem I can chill out until the 17:00 ferry, There's still the wine festival, of which I definitely got my money's worth, thank you complimentary hors d'oeuvres.  I ate so many spinach puffs and cheese, I'm sure the people passing platters were purposely avoiding me. 

I started hiking back and figured I should grab something on my way off the Island for dinner, as my day was going to be longer than planned.  "Spicy" Chipotle Chicken Burrito ended up being about as bland as mayo, but was filling on my ferry ride home :)  Next time we'll be a little more careful with the time table but other than that , fun day trip out.  

4th of July

In May I realized two things... I was going to be off work for the 4th of July and I am an eight hour drive away from Family!  Too close to resist I made the drive for an American Holiday :)  

Sparklers to start off the night... After the BBQ of course :)

Whiz- Bang

It was an exhausting drive, but well work the tired to make it down to Oregon for the day.  SHOPPING was accomplished, thanks Aunt Randie and Kristin for introducing me to the Outlets :)  

And thanks for the place to hang out before my mad dash back north again :)

The Summer's Order

The last few posts have been out of order so I figured I'd post a quick list of the order of my summer trips...

-May- Las Vegas
-June- Okanagan Valley- Brianne visited :)
-July 4th- Salem Oregon
-Mid July- Home to San Jose
-August- Galiano
-Late August- Visiting Family in Salem
-September- Grouse Mountain & Whistler with Sister
-Mid September- Stanley Park- Jesse & Andrea visited
-October- Washington & Oregon Coastal Drive
-Late October- DC Weekend

So far that is what is coming up, already posted and the order they go in.  Thanks for the patience as I madly spend the weekend getting these posted :)  Stay tuned for the last few installments to be posted by tomorrow...

Inn Boonsboro

The Inn from across the street....

Fresh Flowers in our room

Aren't Surprises the best?  Especially when you get to surprise someone with going someplace you have wanted to go yourself?  These are shots from my surprise trip to Inn Boonboro with Danielle.  A perfect retreat.  The only downside of the trip was I don't think I will be content at another hotel again.  The inn keepers exceeded everything I expected.

Magic Shower with 6 jets :)

Amazing pizza and to die for desserts...

Our package included Dinner, we went with pizza, salad and fresh cannoli with sparkling wine to top it off. 



After a fun chat over skype with another friend we crashed out.  The only unpleasantness of the weekend occurred at 0600 when an emergency buzzed under our window with sirens blaring.  For the two early morning shift people we are... sleep was not something we were gonna get back... good thing we remembered where the krupps brewer was at :)

Comfort defined :)

Little cool?  No problem with our fireplace in the wall.

Who knew a healthy breakfast could look this good?  Don't worry.  We had unhealthy bits too.

 After an amazing breakfast and of course more coffee :)  Our spa treatments awaited to be followed by shopping and a relaxing lunch.  Thanks Danielle for putting up with my silly surprise :)  Hope you had a great night out :)

Coastal Road Trip

 I accomplished a goal of seeing more of the West Coast in October.  Starting by driving across Whidbey Island to catch the ferry to the Olympic Peninsula... Where this gorgeous bridge is.

Tidal pools a little farther south... 

Sun on the waves in Southern WA...








As gorgeous as these shots are, my trip was not all pretty scenery... Splitting my trip by stopping in Astoria, OR.  I went out for dinner.  I should have known something wasn't right when I felt a little off after the soup.  Oh my goodness!  Who knew food could come back up so fast, even with a little pepto to try to keep it down!  Sorry for the weak stomachs who are reading this now...  I was so glad to have family close by, I spent the rest of the weekend couch surfing, recouping after that bout.  I guess there is always next time to get farther down the coast.

Jesse and Andrea Visit

  In September Andrea and Jesse, friends from Long Beach made the trip up to visit also...

Picking locations I hadn't visited yet we went out to hike around Stanley Park... 

They were so patient with my slow pace, who knew a chest cold could mess with a person's lung capacity...
But even the slow pace didn't stop us from getting amazing views.

 We also checked out the wild life in Queen Elizabeth park....


I'd have to say the best part was walking through Gas Town in Vancouver.  The buildings are always beautiful and the food is always fantastic.  We went for Japa-Dogs. Yum, then hiked out to Chinatown for Steamed Pork Buns.  And yes, crossing quickly across Hastings, we even witnessed a little more downtown flavor :)  As a guy walking in the opposite direction took a hit of coke.... Skytrain, please...

Despite the downtown fun, it was great to have the visitors and the company to explore a little more while I'm here.

Sister's B'day Visit

In September my sister was able to visit :)  Since I've been building up hotel points since I got here I decided a little road trip was in order.  We drove up to Grouse Mountain.  We did some hiking, although the famed "grind" was a little too packed so we took the tram.  Even with out the major train, we found some spectacular views.

  and checked out the Grizzly Bear Exhibit.  Cute little bears and just a wire fence between you and them...

Becca braved the fence and got close enough for a picture before we hit the road to head up another mountain to Whistler...

Our room in Whistler was FANTASTIC.... but I forgot to take pictures.  We checked in, grabbed some dinner then crashed out.  A bike race delayed our departure but we made the most of it by hiking to a lake, where we found a nice spot to read out books...



Then made a stop with the Olympic rings before we headed back down the mountain...







Before we headed back to the States to get Becca on her flight home we took a drive through Lynden, WA. I learned what a Blue Town was... I never would have thought a whole town could be closed for Sunday, but yup.  The only thing open was the sidewalks in this place!  It definitely made for a quiet end of trip for us.  

Las Vegas Trip ...from May

So this post is going a little back in time... I've had it written for a while but didn't get the pictures together until recently.  So here is a little bit about my trip in May...

Been a while since I've posted, so ladies and gentleman hold on to your seats… This is how we play catch up.  Work has been mostly, well, just work nothing really exciting going on there so 

  We’re gonna go back on this with a little bit of my awesome trip to Las Vegas last May… I know, I moved to Canada and where do I take my first trip big trip?  Las Vegas?  Well first off when a friend calls and says “I’m gonna be in Vegas for a conference, would you like to keep me company and have a hotel stay for free?”  Free room, just have to cover my plane ticket and incidentals?  Heck yeah!  I’m going to definitely plan some awesome incidentals!  I ended up hitting trip adviser and giving rave reviews for everything we ended up doing. 

Who knew the abridged version of Phantom of the Opera could be so cool?  It was like pushing play on my Highlights CD.  I’d never been to a cocktail bar at a theatre and we thought it would be fun to see if there was a “Phantom” drink.   The bar had just stopped making the signature  drink but the bartender went ahead and set us up.  Before we hit the show we did justice to a Buffet.  As is the Vegas tradition.  Oh my goodness Danielle!  Thank you so much for selecting the buffet based on their dessert menu!  The Wynn has an entire room just for dessert.  The food was amazing too, but I had to pace my dinner on the desserts I planned on hitting.  And, man did we enjoy them!  Of course we dressed to the nines and had a fantastic night on the town.  If only sexy shoes were more comfortable for walking those HUGE Vegas blocks.  A taxi has never seemed like a better idea than when your feet are ready to be bare foot. 

Bestest Chocolate Ending

Champagne Martini

Back to the show, we got coupons with our tickets and planned out our next night around them.  How fancy, Champagne Cocktail bar, Dinner at a fancy French place then reservations for dessert at a place with a 5 page chocolate dessert menu.  Is it becoming apparent this vacation was all about the food?  Dinner at Bouchon, in the Venetian was amazing.  I wanted to try something new and fancy.  I got brave and tried seared Fois Gras for my culinary adventure!  What an experience!  I can honestly say… It was amazing!  I can’t believe California has banned the dish.  Another reason I probably won’t end up back there.  Cheesecake filled crepe with an orange mint salad and a cup of sipping chocolate for dessert rounded out the evening and my middle.  

Needless to say it was a trip all about visiting and food...Ahhh, best way to plan a vacation :)

June Weekend

These are gonna be a little out of order but I'm getting my summer pics up here this weekend without exception... Skipping a little in here are some shots from my weekend in June :)

A friend of mine visited for my weekend off in June and was a good sport with a road trip for wine tasting in the Okanagan Valley among other Vancouver tourist spot...  

We stayed at a very interesting B&B- Gorgeous, but not quite complete.  1900's Farm House Decorated with funky Buddhist style a little at odds with itself.

Visited a Lavender Farm...

Next we went to a honey farm... 

Tantalus Vineyards went above and beyond...
All our stops were their tips
And we got a private tour of the vineyard, cellar and 
had a private tasting!

Summerhill Vineyard's view from their restaurant was incomparable!  And the Sparkling wine... Yum!

Tasting at Cedar Creek Winery....

View from St. Hubertus Estate... 

When we got back to the coast we stopped at 
Steveston, a cute old town fishing village.

Sampling Cider and Beer in the Buck and Ear Tap Room... 

...and crossing the border to head back to the States.








Awesome weekend all the way around :)  Thanks for giving me the excuse to get out and explore Bri :)

The Begining of my Summer Tale

So... I know I have been lapsing in diligence in getting stuff posted.  Mainly due to this having been a crazy summer.  Seems as soon as I got settled the crazy hours took off :)  Not to worry folks... I have been taking notes and pictures and this week I should be able to begin the tale.  Hopefully this week life will slow down enough that I can breathe and write... September begins the hotel phase for my nice little house.  Stay turned for the goings on of my summer :)

This was supposed to be posted May 29th :) 

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I?!?!?!?!  I went to a pub for dinner.  Didn't really feel like cooking tonight and I wanted to try this pub that opened down the street last month.  Felt like I was in a great place as soon as I walked in, fight playing on one screen, basketball game playing on the other screen, I ordered my fish and chips and a pint of cider and settled in at the bar for a nice meal and some people watching. 

I brought my journal with me, an attempt to force me to write a little more.  I'm focused in my own little world and ready to enjoy my evening.  Sigh... my evening is about to get better.  In walks a spectacular example of every thing sexy in a man, and yes ladies and gentlemen he is sitting a discrete stool away from me.  Rocking body, hey I have eyes, and gorgeous eyes of his own.  He orders an ale from the bar tender and I'm thinking it's gonna be a little harder to focus on my journal while he checks out the menu. 

My fired masterpiece arrives with a bottle of malt vinegar; yes I'm feeling good about my dinner.  Then the hot guy orders a salad.  Now there is really nothing wrong with ordering a salad, nothing at all.  However, salad is not the first meal choice I think of when sitting at the bar in an Irish Pub, with a pint of ale!  Then I overhear the following conversation...

HG (hot guy)- Do you follow this American Basketball "thing". 
BT (bartender)- Not really, but it's the playoffs, so we've had a lot of requests to watch the game. 
HG- It doesn't make any sense.  How many games to they have to play before this is over?
BT- Not sure let's look at the info on the menu.

Bartender then pushes buttons on the remote, we find out this is game 5 of 7 and Hot Guy decides there is a more appropriate game playing for the bar TV.  Channels are changed and now we are watching the French Open. 

Sorry, this guy is no longer so hot in my mind.  Is it wrong?  I feel I could never respect a man who knows less about a sport than me.  I'm not a huge fan of basketball but even I know who's getting spanked in the playoffs! 

And don't get me wrong, I can appreciate the athleticism required to play tennis and play it well.  But when in a pub, I have to question the appropriateness of choosing tennis over the playoffs and dare I say masculinity as well!  Goodness!   

It is AMAZING to me how the nice people at the phone company can smile while they charge such wonderful fees for the use of thier technology... I forgot to turn off my data coverage before I crossed into Canada... and now I will have a nice little reminder from my provider reflected in the monetary amount charged to me on a monthly basis.  Not bad I guess considering I have been up here 4 months and this is the first such infraction... PLEASE GOD DON'T LET ME DO THAT AGAIN :)  All right rant is over.  Have a nice day :)

Final touches are done.  My home feels like a home.  I actually spent a chunk of yesterday working on my embroidery and watching movies.  :)  Bliss!  What a way to spend the day!
I decided to post some shots of the area around my house to show you where I'm at and the new furniture addition:

The last piece of furniture! Love my new accent chair :)

Tree outside my front door, Smells so good in the warm air.

View of the river.

Walkway from my house to the river.

Seaplanes land all day as the airport is on the other side of the river :)

Life is settling nicely up here.  I've been out with a few new people.  Some have been more interesting than others.  Is it fair to chat about good and bad dates?  Let me know, there have been some shockers.  :)

I'm also in a place where I've got a place I feel OK to start writing again.  It's been a while since I've been relaxed enough in my own world to think about another one.  I guess as boring as the job is I may someday actually finish that book with all the time and space up here. 

So far on the calendar I'm looking at a trip to Vegas in May, a visitor in June, a trip back to San Francisco in July, a rest close to home in August, a trip to DC and visitors in September.  My retreat days are filling up quickly so if you'd like to make it up here let me know.  Next year could fill up quickly :)  I've already got a trip in the works for early spring to make a trip across the pond to visit London and the surrounding area :) 

As always I'll keep y'all up to date.  (How'd you like the Georgia throw back? ;)
Until next time...

Crafts and the Results



I LOVE my new crafting table!

The Results... A picture board and framed prints :)

I spent my day discovering craft stores in Bellingham and Fernadale.  The result is a picture board, framed prints and a nifty dry erase board.  Settling in and decorating... I am starting to feel a little more at home :)



Advice for picking out sheets...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen we are going to discuss bedding and the importance or making intelligent choices when selecting the sheet you put on your bed. For today we are going to focus on three basic types of material; percale, flannel, and satin.  Until recently I was a pretty boring person, flannel and percale were the limit of my experience.  Moving up here and finding myself in need of bedding and finding satin sheets on clearance... I simply could not resist.  Walking out of TJ max with my satin matched set with pillow cases included, I felt as if I was breaking out of some unknown shell I had previously been encased in.  How luxurious!  I would soon be sleeping on satin sheets.  What an extravagance! By a serendipitous coincidence I even managed to match the sheets to the new bedspread I bought. 


I went with tried and true the first time I made my beautiful new bed instead of being brave I went with plain old cotton sheets.  Then during laundry last weekend I decided it was time to be brave and try something new.  Satin sheets the first night were no problem.  Probably because I was able to sleep in the next morning.  The next night was the night of "Why we do not sleep on satin sheets when we want to be rested".   I crashed out quickly thanks to a super soaky bath.  My plan to go to sleep early which worked for a while.  Until... Well at first I wasn't sure.  I just couldn't get comfortable and it wasn't a great night.  Work the next day was long, and not just because of the 14 hour shift...


After how tired I was I thought, "OK tonight is definitely going to be better as my night shirt and I slid into my satin cacoon and then my head slid off the pillow.  Confused I punched my pillow a bit and tried to place my head on it again, dozed  and my head slid off again, dozed and slipped.  After the third wake up I ripped the offending pillow case off and threw it across the room, groaned and collapsed and drifted blissfully into sleep, if only for a short time.   My alarm went off at it's usual time, blah 3am.  As I reached for the alarm, Please God let it turn off quickly, an easily slipped from between my wonderful satin sheets and listened to the rest of my alarm music from the floor next to my bed.  Thankfully my alarm was still not far away and could still be shut off easily and thankfully I now realised the reason for my poor sleep. 


I showered and got ready for work but still couldn't let myself leave until I had ripped the offending sheets from the bed and thrown them in the laundry room.  No more satin sheets, thank you very much.

Sunday on the Island with Mel

Good Morning today, woke up with my alarm and wasn't too bitter at being awake :)  Happens when you are not waking up at 3am.  So this morning was operation try out a new Sunday School class.  What an adventure.  After rummaging through half of my summer wardrobe and trying to make it fit the winter weather here... really need to rethink my California wardrobe... I finally settled on an outfit. Glad I set the clock in my room ahead as I made it into my car a full 5 minutes early.
Now what would you do with an extra 5 minutes when you already had a 10 minute buffer in your time allotment to get to church?  Of course you would go get coffee!  I decided to try the local sensation of Tim Horton's.  For those of you Americans unfamiliar with this phenom... it is basically the Canadian version of Dunkin' Donuts, with powdered milk.  Yes, you read that right, they make lattes with powdered milk.  Needless to say if I go for Timmy's I stick to black coffee. 
Back to the story... I made it through the line and up to the register and decided in celebration of the pound that was missing from my weight on the scale (and the sit-ups I promised myself I would do later in the day) I also deserved a donut due to my excellent time management skills!  What delectable fat pill should I select?  How can you choose such a thing?  Delectable pastries calling my name from the case, screaming at me by the time I reached the register.  The great amount of restraint I displayed in choosing two should be applauded!  Besides, kruelers (Canadian spelling) are more air than pastry so that one didn't really count.  Now the Boston Cream?  I take full responsibility for that one, as a law enforcement officer it is part of the job that I do a quality control check on various distributors to ensure only premium Boston Cream donuts are being served.  Despite the powdered milk deficiency, this place had an exceptionally fresh Boston Cream. 
Pay day was last week and I haven't had time to change any money to Canadian yet so I am a little dependent on cards until the banks open tomorrow.  Imagine my shock when I swiped my card and the screen read invalid... My beautiful sapphire card! Apparently Timmy doesn't like Visa, go figure.  Master Card only will cure my craving for caffeine and sugar.  Strangest thing in the world, but luckily I was prepared with a random card I have thought about closing about a million times. 
I am now armed with delectable fried pastry and coffee.  Oh wait, before I am out of the parking lot fat pills are gone.  Oops, guess I should have made more effort to eat breakfast before hitting the road.  Man I was hungry. 
Now I am getting to church.  This weeks discovery is on the other side of the island, but it has something other placed are lacking... an evening service!  I made it early enough to hit a Sunday School class :)  Yes I will meet new people today.  I open the door and wonder... Am I early?  The foyer is practically empty.  Maybe there is a secret meeting place for this fabled morning Bible Study.  I notice three people chatting next to a desk marked "Welcome Centre".  OK.  I am psyched up.  I am going to meet new people who are older than my parents.  That's OK, maybe I can adopt a new grandparent? Right?  As I approach the two men turn and walk away and the woman starts walking in the opposite direction!  No darn it!  I am going to make a friend today and you do not get to walk away.  "Excuse me?"  Yes I have her attention. "Is there a Bible study this morning?" "Oh yeah I guess you can follow me to my class."  OK not as welcoming as I was wanting, but I have made contact!  I am one step closer to meeting.... Whoa, where is the mix with this group?  Is there any one here under the age of 60?  And are we really having a class on environmental stewardship with this class?  Granted, the class was a pretty good, informative session on environmental ministry.  I was not aware of the potential but it definitely makes sense. 
On to the service... where I sat alone, not something I am unfamiliar with, listening to a message on encouraging one another.  Not a bad message until the pastor had every one put their arms over the person sitting next to them to sing the final song.  Lean on me can be pretty lonely when you are the only one in the pew.  So.  Next week I will try to find another church, and we shall see where we go from there. 
Finished getting the pictures in another room up and sorted through my jewelry.  Things are slowly feeling more and more like home.  Stay tuned for shots of my area in the next week.  Tomorrow is another off day then starts my 6 day push to the weekend :)  Catch you all on the other side :)



First things first, Mom said to make sure my bed was made...

...then to find my coffee pot.

Bedroom

Living Room and Dining Room

Boxes in the Office

And more boxes

Making progress...

More progress...

Boxes are gone and I have a place to sit.

Definate Progress

My dining room :)  Love my dining table.

And then the furniture arrives...





It's a start to the bedroom...

Hutch is still in progress.

And the result...

Just missing the TV...

Amazing how much art adds

Looking into the kitchen...

Final look at the kitchen

  So here's a look at my place, some is still in progress and more pictures will follow.  The layout sucks a little as I figure this blog thing, patience as I post more :)