cale, breeze, johnathan and i found a new place to live! the house we're in now sold, albeit for less than they were asking but it's still better than nothing!

our new place is on 116th and 80th avenue. still in surrey, but a nice, big three bedroom basement suite. The Master bedroom is pretty massive and Breeze and Johnathan both get their own rooms.

I'm excited because I'll actually get to have my things out. I can hang my pictures on the walls. I can paint whatever color I want. There's a certain amount of freedom that comes with having your own space and it's nice.

The downside, of course, is that I hate moving. I want nothing more than to set up shop somewhere and stay there for the rest of my life. I hate packing, I hate unpacking, I hate trying to organize trucks and putting tape on the walls before I paint. I, of course, hate paying rent on top of my other expenses. Ha. And I'll be farther away from my mom, which is sad.

Still, it's a great place with big rooms. And it's ground floor so it's not like living in a dungeon. Ha. I'm excited to have the move over and done with.

I also figured out what to do for my birthday! Expect a facebook invite!

And of course, I'm SO EXCITED, because my good friends Kristin and Mike are engaged after many, many years of dating! I was feeling bad about having a small wedding party because she wasn't a bridesmaid but now she's going to be a BRIDE!!! YAY!!! They're fantastic and I could NOT be happier for both of them. :) They're going to have a lot of fun in the next couple of years doing all of their planning and I can't wait to hear all about it. :D

-stacey



"Lost at sea,
My heart beat is growing weak,
Hoping you'd hear my plea,
And come save my life,
As the storm grew fierce,
An angel was certainly near,
I knew there was nothing to fear.

Bring me your love, tonight."

Breeze's first week with us is coming to a close and it seems to have gone really well! She's registered in school and next wednesday is her first day at the Just for Kicks dance school. :) her grandpa (cale's dad) very graciously volunteered to pay for any sports she's involved in so it takes a bit of pressure off of us although we would have been happy to have her involved in anything after school. haha. i think we're too boring for her to hang out with all the time after school.

i took a lot of time off this week (from school and one day of work) because of general sickness and getting breeze settled in school and things like that. it was nice and i got some much needed rest (especially yesterday). i'm feeling a little better and braved school and later on will be going to work at 11 so that's always a plus. only 2 days of work this week so i'm going to need the 8 hours i'll get today. (the chair i'm sitting in in class is REALLY squeaky. it's super annoying.)

the engagement party was a lot of fun although because i was starting to get sick and i hadn't really eaten much that day and generally feeling overwhelmed i had to take a lot of sit down breaks but hopefully everyone still had a good time. ha. i posted more about it on the website blog. (caleandstacey.brides.com) we got a lot of gifts which i was not expecting so thank you everyone. i purchased thank you notes the other day so those'll be coming in the mail soon enough. <3

for another week i managed to pay my bills and have a little money left over!!! YAY!!! at this rate i might actually be able to SAVE some money soon. wouldn't that be INCREDIBLE!!!! it makes me feel sooooo good to have extra money in the bank that isn't immediately going into something else right away. i'm going to spend some of it on groceries for chicken fajita - tortilla soup tonight. yum yum!

midterms are coming up soon. i think it'll be great to get a proper schedule going and finally be able to sit down and get some studying done. i really want to do well.

our house is also formally up for sale so cale, breeze and myself, as well as maybe my brother are looking for a 3 bedroom suite or possibly an entire house to rent in the same area we're already in. at least until breeze finished grade 7. they expect the house to sell fairly quickly (or want it to anyway) so we could be moving as early as november. if for some reason you hear of a great deal in the delta area please let us know. ha.

the first wedding show is this weekend on sunday. i'm super excited and hopefully i get some free stuff!!! haha. the fashion show should be cool also. really, we're gunning for the $50,000 dream wedding grand prize! keep your fingers crossed. :D

that's about it for now!!! i'm doing my best to stay relaxed. i think over last weekend i had a bit of a freak out in terms of all the things that seemed to be piling up but now that everything has settled down and i've made some lists i'm better able to keep it all in perspective. cale's doing a good job of keeping me thinking realistically as well, ha, even if i don't necessarily agree with him right away.

we're learning about Troy today! whoop whoop!

that's all for now.

-stacey



"Hit me like a ray of sun
Burning through my darkest night
You're the only one that I want
Think I'm addicted to your light

I swore I'd never fall again
But this don't even feel like falling
Gravity can't forget
To pull me back to the ground again"

I am determined to do well on my mid terms and finish one for fun novel in the month of October. Wish me luck. Ha!

Stacey

My mom and I downloaded a killer 90 day workout called p90x and I tried it out for the first time yesterday.

I figured, you know, I'll start small. Each workout is an hour long so I though, yeah, yoga sounds good. Ha!!!! I tried to twist my body into positions yesterday that I didn't even know were humanly possible. I've never even broken a sweat doing yoga before and yesterday it was dripping off of my face! Every muscle in my body was shaking and I was doing my best to keep breathing and not to make that awful grunting noise I make when i'm exerting myself.

Even though it sucks that i'm sore as hell today, I got to spend an hour and a half yesterday thinking only of myself, focusing on something besides work, school, money and wedding stuff, forcing myself to breath deeply and at the end you literally are supposed to curl up in a ball, close your eyes and just focus on how you feel.

I feel amazing today.

And i'm totally going to force you to do this with me Janet pants. Lol!!!!
Next up!!! Kenpo!!!! Hi yah!

Love:stacey!

my wedding is 10 months and 16 days from now.

holy crap i'm excited.

it's going to be a lot of fun and i love working with cale towards this common goal.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

p.s. the Engagement party is this Saturday! I can't freaking wait!!!!!

-Stacey

i was looking over my degree requirement today and realized that i had one art history too many and that it wouldn't count towards my major! SO...i enrolled in a distance education children's lit class instead, (FUN!), and that means that since i'm getting my language requirement fulfilled through Athabasca University online (WAY easier than doing it in-class through UBC) i only have to take one more class in the summer and i'll graduate. YES!

i thought i'd have to have a heavier course load until june, but i can swing it so that my last elective is another distance course and i still won't have to come back on campus after exams in april.

it's such a weight off of my chest to know that i can finish up my BA from the comfort of my own home, which leaves more time for work and wedding planning. i.e. REAL LIFE! excellent.

my Greek Art and Architecture class was today. it's one one class for one hour every wednesday and friday and the class itself isn't so bad. my prof seems like a cool guy and he's NOT an art historian which is AWESOME, he's an archaeologist and classicist. this may sound boring to most of you but if you've ever MET an actual art historian you'd understand where my enthusiasm comes from. archaeologists/classicists WORK in their fields. they get their hands dirty, they appreciate the historical context of an object, they'll tell you where they found it, how they found it, when they found it, who owned it, what it means, where you can find it again. an art historian (in my experience) will tell you what they think it means, where they saw it, and why they have decided to write a book about it.

i don't mean to devalue the profession, but so far the quality of people i've met who ARE established art historians is not so great. it's pretty god awful to tell you the truth. ugh. although it definitely depends on their specialty. i have two profs this year who are fantastic. one specializes in architecture and one in modern art and both are fantastic. you can't really go wrong with architecture. it is what it is. ha. and the modern art class i'm taking, i think my professor was part of the movement we're covering when it started PLUS he's written TONS of articles on disasters and art (i.e. Chernobyl, Hiroshima, etc.). A lot of focus on bombs and war and tragedy and sick as it sounds, that's right up my alley.

I like paintings and if they're taught by the right person they can be EXTREMELY interesting, but for the most part the professors at UBC don't specialize in the renaissance or really any period of time before the 1800's, so a lot of the time they're regurgitating material THEY learned in school and expecting you to come up with new and interesting theories while still maintaining that original module. it's so frustrating.

thankfully, i planned my classes out so that hopefully i'll be interested all year long, in spite of my hour and a half long commute for one hour long class on wednesdays and thursdays. but it's only for about 3 months. i can do it. that's only 12 weeks, which really, isn't very long at all.

work and wedding planning will definitely make the time FLY by. in a few weeks i'll be glad i'm only in class for an hour as it will give me time to do other things before i start work at 3.

i got a promotion at work! our old receiver moved back to Manitoba and while i miss her A LOT (Hi Cait!) i'm happy that they let me take over for her. i share the job with another guy from work (Hi Connor!). he's in every morning and i come in from 3 to 8 every night. so that's very exciting. plus it's a little extra money which will help with debt payments, wedding payments, living. you know, all the fun stuff.

hopefully you're all keeping up with the wedding website. i'm working hard on it and i'd hate for all of that effort to be wasted. ;)

my next task is to gather up everyone's email addresses so that i can set up the online rsvp system on the site. i'm so happy about that little feature! it's going to be phenomenal. sadly, i didn't ask for email addresses when i was collecting ACTUAL addresses so i'm going to have to send out a mass facebook message, AGAIN, or painstakingly creep everyone's facebook profiles to pilfer their email addresses. i know some, but i definitely don't know all 250. (which is where our guest list number is sitting right now, good golly miss molly!)

i cannot even begin to tell you how excited i am to marry my best friend. it's a phenomenal feeling. i wish we could do it tomorrow but i know we'd regret not having a big party to celebrate. :) i'm starting to think about dresses!!! EEP!

cale also just found out he might be getting a promotion. if he does that might mean that instead of running away from vancouver we might just get our own place here somewhere. nothing's finalized and we only talked about it a little bit, but it would be a really great set-up for cale, and then i wouldn't have to be jobless while i put my degree to some kind of good use. ha.

ok! i've got some delicious looking sushi in front of me, and a lot of excel spreadsheets to fill out, so i'm peacing off of livejournal for today. back to school tomorrow and rhona's afterwards! hooray! i have a full day tomorrow (3 classes for 4 and a half hours) so that's awesome. i won't feel like i've wasted my day on the bus. :)

adios!

-stacey k



"He said the wedding took a year to plan
You talk about an anxious man, I was nervous
Waitin' on a woman
And then he nudged my arm like old men do
And said, I'll say this about the honeymoon, it was worth it
Waitin' on a woman"

we had a great weekend, but you'll have to check out the website to find out what we did because it's all wedding related!!!!!

sorry folks. ;)

Cale and Stacey's Wedding Website

<3


-stacey k

I picked up the rest of our engagement photos from Tamara today. They are SO AWESOME. I still cannot believe what a great job she did. So fantastic!!! I LOVE HER!

there are a ton, but i posted some of the ones that aren't on her flickr, on MINE:

we had our engagement shoot with tamara (theretamaragoes) today. it was freaking AWESOME. she knows us so well. she would tell us where to stand and then we would just be our ridiculous selves with her shutter clicking in the background. there is no one else i could've been so comfortable with. i hate, hate, HATE being in front of a camera. i always think about the things i don't want to see on the internet and then end up looking awkward and completely ridiculous by the time they end up there, but having your friend (who also happens to be a photographer) take the photos for you is otherworldly.

all i could focus on was how much i loved the man in front of me and how happy i was that one of my best friends was able to be there for the early stages of the rest of our lives together.

i cannot say this enough.

thank you so much tamara. thank you thank you thank you. a million times. i couldn't imagine our wedding day without you and it means so much that you're able to use your amazing talents for us this way. it's such an important part of the entire process and it's YOU! the tamara i've known since we were 12/13!!! through gwen stefani and curfews and house fires and traveling and breakups and sleep-overs and gross apartments and lost loves and so many animals, etc, etc, etc. this list could go on forever. the point is, i love you. and i love that you said yes to taking our photos, because, like i already told you, you are an amazing photographer, and an amazing friend and we love you. but mostly me.

:)

as for everyone else!!!! if you want to see the photos you've got some options.

check out tamara's flickr at:
TamaraL

and more engagement photos will be able to be found on her website:
Tamara Lakeman Photography

<3

-stacey




"Rodeo man where are you going
Don't you know that the life of a cowboy is no good alone
If you tear down that fence of rusty barbed wire
Then I'll lay down beside you and be your shotgun rider"

Our wedding has a website!!!!!!!!

http://www.weddingbells.ca/wedsite/428159/

YAY!!!!

I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!

In other news, the first thing I did when I got home from work today was take off my pants. And I have been pantless ever since.

<3

Stacey K. (BUT NOT FOR LONG!!!!)

p.s. is it sad that one of the things I'm most excited about is changing my name?

p.p.s. i've been cruising back through old livejournal entries (not my own) and feeling sad that i'm not more involved in the lives of my pals due to time, distance, general closeness, etc. hearts all around.

So...I'm doing this thing called Bikini Body Boot Camp. It's hard as hell. That's right...you heard me. HARD AS HELL. And also hot. Even though I do it in the basement it still feels like I'm working out in a sauna. Holy mother of God. I hate to sweat, but by the end of this bad boy I'm sweating like a disgusting, sweaty pig in heat. The sounds I make are probably similar to that as well.

Today was day 5 of the Boot Camp.

Day 1: Cardio Hills. It's pretty much the equivalent of running around a track 50 times in the middle of a desert. Imagine starting at a walk, moving into a jog, trotting for a while and then full on sprinting until you feel like you're going to die, and then starting all over again while incorporating jumping jacks and power lunges into the mix. (Just for the record, this workout is hell, and power lunges are the DEVIL! You jump alternating your legs into lunges and pumping your arms like a crazy person.)

Day 2: Strength Sculpting. It's all weights and lunges and squats and more weights. This is actually the EASIEST workout for me. I would rather hold my arms above my head holding 50 pound weights for the rest of my life than do another power lunge as long as I live. (That was an exaggeration...I obviously have to restart the entire thing next week. UGH!)

Day 3: Kickboxing, Sculpting, Hills and Drills. This one is awesome because it mixes together so many different styles. They all incorporate weights and a resistance band so you really feel every single muscle in your body.

Day 4: Circuit Training. It is what it says. Lots of circuits of lunges and squats but not so intense. Just pretty general cardio although those power lunges are back with a vengence.

Day 5: Interval Cardio Sculpt. THIS IS A KILLER!!! This was my workout today and I thought I was going to have to quit. As is I had to settle for most of the modifications. My thighs are burning and I'm pretty sure my ass is going to be in my chest with all of these lunges and leg lifts. This workout is so intense. GGGGGGGGGGUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

So that's my workout. We're going to Nelson on Wednesday night, so instead of taking the weekend off like I was planning, I'm going to restart the entire thing tomorrow so that I can keep up with it. I know that if I don't do all 5 workouts every week I'll get lazy and give up and with the amount I seem to be sweating (2lbs of water weight a day!!!!) I can't see how I WON'T get results. Ha.

( work rant )

Nelson is going to be a blast and a half, and we're going to Tofino at the end of July with Janet and Ross!!! I'm SO EXCITED. Firstly, my cousin Travis lives in Nelson and he's rad. I think he and Cale will really get along. :D Secondly, I've always wanted to go to Tofino, but never been!!! So it's going to be awesome.

Then in August we're headed to Salmon Arm for the long weekend and another camping trip in the middle of the month to Manning Park with some family friends. I LOVE camping but I'm curbing my impulse to buy summer clothes in light of all the trips. I keep repeating the phrase "camping not clothes" over and over in my head. HA. Although I do think I need to invest in some seriously awesome cloth shorts. I've got swim shorts but they're not good for general lounging and working out. I saw a rad pair in Bluenotes today so I might go back to pick em up. And they have a 3 for $15 deal on tank tops so I might hit that up as well, even though I always think I look weird in their tanks since they're either really long or really tight. :/ I need to find somewhere with sweet tank tops at reasonable prices. Any suggestions?

Other than that my one year with Cale is coming up in less than a month!!!! YAY! August 8th! I'm looking forward to that. Nothing planned so far, but we (and by we I mean Cale) like to do things at the last minute. Ha. I'll keep you posted.

Quick point form:
- nothing has happened to me since ross and janet got married and i registered for school
- i saw my good pal tamara l recently at her "welcome back to vancouver" get together. it was awesome, obviously, because i was there, and also because she's awesome. :)
- the girl i was doing receiving for at work is coming back soon so my full time hours are gone. sad for me. hence all the job hunting.
- i lost my driver's license and need to get that bad boy replaced, but i'm cheap and don't drive often so i'm procrastinating.
- i've been playing a lot of the Sims 2
- i love the show friends. i wish i owned every season but i only have the last one.
- i think i'm going to make a birthday wish list this year for the first time ever. lots of people made them for me and i see now that while surprises are awesome, a little structure is also good. :)
- if i get married or have a baby, i'm going to tell people to pool their money so that i can go to a personal trainer before the wedding/after i give birth. that's something i would never be able to justify buying for myself, but would definitely want.
- Paige B is excellent, and beautiful, and this is a special message for her because i want her to feel good about herself.
- i need to go to the comic shop before the Nelson trip on Wednesday. anyone want to come along? i'm probably going to go after work on monday, since i'm off at 12.
- it's Dan's birthday on Sunday and i don't know what to get him!!! help!!!! he's having a BBQ which will be awesome. I'll have to make sure i look nice because his mom always takes pictures. ha!
- Kristin's birthday is the day after i get back from Nelson!!!! it's going to be awesome. we're headed to the Modern and she's always a good time. HEHEHEHEHEHE. Yeah. I'm sure she'll be beautiful as always and we'll have a great time. (Fun Fact: Cale and I made out for the first time during her birthday party last year. She told us we could "do it" on her couch but sadly we were impeded by the fact that a) her apartment is small and not sound proof b) her friend was lying on the floor in the living room with us and c) it was still weird. ha.)

alright...i have to shower. peace out g's.

-stacey k



"Lock eyes from across the room
Down my drink, while the rhythms boom
Take your hand and skip the names
No need here for the silly games
Make our way through the smoke and crowd
The club is the sky and I'm on your cloud
Move in close as the lasers fly
Our bodies touch and the angels cry
Leave this place go back to yours
Our lips first touch outside your doors
A whole night what we've got in store
Whisper in my ear that you want some more
And I

Jizz in my pants"

Who would've thought we'd see a day without Michael Jackson? I guess he'll always be the stuff of legend.

I registered for September today. Classes I will be taking next year include:

The Italian Renaissance from 1400-1500
The Triumph and Demise of Modernism
Architecture: Building the fabric of Modern State (1715-1837)
Seminar in North American Architecture (this is my big, you're graduating with a Bachelor of Arts, class.)
Greek and Roman Art for two semesters
Architecture: Modern Paradigms of Design (1837 - present)
Nepal and Tibet: Art, Ritual and Performance
Arts of the Northwest Coast Peoples: The South (for my required Indigenous Arts class)
and naturally...
Relationship Development (just to be different)

9 Art Histories and 1 Family Studies. Yee Haw. I'm also going to be taking Spanish and a 6 credit Children's Lit course through correspondents so that I can graduate at the end of April with the rest of my pals.

I'm not excited about the course load, but I managed to get entirely new professors than I've had before so hopefully they're ok. The quality of teaching, and the methods used so far are really the biggest hinderance to my grade point average. Maybe I'll be taught by someone genuinely enthusiastic about the material they're teaching. Maybe...

Highlights of my summer so far:
Saskatchewan and my cousin Tamara's birthday party. Her turning 25 has got me thinking about my own upcoming birthday. I never thought I'd be the kind of person who cared about getting older but here I am, hoping that by some miracle I'll be frozen in time before December 9th arrives.

We also went to my cousin Michael's stag/stagette with his now wife Michelle! They're a great couple and I'm super happy for them. They went to a karaoke bar and it was awesome although I didn't even get CLOSE to a microphone. Sorry kids.

Then we came home and attended Janet and Ross' wedding! They looked amazing in their red and I thought having the bridesmaids all in white was a great constrast. Everything looked so beautiful and everytime Janet got choked up I cried like a baby. A quiet, tear stifling baby. Ha. The boat was amazing and the view was beautiful. I've never been to such a small wedding and it was funny to be able to start recognizing people during my second round at the buffet. All of Ross' army buddies showed and it was fun watching them have a good time, and of course, Cale threw down with the best of them, and I'm surprised he didn't throw up. By the time we got to the nightclub Gossip (since we had to be off of the boat by 11pm) he was already three sheets to the wind and still going strong. He definitely suffered for it the next day, and I definitely laughed...a lot.

There should be pictures and some video up soon. We were the only ones who brought a video camera so as soon as we get it out of the trunk of Janet and Ross' car we're going to make them an ultra cheezy, super sweet wedding video. :) I love those guys.

Other than that I've been raking in crazy hours at work! Everyone is going off on vacations and I'm picking up their shifts which is AWESOME! I can feel the weight of my debt lifting ever so slightly although a new round of student loans is going to add on another ton or two. Ha. But until September I can feel good about putting money where I should be...even if it's not necessarily where I want it to be. When I get my BA next year though, with the bonuses I've been getting for keeping my grades up, I'll only be $20,000 owing, which isn't bad considering this is my third year at UBC. Thumbs up.

-Stacey K!!!!!!

I'm always so bummed coming back from vacations.

Although work is actually going well right now! I'm really digging the employment scene although more hours are always better than less.

Might be going to a funeral. I'm not exactly sure when it is. Hopefully not while I'm supposed to be away. He was a pretty important man in my life. I should pay my respects.

Deep thinking and I need to find a way to work out our differences. It always catches me off guard and never gives me a chance to retaliate.

Salmon arm was really awesome. It makes me want to leave the city. Badly. Ha. But I only have 3 years of school left so I'll soldier on.

I'm really looking forward to going to saskatchewan. Everything seems easier there.

-Stacey k

I am always confused by people who consider themselves part of an alternative subculture. They seem to spend a lot of time talking about how unaccepted they are in mainstream society (whatever that means) but purposely exclude people like me who aren't visibly part of the same subculture.

It's kind of mean. :(

This weekend was super fun. I had to make a tough decision between Free Comic Book Day and Blade Day in Whistler and while you may make fun of me, comics are one of my passions, so it really was a hard decision to make. Ultimately Dan's girlfriend Daniela convinced me that going to Whistler would be a lot of fun especially since I'd never snow/ski bladed before and because there would be a lot of dorky snowboarders dressed up in costumes as if it were Halloween.

The whole day was a lot of fun although I got a crazy goggle tan, my lips are blistered (ew) and I hurt my knee probably from a combo of ill fitting boots and a few too many falls. Ha. I was, of course, the slowest person on the hill, but that was OK. I kept telling Cale to go ahead and like a good boyfriend he kept coming back to check on me so I wasn't alone the entire time. Ha ha. I would probably do it again, but he promised me that next year we're going to go to Free Comic Book Day instead. :D Can't say I'm sad about that!!!

After blading we went to a little get together which was pretty funny. Lots of drunk Australians and a giant fire in the backyard thanks to my better half. I thought I was going to get sick for a bit and made the unfortunate miscalculation of letting Cale into the bathroom while I did my best to help my stomach along, but turns out I wasn't as sick as I thought and I made the effort for nothing. We headed back to Cale's friend Adam's place for the night and I fell asleep under the table after brushing my teeth and putting on pyjamas.

The next day was much more my speed. A leisurely wake up, some cleaning, discovering that we could have been sleeping on a deflated air mattress instead of the floor, a super yummy breakfast (omg, best eggs benny EVER) and then back to Adam's. We decided to go on a bike ride and Adam took us to a beautiful lake with a little bench where we hung out for a while. The fellas threw rocks at a log and I took a few pictures on my cell phone. Then we had to ride back, uphill. Whistler is beautiful but not super conducive to Stacey's. Ha. I walked my bike up half the time and tried to ride the rest of it, but of course, right in front of Adam's place I had to ask, "Which way now?" which got a few laughs. Guh.

Finally meeting Matt's girlfriend was awesome, she's super hilarious and really really nice. It was cool not to be the only girl for once although she's much more hardcore than I am when it comes to winter sports and making faces for the camera. I'm not used to all of the physical activity but I try to be a trooper and at least tag along, even if I can't always keep up.

When we got back we pretty much went straight to sleep until we woke up around 9 and decided to go see Wolverine which was AWESOME. I really liked it. I also like explaining all of the characters back stories to Cale. I may not be good while on a mountain but my brain is FULL of information that may or may not be useful. Ha.

Monday was a write off. I did laundry, cleaned the house, did some turbo jam (a fun dance workout video Janet let me burn) and watched a lot of Bones. I'm almost finished season one and it's hilarious how many Buffy/Angel characters are cropping up in the show. It's awesome.

Yesterday Janet came over in the afternoon and we did some more Turbo Jam, talked about her wedding, talked about boys, watched Ellen, and eventually Cale drove us to the mall where we found her some shoes for her wedding in under 10 minutes. BAM! Then we headed into Vancouver for Cam's birthday dinner! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAM!!! Our plan was to buy him drinks for his birthday but Cale had to get up early for work and parking is hard to find downtown so after everyone was finished at Memphis Blues we decided to head home and take Janet back to her car.

It was still super good to see him on his birthday and so many people went to Milestones that I know he had enough company. I DO owe you a hangout birthday boy!!! But like I said, I've got lots of free time these days. Maybe when Terminator or any of the other awesome movies coming out soon are actually out we can go for dinner and a movie! I also need to hit up the comic shop soon and I could get you the same gift you got me and pay for some of the ones in your box. :)

Today it's more Bones and I'm going to try to finish the filing I started yesterday. (Hoorah for getting organized.) I'm starting to reach the point where I'm struggling to find things to do with my day and end up watching television in bed for the majority of it. I'm looking forward to watching Ellen at 11. Ha. Hugh Jackman's on today! Oh boy.

I'm hoping I'll start to get more shifts during the week so that my schedule will synch up with Cale's a little more. I'm looking forward to Wednesday the 13th because it's the finale of Top Model and Janet and Lia are probably going to come by to watch it. I'm planning on inviting anyone else who may be interested also just because it's a fun time. :D

This was a pretty standard, nothing is really happening but I'm feeling good post. :) Hope everyone else is doing well. Also...I need some new music to listen to if anyone has any recommendations.

<3

-stacey




"When it's dark, you're home and fed.
Curled up snug in your waterbed.
Moon is shining and the stars are out.
Good night, little whale, good night."

I'm reading the book Smart Couples Finish Rich right now by David Bach. It's actually pretty enlightening. The gist is that if you follow the financial plan the book lays out for you, get in touch with a financial adviser and invest, invest, invest by the time you're in your 50's, with a dual income, you'll be able to retire with a million dollars. (Or more, depending on you. Ha.)

It actually seems super helpful so far but it asks a really poignant question right off the bat. Pretty much everyone in the world can make a list of all of the things that they WANT. Or GOALS that they have. (i.e. I want to travel. I want a new tv. We want a house. I want to get into better shape.) A more difficult question is what are your top 5 values that you try to live your life by? What are you trying to accomplish with the money that you make to help you live according to those values?

My top 5 are (without any ranking in terms of importance) :

1. Family - I work hard for my money so that I can afford to go to school, which will allow me to get a good job so that when I start a family I'll be able to provide for them the best I am able to.
2. Friends - I like my friends. And I like to have fun with my friends. But it's a bummer if I can't because I never have any money. So I make money in order to be able to spend time with my friends.
3. Health - I need money to buy running shoes, clothes that are comfortable to work out it, healthy food to eat, regular check ups from my doctor, dentist, optometrist, gyno, etc. I need to be able to afford glasses when I need them and to be able to take time off work for myself without having to worry that I'm going to go broke.
4. Love - This is a big one. I want to be able to pay for the wedding I want. I want to be able to buy a house with my spouse. (Oh...rhyming.) I want to be able to go on romantic getaways, I like going on dates, I like to maintain a certain level of attractiveness (ha). Generally I just like being part of a partnership, and if my partner says, "Hey, let's disappear for the weekend." I want to be able to say "yes", not "sorry, i can't afford it...ever."
5. Happiness - Whoever said that money can't buy happiness was a liar. To be happy I need to have a certain level of security. I need a home, food, a job, clothing, among other things. It's a romantic notion that I would be happy with nothing but the clothes on my back and Cale, but that's a lie. I'd be miserable, probably cold, hungry, stressed out, and Cale would probably leave me because I'd be such a basket case. I need to be able to afford all of the other things I've listed and I need to be working towards a new goal every time I accomplish one. For me being happy is having the freedom to do, more or less, whatever I want WHENEVER I want, and you can't do that without money.

What are yours?




"i thought that the world had lost its sway
then i fell in love with you
and you took that away
you take away the old
show me the new
and i feel like i can fly
when i stand next to you
so what if I'm on this phone
a hundred miles from home
i take the words you gave
and send them back to you

Met up with Christie yesterday to treat her to birthday sushi and a skoah giftcard. (She got me one for my birthday and I LOVED it.) Then her and Rachel helped me pick out a lovely dress to wear to a Pink Birthday Party I'm attending on the weekend. :)

It looks similar to this one:



With a belt and a little more oomph on the bottom. It makes me look VERY tall and I got a few appreciative looks when I tried it on in the store so it seemed like a winner.

I love it and got an extra discount (on top of the discount it already had) because I found a small stain on the skirt. YES! Bargain shopper. That's me. Ha. I like dressing up for any occasion so I'm looking forward to it, and the salesgirl, on top of giving me a discount, ALSO told me how I should do my hair, so I'm going to practice tomorrow so that I can get it right on Saturday.

Cale is going to a snowboarding selection camp for the BC Snowboard Team this weekend at Big White (Kelowna), so I'll be on my own for a night and a half. Nothing too crazy since he's leaving EARLY Saturday morning (read: 2am) and he'll be back Sunday evening, ha, but I'm still glad that I'll have something fun to do so that I'm not sitting at home twiddling my thumbs and putting off going to bed by myself. I'm a big baby. Heh.

I figure I'll take the opportunity to finish an essay I have due on Monday and get some studying in. Like getting all of my notes together and typing up some extra notes I have lying around.

I'm working on an essay today...sort of. Heh. It's due at 6pm tonight, and I have to go to school to hand it in (BULL!!!!) so I'm classically procrastinating. Luckily, all of my research is done and I have a pretty detailed outline already constructed so I just have to sit down and put my main points into four eloquent pages. The hassle rears it's ugly head in that my prof is asking for our notes typed up as well, and I mean, give me a break, I'm still an "artist". My notes are hand written with mind maps, lists, bubbles, arrows, on four different pieces of paper so that I can spread them out and have a clear visual of what I want my paper to look like. I'm going to struggle trying to type out my notes double spaced. Blech. I'm leaving it until the end so that if I DO crap out on the notes portion, at least the essay will be done. I've got my priorities in order.

In the meantime, I'm still checking out "What Not to Wear" and waiting to see when Tamara posts the pictures from her first solo wedding shoot!!!!! Congratulations!

At least it's raining so I don't feel bad about being cooped up indoors. There's no temptation to say "F It" and just suntan all day. Heh.

I also stopped in at the comic shop.

( Nerd Cut )

Other things on my agenda today include working out, eating, walking the dog, checking the mail, cleaning my room, and going to school. Probably in that order.

I'm SO MAD that I have to go to school in the middle of the night to hand in this stupid essay. UGH!!!! Oh well....It's the last thing I have to go to school for except for exams, so I need to just DEAL!

-stacey




"you'll be my only true lover
no competition no other
baby its just
the thrill of the chase
but i got a feelin'
i'm winnin' this race
baby i'm gettin' much closer
i just need permission so...
give me the green light"

for something that was going to be a low-key, nothing planned sort of event, cale's birthday ended up being the party of the century. ha. i always say that i won the boyfriend lottery, but this weekend i'm pretty sure that the World's Best Girlfriend award is going to yours truly.

i secretly coerced his mom and brother into coming down for the weekend without letting cale know. he thought that we were in for a night of board games and drinking with my mom and sister, when low and behold Jerred came into the backyard followed by his girlfriend and their mama. ha. he figured that was surprise enough BUT then OTHER PEOPLE started to show up until we had a full blown shin dig on our hands. :D

it was a ton of fun. cale was ridiculously drunk. i have bruises on my shoulders from holding him up, but it was completely worth it. he was definitely appreciative and i'm super grateful to everyone who made it. :) i'm sure you've noticed that the pictures are on facebook and the video is COMING SOON!



there was no throwing up, the next day he just had a little gut rot, so instead of going to the Space Centre as planned we hung out in the back yard, soaked up the sun, and enjoyed each others' company. His mom and brother were staying until Monday so we just hung out, played a few board games and cale got to open his gifts. (dane cook tickets from me, plus a new rear-view mirror and air freshener for his car, a steering wheel cover from my mom, lots of alcohol from our pals and chocolate from dan, a camera tripod and some other goodies from his family and of course, a home-made chocolate chocolate cake. that's right...TWO chocolates. :D)

at 10pm we decided to check out FAST AND FURIOUS because what's better on your birthday than ass montages and cars? Ha! I'm not kidding. there must have been 10 montages featuring rap music and nothing but asses, usually finishing with a girl on girl threesome. (where do these happen? seriously? i've never seen three girls try to make out with one another unless the following ingredients were involved: a lot of alcohol, a lot of illegal drugs, and really unattractive women.) the plot is that vin diesel is GETTING REVENGE on the people who killed his girlfriend, but he gets so many girls in this movie that one has to wonder if he even remembers her name.

i drifted off a little during the movie. (too much ass to handle that late at night. lol.) but i was awake for the important parts. i hadn't been feeling too well all weekend and completely forgot that i needed to be up at 5:30am for work, so decided to call in sick. i still had to wake up early because there's no answering machine at work, but it was worth it for the 3 extra hours of sleep i got. i'm still not 100% but it's the last official day of classes for me today so i'm sucking it up.

cale pre-emptively called in sick while he was drunk saturday night so we said goodbye to his family after having breakfast at De Dutch and then sat around in the sun for a bit working on our tans. cale fell asleep and i caught up on my comics (i'm ready for more Cam!!) until we left to go see Janet and Ross in their new apartment! (which i looooooove. so many closets!!!!)

we played a sweet board game which cale and i won since we're the Dream Team. ha. then janet made us a delicious dinner and we gossiped for a million hours until it was time to go home. they're a fantastic couple so we've got it marked down on the white board to be friends with them forever. thumbs up. ha. their wedding in june is going to be a blast. i'm really looking forward to it.

we also decided that we're going to try to attend my cousin's 25th birthday on june 13th. we're going to saskatchewan in the summer anyway so that cale can meet my family and hopefully not be completely overwhelmed (there's a lot of them) so we're going to time it so that we're there for her party. :) i haven't celebrated her birthday WITH her since she was here one summer when we were 12 or 13 and i got her a dolphin ring. ha. that should definitely be fun.

i'm ALSO excited because we're trying to get a surfing trip to Tofino together. I've never been surfing OR to Tofino so i'm super jazzed. i've been trying to go every year for the last 5 years but none of my friends ever seem too into it. LUCKILY all of cale's pals are pretty much up for anything as long as the sun, the beach, and sports are involved. ha. so hopefully this is the year it's finally going to happen for me!

and in July we'll be heading back to Nelson (i was there last year) to see my cousin Travis and catch up with some of my other extended family. nelson is BEAUTIFUL and i had such a great time last time i went. hiking and the hot springs. mmmm. cale's definitely going to love the glacier pool at the hot springs. i think he drooled a little when i told him about it.

i have one paper due on Thursday (not started so far but not too hard. it's on the impressionists.) and one on Monday. (also not started, and a little trickier. my prof is a tough marker but i usually pass on the essay front. i figure i'll pull off at least a C+ in her class, although i was aiming for something in the B's. if i pull up my socks for this essay i can probably do it but i can already feel myself sliding into summer mode. i'm more focused on studying for finals than i am for writing these papers so hopefully they're passable. that's all i'm asking for.) Then 4 exams in a row and my summer FINALLY begins!

i can't believe i'm actually looking forward to working as much as possible! pay off some credit card debt, go on some trips, save up for text books, and before i know it i'll be back in school. i was planning on taking some classes this summer, since i need 13 more to graduate, but i couldn't get the funding because of work cutting back hours so i'll have to take them next summer, or try to do correspondents through another school. i'm looking into my options. that's for sure. although i still haven't made an appointment with the school counselor. :( i'm always so intimidated by them. it's totally ridiculous. i'm a grown-up. i shouldn't need someone to hold my hand for things like these. but i still wish someone would. ugh.

AND...if things go according to plan, I'll be graduating with my Bachelor of Arts in Art History by the end of June 2010!!! YAY! Then I can start the Library Sciences program in September and FINALLY be doing something RELEVANT to my desired career! HOORAH! Ha. I just have to pull up my grades a little next year (should be easy. i left all the easy classes until the end. except for my 400 level seminar, but i only need one of those. YES!) and then i'll officially no longer be in school. what a dream. ha.

i have to keep working towards my goal because i told cale that if he stuck it out with me through my poverty ridden years that i would help him purchase the Tesla Model S coming out in 2011. in white...of course. ;)




<3


-stacey



"Get dirty all night, that’s part of my thing
Keep building castles that’s made out of sand
She’s amazing, the fire blazing
Hotter than Cajun
Girl won’t you move a lil closer?
Time to get paid, it’s maximum wage
That body belong on a poster
I’m in a daze, that bottom is wavin’ at me
Like da** it, I know you
You wanna show like a gun out of holster
Tell me whatever and I’ll be your roper"