.. more words to live by

"We are each the authors of our own lives, Emma. We live in what we have created. There is no way to shift the blame and no one else to accept the accolades." - Barbara Taylor Bradford

photo via

adventuring along niagara gorge.

my dad recently got a new computer and as my dad always does, has spent the last few weeks figuring out anything and everything this new computer can do - from syncing all his emails into one account to making slide show music videos.  he has the same computer as i do, but trying to figure out this computer was never something i tried to do. 

anyways, point is - dad is going through photos and making albums for each year/event and organizing everything he has in terms of photos and videos. i decided i would do the same thing and then i came across my good friday photos and realized i never posted them.

so here is how my parents, terry and i spent our good friday 2013.

headed down the escarpment

 climbing around boulders

better late then never right?!

Easter!

HAPPY EASTER!

 i sincerely hope that everyone was a wonderful easter full of love and family..

ohh and chocolate!

instagram diary

just a little of what is going on in my part of the woods recently;

 my dad went to a work party at this new restaurant downtown.. there was so much left over dessert that my dad decided he'd take a cupcake home for each of us. they were from cheesecake factory and absolutely delish.. mine obviously was red velvet

 terry works with a bunch of women. so apparently enough of these women received girls from their men that terry figured he would also be sweet. on international womens day.. he brought me a bouquet of flowers and brought my mom a rose :)

 one a sunday in march.

 the weather got up to 15 degrees.. the water at tiffany falls was rushing fast down stream.

fresh batch of ginger molasses cookies.. 

is it spring yet?

after an absolutely lovely weekend with weather so perfect it was hard to believe true, we get a crumby monday with way too much rain. thats a great way to make me hate my monday even more. it would be an understatement to say i was a little bitter today...
the weather this weekend was just teasing us.. i will wait with anticipation until that weather shows up again and stays for more then two days. 
i woke up on saturday to the sun shining through the slight part in my bedroom curtains. the whole day was pure sunshine and up to 10 degrees celsius. i probably didn't take as much advantage of this beautiful weather as i should have, but i did love the fact that a coat was not necessary.
sunday i got outside a bit more to enjoy the weather. sunday got up to 14 degrees celsius. terry and i went for a drive around the city (he may have even had the windows down). on our way back we stopped for a little hike up to tiffany falls. 

after i got home from the drive/hike with terry i felt guinness was missing out on the weather he loves so much, so i thought id take him out. my dad and i hopped in the car with my pup and drove to what we thought was an entrance to the rail trail. it turned out to be a random forest but it was still the perfect place to take guinness for a walk. anywhere he can be off leash is perfect to him.. 

he even found a little lake to play in.. 

i hope next weekend is just as beautiful!

awkward and awesome

today was down right awkward so im glad it is thursday!

awkward 
- today at work one of my co-workers announced she was expecting her third child (i already knew.. but she was telling everyone else), another co-worker announced her and her boyfriend got an apartment together and another co-worker announced she was going on a date that night. they all had exciting news and when i was asked, i said nope.. i dont have any news.. so my co-worker decided to announce to everyone i got engaged. haha wow no! i didn't.. awkward! i found this extremely awkward - i got some weird/suspicious looks.
- we had no white milk this morning to put in my tea so i put chocolate milk in.. it was kind of delicious. no sugar needed!
- i'm pretty sure a women at the WSIB thinks i am incompetent and she may or may not report that to my manager tomorrow morning.
- i went to the gym today and locked the car keys in the car. i noticed as soon as i closed the door, they were laying right on the drivers seat! i had to call my dad to come unlock the car to get the keys out.. i don't even know what i would do if my parents were out of town!
- you know when you are trying to walk past someone and they go the same way you are about to go, and then you both decide to go the opposite way and bump into each other again and then you do it again and the cycle continues.. well today at the gym this women and i did this like 6 times and then she proceeded to say lets dance hun and gave me the most awkward hug like thing.. i had no idea who this women was!

awesome
- i completed a survey at work today and i got a $10 tim hortons gift card! free coffees! 
- greys anatomy is on tonight!
- my friend and i are getting together this weekend and hopefully planning our trip to scotland to visit my sister
- this week went super fast and its already friday tomorrow!

reminding myself .. still in ontario, thunder bay ontario..

terry grew up in thunder bay and as much as he claims to dislike the place, i think he was excited to show me around the place he grew up and i was equally as excited for him to show me. 

friday our flight was at 9 am on friday morning (we were up at 5:45 and in the car for 6:30 on the way to the airport). the flight to thunder bay from toronto was about an hour and 20 minutes, allowing us to arrive in thunder bay around 10:30 am. after laughing at the unbelievably tiny airport, terry's uncle had arrived to pick us up from the airport and brought us to where we were staying for the weekend, at terry's grandfathers house. we brought our suit cases in the house and in a matter of 20 minutes terry and i were back in the car - my tour of thunder bay had begun!

we drove around probably for less than an hour before i was complaining how hungry i was. he took me to a place (it cant even be granted the title restaurant) called coney island in which terry had previously described as "a hole in the wall restaurant with amazing burgers". maybe it should be called a diner. you know - the kind of diner that uses plastic cups, mismatched dishes and only accepts cash - yup that is what coney island is. terry ordered 4 burgers and i ordered a burger and a poutine (dont worry, any smaller and these burgers would be classified as sliders). i didn't enjoy the burger very much because all i tasted was mustard but they were pretty interesting - the burgers were similar to a weird mix between a hamburger and a sloppy joe (with a strong taste of mustard - blahh!). terry loved his 4.5 burgers and i liked my poutine!

the rest of our friday was spent driving around. terry showed me the mall (yes the one mall in thunder bay) and the neighbourhood he used to live in with his parents. we drove around the poor parts and the rich parts of thunder bay and he showed me some of the arenas he used to play hockey in. we went to see the terry fox memorial monument (thunder bay was where terry fox was forced due to physical illness to end his run across Canada). we went to get a few groceries and some wine for the weekend and we even took a special eight year old in his life out for dinner and to the arcade.

throughout the weekend, i honestly had to keep reminding myself i was still in canada. they had restaurants, coffee shops and grocery stores i had never heard of. there were even foods i never heard of and brands i had never seen before. ohh also.. so as we were driving around, i kept smirking at these funny little yellow huts that were stationed outside of certain houses near the side walk.. im laughing to myself thinking.. man what the heck, these things are so ugly - that really has to devalue the property of a house, having one of these huts in front of your house.. terry explained.. it gets so cold during the winter in thunder bay that these huts are actually for the crossing guards to stand in while they are waiting for kids crossing the streets (haha makes sense- but i had definitely never seen them before.. i still think they are the most ridiculous looking things ever!)

saturday we woke up and went to the market. i guess there is a market every saturday morning from 8am until noon. terry's mom had mentioned we should stop by and say hi to some friends of hers who have a little stand at the market. we had no intention of purchasing anything but we ended up leaving with probably three meals worth of perogies, fresh dinner rolls, some italian sausage, some elk jerky for terry and some chocolate for me. yum! we spent some time in a coffee shop (me reading my kobo and terry doing some work on the laptop - both drinking coffee). we got some lunch and then headed to kakabeka falls where we were meeting up with some friends.

kakabeka falls was one of the few places i was daring enough to take my mitten hands out of my pockets and actually take some pictures. even though the falls were entirely frozen over, the site was beautiful.

 the sky was such a beautiful blue that day. not a cloud in the sky

 you could hear the water running underneath the ice, but the top layer was entirely frozen.

ahh so beautiful! id love to go back in the summer or fall!

after the hour or two we spend at the falls, we drove around a bit more. around 4 we went  back to his grandfathers house to make some dinner and rest before we had to help set up for the stag and doe.

we went to pick up terry's friend around 630 and headed over to help set up (basically our job was to stock the beer fridge) for the stag and doe. the stag and doe was fun! drinks, music, lots of people and some great prizes! i think the couple getting married was impressed with the turn out! get this though.. saturday night it went down to - 23 degrees celsius before windshield! i dont think i have ever experienced cold like that when i wasn't decked out in ski attire (fleece sweaters and covered head to toe from the cold). my purse froze! my leather purse - completely froze! i swear. when we came back to the house at 2 am.. i shivered for probably 35 minutes after being in the house and covered with a blanket (i think terry may have thought something was seriously wrong with me). 

sunday was very low key. i slept a lot. terry watched a lot of hockey/sports (when terry watched sports, i napped - there wasn't internet and only one tv got channels worth watching.. so i napped a lot.. or read). sunday dinner, terry's aunt and uncle kindly took us out for dinner to a local steak house. i had salmon and it was delicious.. ohh and did i mention all you can eat salad/bread& soup bar?!.. yum yum!   it was nice! i like his family (thats a good sign right!?) :). after dinner we went back to the house and decided to play some weird game.. i forget the name, something to do with pigs. the game didn't last long, i won a round, he won a round then we gave up. we decided to watch a movie and drink some wine.. (big wine fans here!)

monday family day! our flight back to toronto was around 4 pm. we lazed around, went for lunch, got some coffee, dropped off some presents/made a visit and went back to the house to pack.

that was my long weekend! 

first weekend away with mister boyfriend :)

thunder bay

i like long weekends. i like long weekends more when you can entirely relax and not just add another day on to your already stressful weekend. i especially like long weekend when you get to leave and go somewhere else for a few days - somewhere that stress is not even an option because your wont let it be. i loved this february long weekend! my boyfriend and i got to spend four days relaxing, away from home (sort of not for him) and stresses associated with it. terry and i spent our long weekend in thunder bay and i entirely enjoyed myself.
i am not surprised in any way that i enjoyed my weekend but you honestly should have heard some of the warnings (i guess you can call them warnings) i got when i told people i was going to thunder bay.
"eww thunder bay- why would you go there!?" 
"haha, i got sent to thunder bay once for business and the next time my boss tried to send me i got down and cried in front of him asking him why me!? why me!?"
"there is nothing in thunder bay - you should refund that plane ticket now"
"highest crime rate per capita in thunder bay"
"dont get stabbed - its common there!"
yup.. true say. i heard all these comments.

so obviously i disregarded the concerns in these statements and went to thunder bay with terry.
the purpose for us going was for a stag and doe ("shag" as they call it in thunder bay). terry's cousin is getting married in september but the stag and doe was over the long weekend so we made a short trip out of it - we both booked friday off work!

*picture is of  (frozen over) Kakabeka Falls - Thunder Bay, Ontario*

happy snow day

so whether you had a snow day or had to go to work (or school).. i hope you at least got to enjoy this beautiful snow! its a winter wonderland outside and i love it!
some pictures from this snowy friday..

 that tree is supposed to be much taller and upright.. the snow is completely weighing it down..

 snow in my back yard, piled high

walking to work (yes.. i had snow up to my knees!) .. the lovely snow! 

so beautiful!

i love winter!..

what i learned from earnest..

"the truth is rarely pure and never simple"

the quote above is by Oscar Wilde.. a quote from the importance of being earnest. i read this book/play last month and this quote is what i took from it. although the short sentence was just a line somewhere at the beginning of the book, it stuck with me. 

i feel like i have always thought about truth and lies as black and white. truths are easy and simple. lies are difficult and complex. truths are fact. lies are fiction. truths can be proven, backed up and/or referenced. lies have to be rehearsed and memorized, they are created, staged and/or planned. 

lies seem like so much effort.. so why do people so often choose not to tell the truth? .. because the truth isn't pure and simple. the truth is filled with facts and necessary explanations. it is filled with love and so often with hurt. truth is filled with emotion. truth is powerful and so often misunderstood. truth can ruin people, it can cause tears and harm... truth may be stable but it is very complex.

i believe that often the truth makes people so uncomfortable that lies seem like the better option. you make up a piece of information, more likely than not a piece of information the communicator believes the receiver wants to be presented with. the information is invented.. easy. our brains do that in seconds. but really..when we make a decision, i believe people exhibit an immediate fight or flight response. 

lies are simple, they can be devised in a matter of seconds.. do it.

truth.. complicated..causing anxiety. run.

so we run. we tell the lie instead of the truth. lies just seem so much easier to do. although truth is fact and therefore should be more easily stored in our brains, it is so not pure and definitely not simple.