Officially Moved!!

I made it to Kuwait!!!! I have a few minutes to update you on my flight. If you have a choice DO NOT and repeat DO NOT go on United Airlines. Staff is rude, food is terrible and much more.
The flight from Winnipeg to Chicago had a TV hooked to the roof and everyone on the plane watched the office. We got Pretzels and a beverage on this flight. Then from Chicago to Washington we did not get to watch anything...no food...just a beverage. At the Washington airport we met a guy in the army who was on the flight to Kuwait who bought us a shot of tequila and then we drank as fast as we could a brown cow. On the plane Washington to Kuwait we thought we would get to have alcohol free...nope sure had to pay for it still. (unlike KLM that gives free booze) This flight we did have individual t.vs...so small I think I had to squint to see the movie..not to mention if you missed the start of the movie you could not rewind or fast forward like on KLM. The food was terrible not even going to describe it to you. It tasted like Alexander Stephanie Stephanie (aka ASS).

We arrived 30 minutes early to Kuwait...got our visitor visa, luggage (all of it arrived!!) and made it through the security scanners!! We got to the Bneid Al Gare apartments and I put all my bags in my room...605 ...found an office chair in the basement and some kind of other closet thingy that looks like it came from IKEA...

We had to be up and at the bus at 9:30am. I went to bed around 10pm woke up at 2am and had trouble falling asleep but managed to make myself doze off until 5:30am.

So far today I have met the ACA administration, signed my contract, got my $$$ they promised me for moving in allowances and baggage etc. Got pictures taken and then ate at Pizza Hut. We are going shopping right away...I have a few must haves on my list.
#1 - memory foam mattress
#2 - an extra pillow
#3 - cozy blanket...actually that should be at the top of my list
#4 -FOOD!!!

Aunty Anne...and Uncle Glenn....How did surgery go?!?! I was thinking of you while I was on the plane. Leave me a comment! :)

July/August Recap....

Well the 3rd annual Good Spirit Camping Trip is over and I have to say it was lots of fun! I am already looking forward to next year!

We celebrated Matthew's birthday!!!

Thanks to Mandi's parents who prepared a delicious feast for us! The steaks were AmAzInG!!! Breakfast was tasty as always all thanks to Jill's parents! I particularly enjoyed my pancake made in the shape of a K!!! Not to mention the bacon that was cooked to perfection...mmmm food. Unfortunately we did not have to cook anything over the campfire...wait that's not true T.C did cook smokies on the first night...Maybe next year we will be smarter and cover our firewood before it rains to keep it dry! oops.

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August Long Weekend Mom and Dad and I travelled to Saskatchewan...picked up my Baba in Wynyard and went to Saskatoon to visit with family. It was really great seeing everyone and of course I cannot mention the fabulous homemade food that was prepared each day for us!!! I want to send a shout out to Auntie Anne and Uncle Glenn....I will be thinking of you as you go in for your surgery. Taker easy and get better soon!

I cannot believe that the summer is over and I will be getting on a plane around noon on Thursday the 16th. Ekks I am flooded with many mixed emotions. 1 year is not that long but right now it seems like it... especially when you miss out on family functions ex) Corinne and Jody's wedding social.. :( I hope pictures will be posted ASAP of the special day!

Well that's it for me. Next post won't be until I am in Kuwait!!!

Road Trip

The "Fly by the seat of our pants" road trip was a lot of fun. Mom and dad decided that they did not want to make any plans as to where we were going to go and what day we would be there etc. We decided to start our vacation in Grand Forks ND. We stayed at my favorite motel Happy Host. Below is a picture of me in our hotel room.

For only a Quarter this bed vibrates! It is sensational...hehe

The next day we went to Fargo ND and shopped again. The sales were great. Of course it was only fair that dad got to go to 3 or 4 hunting stores. Here is a picture of Scheels that has a ferris wheel inside it!!

On the road again...to Superior Wisconsin. The next day we travelled to Duluth Minnesota.
In Duluth we went on the Vista Fleet (boat cruise on Lake Superior)

This is a picture of the Aerial Lift Bridge in Duluth.

We drove along the Superior Lake coast all the way up to Ontario stopping at many tourist spots.

First stop was at Two Harbors. This is a picture of the lighthouse there.

Standing in Lake Superior

My feet in the Lake Superior Water!!!

Next Stop was Gooseberry Falls. The falls were formed about one billion years ago.

Next we stopped at Split Rock to see the lighthouse.

Throughout the entire trip all my mom said she wanted was to stop along the road to pick rocks for her flower bed. So here they are picking rocks!!

Oh look at the Pretty Rock!

We also stopped at spots in Beaver Bay, Little Marais, Silver Bay, Schroeder, Tofte, Lutsen, and Grand Marais. We stayed the night in a cabin in Grand Marais. It is a beautiful town to visit and spend time in. We really enjoyed it. The next day we went to Grand Portage (large casino here) and then crossed the border to Thunder Bay Ontario.

Once in Ontario we went to Thunder Bay and stayed at a hotel that faced Lake Superior. It was very pretty there. (Our hotel is the building in the background)





Ship loading grain....I wonder if it has any of our grain there because this is one company we sell our grain to.
The falls in Canada are amazing compared to the ones in the United States right now. My dad says he can pee faster than the ones that we saw in the US.

Throughout Ontario we saw lots of Moose. This is the first set that we saw.

We went to Ignace to visit Patrick where we went to the dump and saw in total 6 bears and a cub. We also went to Sioux Look Out to pick up frozen fish and of course pick blueberries near the airport. We all got bitten by little black flies. Aghh I have been scratching ever since.

During our stay in Ignace we went fishing and everyone was catching fish left and right except me. I only got 2 and non of which were keepers. Better luck next time I guess.

Then we went to Black Sturgeon Lake near Kenora. This is where my dad's cousins' cabin is. I went fishing everyday and early in the morning I finally caught something. I caught 7 fish. (4 keepers, 1 jack and 1 that my dad did not get into the net in time otherwise it would have been a keeper too. The picture above is of the biggest fish I caught!

June Update

Okay so I decided to make a monthly update during the summer. What happened in June? Well I graduated, went to Yorkton for Jenn and Chad's Wedding and most importantly celebrated my mom's 50th BIRTHDAY!!!! Whoo Whoo. I also was the best substitute teacher the Park West School Division has ever seen!!! I taught in Birtle, Russell, Strathclair and Rossburn in

grades 1-11.

Here is the brownie I made for my mom. I am not going to lie it was delicious!!! We just happened to have a heart shaped cake pan to make the occasion even more sentimental.

For supper we went to the steak pit @ Spy Hill in Saskatchewan.

Photo of the month!!! I love you too Mom!!!!

Graduation

On May 26th I graduated from Brandon University with my Bachelor of General Studies and Bachelor of Education (AD) concurrent with Greatest Distinction. Here are a few pictures of the day....

Grad '07

Here I am....see the arrow!!

Receiving my diplomas!!!!

Finally I have my diplomas!!!

Can you believe that FRED PENNER sang at my grad!?!? It was pretty sweet. He even sang The Cat Came Back due to popular demand!

The Flynn's

Erin, Jill and I at the Education banquet

Erin, Mandi

Krista, Amanda, and Jill @ the banquet...Lookin' pretty good I might add!!

Provincial Election

When I was in Kuwait and was offered a teaching position it hit me that I have no job this summer and I wasn’t going to need the summer off anymore to find a teaching job. So I told my dad to find me some painting jobs and my mom to find me something to do too. So my mom hooked me up to work at the provincial election. This was all fine and dandy until I came home and started substitute teaching. I went to election training in Russell which was absolutely, positively a WASTE OF TIME. I did not learn anything. Tuesday, May 22 was the election. I had to be at the Birtle United Church at 7:30 am. All day it was slow…people who came didn’t come to our station…our side of town decided to come at 6:30-7:30pm for some reason. So I had nothing to do but stare at the wall and ceiling from 8:00am until 6:30 when voters in my area came to vote. Then at 8:00-9:00pm we counted the ballots….sometimes twice. LONGEST DAY EVER….blah and just to note the pay isn’t that good. It is not worth it unless you are older, and retired because maybe then I would’ve remembered to bring some knitting to do....The winner in Birtle and area was Len Derkach in case you were wondering..but it was a tight race and Teri Nicholson came in a very close second.(in Birtle..not overall)

After 13.5 hours of work I came home and went to bed….got up early because I had to substitute grade 5/6 and a grade 8 social studies. Good times.

Trip to Minot

For May long weekend I went to Minot with my mom. We is becoming a tradition for us to travel there together for a “mother-daughter” bonding trip. We left Friday after I finished another day of substitute teaching in grade 2. To make a long boring story straight my mom talked the girl into giving us a pool side room with queen size beds and instead of paying $59.99 we paid $49.99 at par (steel of a deal). We headed straight for the mall to get my hair straightener…for those of you that don’t know I took it to Kuwait and it smelt funny so I didn’t use it. Brought it back to Canada, plugged it in and it started smoking therefore it no longer works. So now I have a nice new pink chi one!!! Then we had a late night supper at TACO JOHNS!!! OH how I love eating there.

When we went back to the hotel my mom picked up a paper that said CITY WIDE GARAGE SALES ALL WEEKEND…OMG are you serious?? I love garage sales and so does my mom so we woke up bright and early and I think by the end of the day we stopped at almost all of them! Lol. I have 2 favorite sales…one where I got some teacher books and the best of all fill your bag for $2.00 of items that a store donated. (tags were still on the items. There was Christmas to Halloween to Easter items…it was a jackpot. We had to get the lady to write out a paper receipt to say we bought it at a garage sale because I don’t think the customs officer at the border would’ve believed us..I am sure we had over $100.00 worth of merchandise from this one garage sale.

They have a DOLLAR TREE in Minot which is awesome because it sells teacher borders and posters ect..gotta love it when everything in the store costs a buck!!! We ate lunch at Denny’s and Supper at China Star (all you can eat buffet..mmmmm). We definitely shopped ourselves out but made sure to get back in the hotel to sit in the hot tub for a bit and drink our cheap bottle of wine…I am sad to say that I definitely started to fall asleep and my mom ended up drinking some of my share of the wine.

The next day we continued to shop even though we were pretty sure we had no duty left. I ended up purchasing…oh wait correction my mom ended up purchasing for me 2 pairs of sandals and a camel back from my brother for grad…I wanted one to take with me to Kuwait.

Overall, it was a great weekend despite the wind and rain…and we cleared the border no problem. YIPPEE!!!!!

Mmmm FOOD!!!!

I have been asked many times "How you can eat so much and not gain weight?" When I went to Kuwait the group was told if we thought we were going to lose weight in Kuwait think again… most people gain weight. I was very excited about this and thought {YES, this is my chance to gain some weight}..not thinking of the consequences that this would lead to. When I weighed myself in Kuwait in kilograms I thought that I hadn’t gained any weight while I was there. …(I was a bit sad..but everyone knows how bad my math skills are). Then when I was getting ready to go to Minot I put on my “new” jeans that I had bought before I left for Kuwait and PICTURE THIS…Krista jumping up and down in her room trying to get her pants to go up past her thighs. Seriously once I finally got them up to my waste I had to suck in my newly acquired tummy to get the button done up. I couldn’t believe what was happening so I pulled out our scale (which according to the hospital scale is only 1pound out) and before I left for Kuwait I weighed myself the scaled said 106 pounds….and now after Kuwait it says 116. OMG are you seriously kidding me…I gained 10 pounds. So I am happy that I gained some weight but not where I gained it…which is what most people say when they gain weight. Sigh…well that’s it for me! I will write more on my adventure to Minot on the May long weekend with my mom soon.

Home Sweet Home!

I am home!!! It was a long flight with terrible food but I made it. I arrived in Winnipeg at 3:40 and breezed through customs. I walked out to the waiting area expecting to see my parents.....nope nobody was there. I was sad. I called their cell only to find that they were minutes away from the airport. I cannot believe they were late picking me up..excuses, excuses! lol. Anyways we quickly went shopping at my favorite cheap store..HANGERS! haha and then for supper at Earls. The food was amazing. I had the usual Penne Alfredo with shrimp...delicious!!

Currently my left ankle is swollen...not sure what I did. Mom thinks it is from sitting in the airplane for many hours...hmm I dunno perhaps. But it hurts a lot. I was tired all the way home but when I got home had a sudden burst of energy and now cannot sleep. (probably due to the time difference). So I am home, safe and sound. Hope to hear and see you all soon. I have my cell phone back now so text away!!

Home Soon....

Tomorrow is my last day of student teaching. I am sad and happy all at the same time. I definitely am not ready to leave as I have made a few great friends who are not returning next year to teach here.

Yesterday, I went to the Co-op over the bridge to get some last minute items.

Here is my Co-op!!!

I have been feeling a bit stressed out the past few days as I don't feel there is time to pack and get everything ready. The plane leaves at midnight tomorrow...so we get home from school, quickly eat, maybe say a few good-byes and leave for the airport. There is no time to sit and relax and pack. I didn't buy a ton of souvenirs this time around so my bags aren't that heavy due to the fact that I am leaving my entire wardrobe here for next year.

The room I have for next year is my cooperating teachers (Emma's room) right now. She has painted it already so I don't have to paint when I get here because I love the colors.