Jodes' Roads - Live Your Life, Don't Let Your Life Live You!

A Special Little Thank You

2011-12-06T07:42:00.001-08:00

Because of the love and support of my friends and family of my airbrushing business, I was able to embark on a trip of a life time. Going to Africa has been a lifelong dream of mine, and it was an experience I will never forget. I spent many hours admiring the amazing animals and landscape that Africa has to offer while gaining valuable photography knowledge and experience. My goal is to translate my love and passion of nature into a photography career and this trip was a huge step in that direction.

From the overwhelming donations of family and friends, I filled a 50lb suitcase of clothes, toys and hygiene items and made a $470 donation that has gone to the local Zulu communities. I was fortunate enough to get to spend time with and get to know the families that will be taking advantage of these donations. Seeing the kids light up with excitement for the balloons and spending time colouring with 4 orphan siblings was the highlight for me. The cash donations given completed Happy Africa’s fund to build a fence for a rural primary school which is the first step for them to receive government funding for food and resources. It meant a lot that I was a part of building that fence alongside the community members and I also got to spend time playing, singing and dancing with the children who will benefit from it. It was a full circle moment for me that I will never forget. The Zulu people are very warm, welcoming, loving and joyful people and I will always cherish the memories of my time spent with them.

I am crying because

2011-10-29T22:32:00.000-07:00

Sadly, my 6 week stay in South Africa has come to an end. I know it is a cliché, but it is definitely bitter sweet. I have had an amazing experience here that has more then met my expectations. Although I am excited to be going home, there is a part of me that is sad to leave. I hadn’t expected it, but I was overcome with emotions. My tears meant many things:

I am crying because:

· My time here in South Africa has come to an end

· The Zulu people that I have met and have spent my time with here are all very lovely, caring, friendly, thankful, and joyful people. They’ve welcomed me into their homes, communities and schools and are gracious enough to share their lives and their culture with me

· The joy and fun and laughter in all of their singing and dancing is infectious and reminds me that every day is a day to celebrate and to enjoy life

· Of all their beautiful voices. Nothing sounds sweeter than them all singing in unison and then that one sweet stand out voice among the group. I love it when the men or boys sing along with their baritone voices.

· This has been a long time goal of mine to come to Africa to see the animals, people and places. Then became a concrete goal to reach that dream that I worked hard for this whole year. And now this dream is coming to an end and once I get home and the excitement of my trip dies down, it will all be over.

· Because although I miss husband, my family and parts of life back home, I am not ready for this adventure to be over and to go back to regular life

· The things I want to accomplish next in my life like a family and a business will keep me from doing any major travelling like this for a long time. So it makes me sad to think this is my last big adventure that I’ll have for a while.

· Of precious hours I got to spend sitting and appreciating all of God’s creatures. Each and every animal from this country is unique and interesting and I’ve been blessed to get to admire them at great length in their natural surroundings.

· Of the amazing landscapes and awesome views that are indescribable and I can only hope my photographs can paint a true enough picture of the true beauty this country has to offer

· I am anxious to see my husband’s face waiting for me at the airport and to get to be in his arms

· How loving and genuine the people that I have met are. I am but a fleeting moment in their lives, with the many different volunteers coming in and out of their community. Yet they saw my tears of sadness and grief for leaving and reached out to me with their arms and their love to make me feel important and that I will be missed. That my time here was important to them and that they hope to see me again.

· Of the little differences that I feel that I’ve made. Whether it was the money donation I made on behalf of friends and family that went towards building the fence for the children at the Medletche school and getting to be a part of building it alongside the community members; or the balloons I brought and got to hand out to the kids at the school and to see their joy and excitement; or showing a boy at crèche how to make little sand castles with a pop bottle lid; or teaching the afterschool club leader how to braid with plastic string; or the many cuddles and smiles given to all the sweet children; or the beautiful photos I’ve tried to take to share with friends and family back home what an amazing place South Africa is

· I truly appreciated being welcomed into a Zulu family’s home to be a part of a pre-wedding celebration. Being married so recently, it was amazing to get to see how the Zulu’s celebrate the special occasion.

· Only once in my whole trip have I felt like a tourist. These projects have allowed me to get out and about in the heart of South Africa and live the real thing. I feel like I know the people, I know the culture and I know the land and I am so thankful to have had this genuine experience. It feels like home here.

Things I’ve learned in St. Lucia

2011-10-29T22:31:00.000-07:00

1. All kids are snotty

2. Children’s songs get stuck in your head very easily

3. It is embarrassing to sing the wrong words to a children’s song in front of a bunch of kids, even if they know very little English

4. Zulu kids are tough. They can run around and do as much barefoot as the rest of us can with shoes. Especially their Zulu dancing

5. Hippos walking around town make the dogs bark – sometimes all night

6. Rugby is a crazy rough sport that makes our football guys look like girls

7. Hippo poo smells like horse poo

8. Scones with jam and dollop cream at the lovely coffee shop are my weakness. Thank goodness for all my loose fitting clothes

9. South African mosquitoes are just as annoying as Canada mosquitoes

10. Most other countries in the world don’t celebrate Halloween like we do – how boring

11. All boys will be boys – especially when demonstrating how to put on a condom using a banana or wooden penis

12. I love cuddles with babies

13. I will never get tired of all the Zulu singing and dancing

14. Apparently a Canadian from Calgary and a Canadian from Winnipeg have very noticeably different accents to people from other parts of the world

15. Chicken intestines and cow bone also work well for treating burns

16. The going rate for a wife is 11 cows – my husband got off easy!!

17. Watching Katie from Ireland try to keep a mouthful of sweet potatoes down during a home care visit without puking or running out of the hut was priceless

18. Zulu dancing men at the cultural center are yummy

19. Always have a speech prepared because you never know when you will be asked to speak at a Zulu pre-wedding celebration

20. I may have been a Zulu in my past life because I apparently can sing and dance quite well

Weddings are always fun!

2011-10-29T22:28:00.000-07:00

My last day on my project was amazing and a great way to cap off my time here. Instead of going to our regularly scheduled afternoon projects, we were invited to a Zulu wedding. It wasn’t actually the wedding, it was the pre-wedding celebrations. The wedding was held Saturday at the groom’s town which was 100km away. This was basically a celebration for the bride’s family, sort of a bridal shower it seemed.

All of us women had to wear skirts below our knees because that is proper in the Zulu culture. It was very fascinating when we arrived. There were lots of people everywhere and they had a huge tent set up with a sound system and everything. We went into the tent where there were chairs set up all around and a table at the front with a buffet of food. There was a group of ladies that are part of a club or society that the bride’s mother belongs to. They were all wearing red skirts and hats with matching t-shirts with the group’s logo and their individual nicknames on them.

We were asked if we wanted to see the bride so we were escorted into the house where her and some aunts and cousins were sitting. The room was piled high with gifts from friends and family, mostly blankets and handmade grass mats. We were invited to sit down and soon we they brought in some special meat for us. The groom pays a Lobola (dowery) in cows, the going rate being 11. The bride’s family slaughters one of the cows for their celebration and the bride and mother of the bride are the first ones to take a bite. They brought in a special plate of meat just for us that was passed around. The meat was delicious and I don’t think I’ve ever eaten meat that fresh. It was explained that I was the only married one and so they asked what my wedding was like. As we left the house we saw the cow hide stretched out drying in the sun and the head off to the side.

We went back into the tent to a bit of a surprise. They had dished out all the food onto plates that were sitting on the chairs ready for people, except the head table had been set for us!! We got quite the special treatment that none of us expected. It was just like any gatherings or celebrations back home, lots of food, women busy bustling around preparing everything and the men outside drinking beer and cooking the meat. The food was great, potato salad, red cabbage coleslaw, beetroot, rice and beef. We had all just eaten lunch before we came so weren’t hungry but didn’t want to be rude so we stuffed it down. Then we all had a laugh as they brought around takeaway containers that you’d get at a restaurant for people to put any extra food into to take home.

Then the ladies group got up and started to sing and dance and other ladies were joining in. They took turns speaking with the microphone which had terrible sound. There was almost a DJ that played an electric piano as well which also had terrible sound. It was blaring and loud and so not needed which made us all chuckle. Then the bride and her family came in and more speeches and songs and dancing followed. The ladies from the group appeared to be a religious group and they did a lot of praying and preaching. Then they all presented her with gifts and cash as they sang and danced. The bride’s mom got up and spoke and then the bride spoke as well. It was very emotional because once she is married, she will never come back to her family, unless it is to visit. So it was a celebration and a goodbye. The men in her family were crying as she spoke.

We had to leave at 4 and as we got up to leave, our Zulu coordinator with us motioned for me to come up to the front. Turned out that they wanted one of us to say something (which is very Zulu) and since I was the only married one, it was appropriate for me to speak (also very Zulu). All eyes were on me and I was very nervous. Although I was put on the spot, I think I did a pretty good job. I just thanked them for inviting us and allowing us to be a part of the celebration. I said that I had been married for 1 year so I wished the bride all the best in her new life and wished her many years of health and happiness and thanked her for letting us share her special day with her.

As we were getting into the cars, one of the ladies that was really getting into the singing and dancing came up to us and said that she loved us all and that she’d like to have her photo taken with us so she can show her daughter. So we had a group photo with her, as well as one with the bride and her mother which is great because our wedding gift to her was a picture frame.

It was overall a really amazing experience. I found myself getting a little emotional, realizing what a special privilege it was for us to be a part of that celebration and just how special and welcome they made us all feel. It was so neat to see a part of their wedding celebrations; especially because it’s been only a year since we celebrated our marriage. I feel very blessed to have had that experience and it was just one more moment that made me fall in love with a beautiful people and their culture.

10 families, Gardening and After School Club

2011-10-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

Mornings here are always the same, the community guys head off to spend the morning at a crèche with the children and the medical group go to home based care or support group. But in the afternoons, we get to mix up the groups and split our time between 10 Families, Afterschool club, Adult HIV, gardening, and refurbish (building a new crèche building). I got to do 3 of the 5 activities during my stay.

In 2009 the Induna of Ezwenelisha (the leader of the town) and African Impact chose 10 families that were struggling to care for themselves and their loved ones as a result of the impact of HIV/AIDS. So over the past 2 years, our group has carried out plans to aid and empower these families by providing them with knowledge and skills that will help to improve their health, education and employment opportunities. We regularly visit each family and keep records of how they are doing. During my time here I was on the 10 Families project twice. The first time we made a few quick stops on our way to the one of the 10 families (a very African thing to change plans and fly by the seat of your pants) to check on a few people. First we stopped off to check on an orphan boy living with another family who was badly burned and to bring him a mattress because he has been sleeping on the concrete. It was great to see how happy he was to receive it. Then we went to check on Gogo Joyce (Gogo means grandmother). Turned out her granddaughter was very ill had hadn’t ate in almost a week and since they didn’t have the means to get to the clinic, we loaded her, her baby and the Gogo up with us and took her to the clinic. We played with the baby while the she got checked. Fortunately at this stage her tests showed she was HIV negative, but she has to go back in 3 months to check again because it can take up to 3 months for the HIV antibodies to show up in blood tests. They gave her some pills to hopefully make her feel better. After we were done there we ran out of time to do what was originally planned. The only explanation for times like that is “TIA”: This Is Africa.

So the next time for the 10 Families project we did our original plan from the first day; to go visit 3 boys who are living with their Gogo on their father’s side. Their father has died and the mother got into alcohol and was neglecting the boys and yelling at them when she was drunk. But the Gogo does not have enough money to support them so they are waiting for the Gogo on the mother’s side to come and take the boys. So we have been taking them some food parcels and this day we went specifically just to play and spend time with the boys. They range in age from 3 to 9 and definitely don’t seem happy. Although not too sure if they’d like it, we decided to just color with them. Coloring is not something kids do here much and they loved it! Even their older cousins got into it as well. At one point we asked if they wanted to go outside and play and they said no! Eventually we did head outside for some soccer and Frisbee tossing. It was great to just spend some time with them and show them we cared.

One afternoon I was on the garden project which is basically just a garden that we manage on some land that was given to us to use by the Induna. We are currently growing carrots, beetroot, onions, beans, cabbage, spinach and mielies (corn) that will all used in the home based care food parcels, support group and the 10 Families. The day I went we just had to weed and water the garden which seemed like a regular summer day back home. One of the girls thought it was a really physically demanding job which struck me a bit funny. We had to chase a chicken out of the garden first and a group of kids walking home from school came to help as well. It looked great when we were all done.

Mondays and Thursdays we go to the Monzi Primary school for after school club which is for orphan children. 9 of them live at housing near the school because they have no one and the rest are children who don’t have parents but still live with family members. After school club gives them a place to go for some fun after school and some food to eat. When we first arrive we dish out the food to the children. Then we get to play for the next 1 – 1 ½ hours. The first 2 classes I helped the kids out with computers. The school was donated 12 computers and no one knows how to use them. So I fuddled my way through my first impromptu computer class for a group of 14 kids who have never seen a computer before and only 7 working computers. It was interesting but actually went well. I was able to plan a bit for the next one and we’ve now laid out a serious of classes for the next few weeks. They are all really eager to learn and it is quite comical watching them try to work the mouse for the first time. Then we went out and joined the rest playing.

My second 2 times at Afterschool club I got to just play with the kids. We played Red Rover (which got dangerous), Octopus which is a type of tag, and I taught them a new game called Over Under, Round and Round which they really liked. Then we usually get to watch and maybe even partake in Zulu singing and dancing. My last day was my favorite by far!! Because it was raining we had club inside. We started off by coloring and braiding with plastic string; or gimp as we used to call it as kids. I was really proud of myself for being able to remember how to braid it like we used to. I taught Tembe, the lady that runs the Afterschool Club, how to do it and she got really good at it so I was happy to be able to leave that behind. Then we played a few games of Simon Says which was great fun. Then the kids wanted to do Zulu dancing. I requested a certain song which I’ve heard many times during my stay and is my favorite. It was beautiful, it brought a tear to my thinking about it being the last time I’ll hear it in person. Then they did some wedding songs which we got up and danced to with them. The last song they sang, they sang some words in English which were ‘Remember Me’. Well, that did it…the water works started for me. The realization that my trip was ending and I wouldn’t be around these wonderful people anymore hit me and made me very emotional. As we were saying our goodbyes my tears were streaming and the children weren’t sure what was wrong with me. The one bright, caring girl in the group realized and she gave me a big hug, as did Tembe. She hugged me and told me she would miss me and told me to come back. I wanted to be able to tell them that I would, but it broke my heart knowing the truth. That if I am blessed enough to come back, it may not be for many years.

Banana or wood

2011-10-29T21:53:00.000-07:00

Well I got to jump right into the second main part of my purpose on this project, HIV education. I actually wasn’t scheduled to do it but the girl who was is from Sweden and she wasn’t confident enough with her English so asked if she could be removed. So I was sort of thrown into it last minute which was a bit nerve wracking. I know the basics about HIV, but I certainly don’t know the details of it all. Luckily there is a course outline and each lesson is basically laid out. Our HIV Education course is mandatory for the Grade 7’s at the Monzi Primary school and they must pass our test in order to pass their grade. So every 2 weeks we get a group of 10 to 15 kids (age ranging from 12 to 14) to teach them everything about HIV over 6 classes.

We were pretty nervous when we first walked into class. Turns out we had all boys which actually made it easier because there wasn’t the boy/girl tension that usually unfolds during a sex ed type class. The boys all seemed pretty interested and eager to learn. I was surprised at how easy I found it to talk point blank about sex and being safe. The part that was weird was explaining about anal sex and oral sex, as this are important things to know about the transmission of HIV….but I think this was some new information for some of the boys.

At the end of each class we give them a piece of paper so they can write down any questions they might have to put in the secret question box so they can ask questions they might be embarrassed to ask out loud. There have been some interesting ones, mainly because their English is a little rough so we have to try to make out what they are asking. But there have been some very bright questions that we’ve had to search for answers for.

One the third day we got to teach them how to put a condom on. Again, I think we were lucky to have a class of all boys. Boys being boys though, they all had a good giggle when I pulled out the banana for the demonstration. But they all got serious and were eager to learn as we had each of them put a condom on twice for practice. It’s funny, because as we were teaching the boys everything to know about HIV and hoping they retain it all so they ace their test, I realized my hope for them was for so much more. I didn’t want them to pass just our test; I want them to pass the test of life. I want them to make smart choices, stay safe, be healthy and live long happy lives.

The 5^th class we just reviewed everything they had learned and drilled in all the important information for them to know for their test and for their life. So we decided to review the steps of putting on a condom. Last week our Zulu community coordinator got a local carpenter to make us a wooden penis to be used in our school and adult HIV courses. This has provided us with many giggles! The man who made it was very cool and serious when he was exactly we wanted in our wooden penis. We all hooped and hollered and laughed the day we went to pick it up. He did a great job. So for our condom review day with the boys I took the wooden penis instead of the banana and the boys loved it. They all whooped and hollered and laughed and a few of them even needed to touch it. It was a big hit!!!

Today was the day the boys took their test. 7 of the 10 boys passed which is great. The ones that didn’t pass seemed to know their stuff in class, but I think they got confused in the English translation of the test which is too bad. We are still very proud of our boys and how they did. Before the exam we asked them if we could get a photo with them. They were all happy to and immediately started tucking in their shirts and fixing their collars, it was so cute. They loved looking at themselves on the camera afterwards.

Like many great experiences in life, teaching the HIV to the primary school students was something that I was really not looking forward to; I was nervous about the subject as well as the Zulu/English language difficulties. Now that it is over, I am so happy that I went through it. It was a very rewarding experience and I only wish I could keep track of each and every one of the boys to find out if they make smart choices in their life and stay happy and healthy. I am so pleased to have been a tiny part of their lives during my stay.

Snot, Songs and Simplicity

2011-10-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve had a great week on the community and HIV education project here in St. Lucia. The accommodations are great. There is actually water in the pool although it’s pretty chilly so I’m waiting for a hot day to be brave enough to get in. Everyone is very nice, welcoming and great to work with. And I’m anxious to see my first hippo in town at night (hopefully from a safe distance or from a vehicle as they can be very dangerous).

We spend each morning in a crèche which is basically a day care/preschool for kids whose parents work or kids that stay don’t have parents and stay with family members who work. There are several crèches that our group visits regularly and have made lots of improvements for the kids and have taught them a lot of great new things with the goal of making their move into primary school an easier one. Our project is currently looking into new crèches, accessing their needs and deciding which ones are needing African Impact’s regular time and support the most in the new year.

This week’s new crèche is a home crèche. So basically it is a Gogo (Zulu word for Grandmother) that has opened her home to looking after kids. She hasn’t had any help in setting it up and doesn’t have any government funding. She does have some help with the kids each day, but not much. There are a lot of kids with a big age range so it is a lot for 1 lady. The first day was a bit chaotic as the kids had never had any structure in their day before, just random playing. The kids ranged in age from a few months to about 4 years old. They didn’t have any chairs, no table or place to set the food, and only 1 bed which wasn’t big enough for all the babies so many of them just slept on the floor. The kids don’t have many toys and they had no literature or anything for learning. So the first day was pretty much just a free for all with singing some songs and playing with the kids.

The first little bit the kids just starred at us in awe and weren’t sure what to make of us whites (as the one kid called us) singing and dancing in front of them. But after a while they warmed up and enjoyed interacting and cuddling with us. One boy we feel as some level of autism and ends up disrupting most of the other kids. One boy is severely over weight and can hardly walk. They don’t have a bathroom (outhouse in these parts) so the kids just pee right outside the building. But all of the kids are sweet, fun children who loved our individual time and attention….and toys.

We realized the need for a few things so we got them some chairs for the kids and a table for the food and to prepare bottles on. We are also working on getting another bed for them. Our first night after being at their crèche we made up the alphabet to be posted up on their walls and continue to sing the alphabet to them to help them learn English. We’ve also taught them a few fun kids sing along songs that they are all quickly picking up on and enjoy singing. We take little plastic bikes for them, or as they call them, toot-toots. So a kid will come up to you chatting away in Zulu and you have no idea what they are talking about until you hear the word toot-toot, then you understand completely.

Many of the babies have beads around their waste which in their culture is believed to keep the babies safe . Some of them have beads or a key on a string around their neck which is believed to help with teething.

As we left on Thursday, knowing that we may or may not be back, the Gogo was very thankful for the time we had spent and the things we had done. She gave us all big hugs and kisses to show her gratitude. Although it is a lot of work, you can tell she loves and cares for those kids so it was great to get to help her out, even just a little bit. The children were also sad to see us go. I will be interested to find out if this becomes a regular crèche for African Impact to spend time with in the future.

Friday we went to one of the crèches that our group has been going to regularly and I was so impressed with the kids and the teacher and the whole set up. African Impact and the teacher have worked well together. The kids are all about 3 -5 years old and know all their alphabet, numbers, colors, days of the week and months of the year in English. They love learning and interacting and singing along to all the fun songs. It is all set up so well, other than the fact that it is still in a stick and mud shack. So African Impact is working on building them a new building.

It was really great to get to see the difference that our group can make to a crèche over time. From rundown buildings with no furniture, toys or literature and chaotic kids to an organized, scheduled, fun learning environment. It really put into perspective and showed a clear image of what African Impact is doing. Which makes me confident that when they are doing and what I am a part of is really amazing and helping in such a big way.

photos posted

2011-10-16T07:40:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know I finally uploaded a few pics to go with previous blogs

Goodbye Thanda

2011-10-16T07:21:00.000-07:00

As my time here at Thanda draws to a close, I have very mixed emotions. I guess it could be described as bitter sweet. I AM ready to be somewhere that doesn’t have gecko poop everywhere. I AM ready to be somewhere that has a guaranteed water supply for showers and toilet flushing. I AM read to be somewhere that I get out and walk and not be concerned about being eaten by a lion.

However, I am not ready to go back to the real world. There is such serenity to being out in the wild elements, being a part of nature and getting to observe the animals on a daily basis. The thought of going back to the fast paced world of people, vehicles, noise and distraction saddens me. I think this trip has reminded me that as with anywhere I am in the world, I think I’d rather take my chances with the wild animals then the people.

The moments spent observing, watching, and hearing the animals, especially up at close range will be my most favorite memories. It is exhilarating and amazing to be in the presence of these creatures. Creatures that in one moment almost make you believe that they are tame pets as they walk within a few feet of the vehicle, look you in the eye, then carry on with their day. Making you feel safe and secure in our open top jeep in the middle of a Big 5 Game Reserve. Yet in the next moment, they make a precarious move that keeps you on your toes, and makes you hold your breath with fear and excitement. And you are once again reminded that these are in fact wild, dangerous animals. Whether it’s hearing the flesh of a warthog being torn by a lion’s jaws, a elephant being a little too cheeky and touching the jeep with its tusks and trunk, or the lions on the edge of our camp growling and lunging at a not too worried (and in my mind not too smart) photographer trying the ultimate up close shot, or being woken up by lions roaring just a few hundred feet away from my hut. And it’s not only the big or the dangerous ones that have stolen my heart. I don’t think I will ever tire of watching an elegant giraffe as they walk along, never seeming to be in too big of a hurry. I will always get excited to see a heard of impala, because as skidish as they are, you have to observe their beauty in a hurry as they are always quick to duck behind the bushes. The way the muddy warthog trots along with his tail in the air will always make me think of Pumba from The Lion King.

My time spent in the community and with the local Zulu’s was amazing and the memories I made are very dear to me. They are a wonderful culture of happy, spirited, joyful people and you can’t help but take that happy, joyful energy with you as you leave their company. Their happiness and laughing is infectious and I love that any happy occasion is an occasion for singing and dancing. I would love if this was common place back home. We had some visitors today – let’s dance!! We built a fence today – let’s dance!! Although, I do have to say I still have some work to do on perfecting my Zulu dancing. But I have some videos to take home with me to practice. I think I will keep my eyes peeled for some tradition Zulu music that I could buy. I have a special place in my heart for the Shosholoza song I’ve heard several times which I’m told is about movement. Everyone seems to have a beautiful voice and is happy to share it with their friends and family and visitors. Something I’ve always aspired for. It’s a beautiful sight and sound to see a group of kids all singing and dancing in unison, and then that one standout sweet voice leading them all.

Full Circle Moment

2011-10-16T05:05:00.000-07:00

Today I had a bit of a full circle moment and it brought tears to my eyes. My purpose for coming to Africa was to simply see the land and explore its animals and people. It’s something I always wanted to do. However, over time, I’ve had a growing sense of wanting to give; to help. I try to donate to different causes, especially those that are near and dear to my friends and family. However I wanted to be able to help on a personal level. My goal when I came to Africa was to feel like I made the difference in the life of at least one person. Although it wasn’t JUST me, I did play a role in doing just that.

Because of the gracious donations from friends and family, I was able to give a donation of around $300 to The Happy Africa Foundation which is connected with African Impact, the group I am volunteering through. I asked for that money to go towards the 2 projects that I will be spending my time on. Here at Thanda, African Impact has been helping the Mdletshe School. They have been raising money for the first of 3 phases, to build a fence around the school grounds so they can move forward in applying for funding from the government. The funding will allow them to have access to more supplies and food for the school. The second phase is to build 2 outhouses and then to build a 3^rd school building so the kindergarteners can get out of the shack they are currently in.

Well there is no way of knowing for sure, but shortly after my arrival and the donation made, they had enough money that they could go forward with building the fence. I truly feel that it was part of that donation that put the fund over the top. It took a few days for the supplies and everything to get organized (and a few extra days for ‘South Africa time’), but it finally got all sorted out.

Yesterday we showed up at the school to start the fence building process. There were already members from the community working and as soon as we started, many more of then joined in. There were many hands working together towards the common goal. We carried the poles to the holes that were already dug, we pulled up old fences, we picked garbage, we gathered rocks for filling holes and then we poured concrete and set the poles up. Because of the time limit, we weren’t able to get all of the poles up and filled but we got 95% of them done so it felt great.

Afterwards, the community liaison that has been working with the Mdletshe School and Natasha from African Impact and Thanda Game Reserve, created a proper ceremony. We all gathered around as Natasha said a few words and officially handed over the fence building project to the community members. The community liaison spoke a few words in Zulu. The principal, who we’ve met on 3 different occasions at the school spoke a few words in Zulu and then in English. Her passion and drive for her school and the kids there are very apparent and she was very appreciative of the efforts we all put in to make this day happen.

Then the Induna which is the leader of the locals in the area and in this rare scenario, is a women, spoke as well. I am not sure what she said but I knew it was very happy and joyous and in true Zulu form, she did a little dancing as others clapped and sung along. I love how happy and joyful they all are.

Then, the full circle moment happened. Not only did we get to spend time, play and work with the children who would get to take advantage of the efforts we put in for their school and get to share in their excitement, we heard from a man from the community. He spoke for a while and as it was translated, he said because of the of what we did for his community and the school that day, he said he will no longer hunt (poach) on Thanda’s Game Reserve!!! It was a very powerful moment that really struck home for many of us. It felt like our efforts, my efforts were important. They made a difference in many lives and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of it. It fills my heart and warms my soul. It has changed my outlook and my future involvement with local charities. Hopefully I can continue to make a difference in at least 1 person’s life!

3100 meters above sea level

2011-10-12T04:20:00.000-07:00

Well I am half way through my 6 weeks! The first 3 weeks have actually gone by pretty slow, which is great because I feel like I am really taking everything in.

We had a 4 day getaway this weekend for the photography group to the Drakensburg mountains. It included hikes and photography workshops with Emil who spent the first week with us here.

Friday we were up and in the van by 5:00am to head out for the long drive. It was 3 hours to Durban where we picked up Emil and then another 3 or 4 hours to our destination. The first night we were camping so we got to the campground and set up our tents. The camp ground was lovely with really nice bathrooms. Right away we went for a short hike up to some waterfalls and climbed all around them taking photos and learning the technique to make the water look milky. I absolutely loved it. The photos were so cool. This is something I’ve always been interested.

I had a pretty crappy sleep. Our mats were pretty thin, I was freezing cold and there was some bird that chirped off and on all night. We were up at 5:00 again and headed to a river that came out of the amphitheater which is basically a big, beautiful rock wall. We took photos as the sun came up and shone light on the rock. It was beautiful and nice and quiet and peaceful.

After the sunrise we got back for breakfast, packed up and hit the road. Just a 20 minute drive and we started our hike. It was a fairly good hike. Got the blood pumping and the sweat going as it was a pretty warm day. We’ve got several older guys in our group who smoke so they struggled quite a bit. But it was good. It was 8 km up and it took about 3 hours which included some break stops and photo stops. At the very top we wound across the river and came up to a canyon type thing where we went and took photos. We had to take our shoes off and go barefoot and it was freezing and the rocks were tough to walk on so that didn’t last a real long time but it was very cool in there. The lighting wasn’t great so I didn’t get many good photos

We had a 2 hour drive around the mountain range to the other side to our accommodations for the next 2 nights. We were up at 3:30 am and on the trail at 4:00am. The first part took about an hour and we just walked in the dark with our head torches. It was weird not having any idea of where you were going but just plotting along. We arrived at our first stop before the sun was up and got set up and waited for the big show. It was a beautiful sunrise and I really enjoyed it.

We had our breakfast then hiked on around the mountain below the face of the rock. Then we came to the ladder! We had to go up 40 meters on a ladder that went pretty much straight up the rock face. It was a bit unnerving but not bad at all. I thought I’d take a peak down as I was going up but that wasn’t the best idea. At the top we walked across a big meadow beside a river from a spring and came to the far side of the mountain and looked over to see the river fall over the edge, the 2^nd longest water fall in the world. It is the same river that we walked along yesterday, which was kinda neat. It was amazing and beautiful view. We hiked up to the top of the mountain for our lunch which was at 10:30. I believe we were somewhere above 3000 meters above sea level.

Instead of going all the way back the way we came, we scaled down a little (but steep and long) gully between to ridges. It was about 70 meters down, and at about 45 degrees steep and full of rocks that we had to climb over and around so it was pretty sketchy at some points. My knees and leg muscles were pretty sore by the time I got to the bottom. We continued to hike down back to the car and arrived all safe and sound by 12:40!! It was weird to have such a big hike done by so early in the day.

Only 5 of our group of 8 did the second day hike but we were all glad we did. It definitely made any hiking I’ve done in the past seem pretty Mickey Mouse. I had such a great time and feel really proud of myself for accomplishing it. I saw some amazing things and hopefully have some photos to show for it.

A true African experience

2011-10-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

I had probably one of my best days so far here in Africa and feel like I really got a sense of the people and the culture. The weekend (Oct 1st) trip that was offered was to go to Mozambique and to swim with dolphins. Although it would have been great to get to see another part of Africa, I’ve already swam with dolphins so didn’t want to spend the money. I wanted to go and see the Sagoma instead which is basically a spiritual person in the Zulu culture. I was the only volunteer interested in going and since the project managers wanted to get out and about on their day off, I went with them. So there was the 4 of us (Amanda, Natasha and Martijn) plus Anton, one of our guides who is Zulu. He had to come along to help us find the Sangoma and to translate for us.

It was such a random day which I guess is typical Africa. We started off by going to ? town to get some snackies and some fuel. The town was just hopping with activity and people. Apparently Saturdays is the day to come to town and visit and do your shopping. There were 2 huge line ups outside the grocery store for people getting their Saturday lottery tickets. There was a little market set up for people to sell clothes, fruit, crafts, etc as well.

It’s very common for people to walk along the road and hitch a ride. There are lots of taxi vans that people use to get around, as well as just hitch hiking. But people are always going somewhere. And there are lots of cattle strolling alongside and on the roads, as well as goats.

Next we went to the house of Anton’s friends so we could find out how to get to the Sangoma. His friend’s mother came out and gave us a handful of bananas fresh off the tree. Then we went into the next town and picked up his friend’s friend, who was to take us to the Sangoma, which is his mother. But first we had to stop and talk to his wife so he could tell her he wasn’t going to see his girlfriend and that he was coming with us. This obviously started a conversation for us girls with Anton to get this whole wife/multiple girlfriend thing sorted out in our minds. It is very common for men to have several women in their lives. The Zulu King and the President have several wives each. And when you have a girlfriend it is out in the open and talked about, it isn’t kept a secret. I asked if the women have more than one husband or girlfriend and he said no, that would be cheating. So obviously there is a huge double standard. He said that if a man wants to have a second wife, he will tell his first wife that he will bring another women home to help her out (ya, like he’s doing her a big time favor). I asked if the number of women in a man’s life declines as he ages. Anton said it depends on how ‘strong’ a man is, but there is a tree that will help them with that, ha ha!

Then we headed to the Sangoma’s house which was way tucked away and was a really lovely homestead (basically a fenced off area with several homes in it for all the family members). It was really neat and tidy compared to the ones I saw last week in the more rural areas. We went into the one round hut which had concrete floors and walls, thatched roof and a power source and light switch, which seemed funny to me. The floor was covered in grass mats and hides. The main, older Sangoma came in along with some younger ones in training. We got an opportunity to ask her general questions about being a Sangoma. Basically it is something that you are called to do by your ancestors, so not everyone can be a Sangoma. And it also runs in the family, so likely several of her children will be Sangomas as well, including men. After you are called, the training may take anywhere from a few months to a few years. Basically people go to them for any problems they are having and with the use of their ancestors and yours, they can see the future and can help you and make suggestions to fix things gone wrong in your life.

We took turns having our time with the Sangoma, with Anton staying there to translate. It was very interesting to watch it all happen. They sort of meditate and chant while mixing a pile of bones, shells, dice, rocks, coins (whatever they have chosen and is meant to be a part of their ceremony, each person’s being different) on the floor. Then they push and scatter them on the mat and then read and interpret what it says. Anton’s ancestors kept budding into my time and causing some confusion. While it was my turn, Natasha was asked to come inside and pour some water on the floor of the hut so the ancestors could have some water since she was drinking some after her session. I guess it is disrespectful to not give the ancestors whatever you are having first. I was also told that I was sitting like a man which was disrespectful to the ancestors and I had to change my position.

Afterwards, we were invited into a different hut where there was a bit of a ceremony going on. One of the trainees was being ‘taken over’ by the ancestors, which I guess brings on a gathering/ceremony. Before we went in I asked if I could take photos and they said yes however once I got in there I realized it was much too private for photographs. This women was chanting and moaning and groaning in a very low gruff voice and was walking around on her knees shaking people’s hands with her eyes closed. Everyone once in a while a bunch of the other people in there would start singing and beating their drums. Then another women also got ‘taken over’ and she began to chant and join in. Although she appeared to be in real pain and Anton said as it’s happening, it feels like you are being stabbed by many needles.

We left after a little while as this ceremony would take a while. We were all silent and reflecting on what we just witnessed. We understood it was very intimate and private moment and we were all very thankful to get to experience it. We had so many questions about it all but were just happy to have been a part of it.

Afterwards we headed to the beach and played in the waves and in the sand. We packed up and headed home, taking a short cut through the neighboring game reserve. We ended up coming across the elephant heard so were stuck for over an hour waiting for them to pass. Then, as we were just about at Thanda’s entrance, we saw a leopard dart across the road into the bushes. We all hooped and hollered as it is a very rare sighting and we were so excited. I can now say I’ve seen all of the Big 5! It definitely capped off an amazing day full of the African experience.

Things I’ve learned at Thanda:

2011-10-04T04:39:00.000-07:00

1. If it’s mellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down

2. Electricity is almost as scarce as water. Which is why it’s good to have a good torch on you at all times

3. Gecko’s poo a lot. So when there is a gecko living in your hut on the ceiling, you will have gecko poo on your bed everyday

4. Croatians are stubborn. Or maybe I should rephrase; Romeo from Croatia is stubborn

5. Game drives never get old. They are amazing even if you don’t see much

6. Being close enough to touch an elephant is both exhilarating and nerve wracking

7. A lot of people in the world (if the small United Nations of Thanda is a correct comparison) do not agree with hunting, even as a purpose of population control to balance an ecosystem. Meaning Jody should stop mentioning that her friends back home hunt. Unless you are talking to the tracker and the ecologist who understand life outside a city.

8. Starting your day with a game drive is an amazing way to start any day!! Even if it’s at 5:30am

9. I am going to come home with a British/Aussie/South African accent as that is who I spend most of my time with. I just know it. I already find myself pronouncing the animal names like them!!!

10. Hippos live in pods of females and babies with just one dominant male. One female will come into season (heat) each day. And as the saying goes, ‘she will offer him her honor. He will honor her offer. Then all day, he will get on and off her.

11. If they say you should carry your water with you on conservation work, believe them

12. If they tell you there will also be a truck following us that you can leave your water on, don’t believe them

13. You will not die from being electrocuted by the electric fence, luckily it wasn’t me that found this out

14. Female hyena’s have both sex organs. She mates with a penis and even delivers her cubs through her penis

15. Wild dogs are little trouble makers. They like to toy with buffalo, elephants and giraffe

16. A two handed waive is a must when someone drives by

17. Children love balloons

18. White rhino’s have black poo, and black rhinos have black poo

19. Gecko poo on the bed count is at 23

Week # 2: Conservation and Community work

2011-10-04T04:36:00.000-07:00

Since our first week was full on photography, this week was a lot more conservation and community work, which is another main purpose for my trip.

On Tuesday morning we all (photography and research groups) went to help the manager of Thanda Wildlife and his workers to do a controlled burn. They will burn each block (which I’m not sure the size of as they all vary) about every 3 or 4 years which helps to get rid of the long grass that doesn’t offer much nutrients and have all that nutrients go back into the ground so new grass can grow that provides more nutrients for the animals to eat. We split into 2 groups although the side I went with was considerably less people. We started at a corner and headed in parallel directions. Some people were lighting the fire and the rest would come along with fire beaters (made of sheets of rubber with some slits cut in it on a broom stick) and put out any fires that were going the wrong direction. The wind wasn’t cooperating so the smoke was really bad so my eyes were watering the whole time. It was a long morning with some pretty good hiking/walking over some big hills and will little to no water but it felt good to look back and see all the burning we had done.

On Wednesday we headed to a community school about 1.5 hour away to spend some time with the kids and teach them about the animals of South Africa. I know it seems weird that we come in from all over the world and have to teach them about animals in their country, but these kids don’t have the means to learn about them and never travel to see them. So we taught them about the kudu, dung beetle and oxpecker bird. We made posters and activities to go along with them and the teacher had to translate for them. Afterwards we got to go outside and play with them. We had taken along a bunch of balloons for the kids and they just loved it. At one point I had probably 30 kids around me pushing and shoving and grabbing for the balloons. Thankfully the teacher came along and made them behave and we got them handed out. They all had such a great time with them, it was so fun. A few of them were pretty sad when their balloons were popped. We took a box of apples for them so we halved them and handed them out to them to go with their lunch of beans. Then afterwards the kids did some singing and dancing for us which was great. It is definitely a big part of the Zulu culture.

Then Thursday morning we did some more conservation work at the Thanda base camp. Right now their grey water leaks outside the fence and the animals are drinking it. So they are creating a wetland where the water can go through and be cleaned and oxidized and then put outside the fence for the animals to drink. Previous groups had already dug the big hole (a small swimming pool type hole). So our job was to lay plastic down in the hole and line the edges with a bunch of rocks and to carry away all the dirt from the hole. It was a fairly big job to do all by hand but with a big group of us we got a lot done in a short amount of time. There’s still a lot to be done before the ‘wetlands’ is ready for water, but it is getting there. It is one of those things that remind you that you are in Africa. Things get done when they get done, no real rush and it’s all by hand. I look forward to hearing updates on it though and how it turns out.

We have a few more community and conservation projects going on this week that I am definitely looking forward to!

Week # 2: Game Drives

2011-10-04T04:31:00.000-07:00

Well week number 2 did not disappoint in the slightest. We were lucky enough to see an endangered animal as well as seeing another one of the Big 5 and I also learned why they are called the Big 5. Apparently, if you try to kill those 5 animals (elephant, rhino, leopard, buffalo and lion), and you don’t kill them in the first shot, they will come and try to kill you.

We finally found the heard of water buffalo. Actually it was only about half the heard, so about 50 or so. They are very similar to a cow in their movement and mannerisms. As with most African animals, and as the joke goes, you only get to see the ass of the animal as they walk away. So as the heard of buffalo were walking away from our truck it reminded me of a cattle drive back home. I wondered how it would go herding them with horses.

We also got to see the wild dogs which are an endangered species so they are actually monitored twice a day. This pack has an alpha male and female and their 5 grown pups. It was neat to watch their family dynamic. The pups are quite playful and full of energy. The old male is not doing well. He looks old and tired and is the laziest one. We followed them along one day pretty closely as they acted like they might make a kill. Unfortunately, they ended up just laying down for a rest on the shade once again. At one point I was within 10 feet of the dogs as they passed by the truck. And man do they smell bad! They are also very cheeky and playful and although they won’t have the intention to hunt they will pester buffalo, elephants and rhinos. We watched them bug the buffalo one day. The one was trying to sneak in to grab a hold of a buffalo’s tail.

We saw two of the young male lions one day lounging by one of the watering holes. They were being pretty lazy so there wasn’t much for exciting action packed photography. But we still got some good shots. We could tell they had had a good feed the night before because their bellies were plumb full. And they were so lazy they even peed where they were lying down.

One day I decided I wanted to ride on the tracker seat which is a seat way out in front on the hood of the truck where the tracker normally sits. And by the way, several of Thanda’s best trackers were once poachers. Since we don’t have a tracker with us on our drives (our guide/driver/tracker Maryanna does it all), I wanted to give it a go. I wasn’t too sure about driving through the park with all the wild animals but apparently the only animals that you can’t sit up there for is the elephants and the lions, since they see the vehicle as 1 object. Luckily we didn’t come across either of them, but if we had, we would have just driven by and I would have hopped in the back.

The only thing of interest we saw that day was 2 rock monitors fighting. It was so interesting and none of the guides or drivers in any of the vehicles said they had ever seen it before so it was a pretty rare find. We ended up sitting there for almost 2 hours watching the wrestling match go down. It was intense and actually quite comical to us. They were hard core as they fought for dominance which including biting and twisting legs and tails. Unfortunately we had to pull away for the main lodge vehicles to see and as were driving up again to watch some more, it ended and they ran off. It was crazy though, some people filled up a 16GB card on their camera with just photos of them fighting.

After that we met up with the research group to have ‘sun downers’ which is apparently a tradition that the Brits brought over many years ago of drinking gin and tonic. So we found a spot where we had a good view of the sunset and had a drink and some snacks and just enjoyed visiting with everyone. It was really lovely.

One of the nights we had the option of going to a bush dinner that is put on by the main lodge for all their high paying guests and we are asked to come along if we wish. I wasn’t sure about it but was really happy I decided to go along as it was really cool. We drove over in the dark around 6:30 and actually saw the lioness and her 3 cubs along the way which was cool. When we arrived we were greeted and escorted down a path lit by lanterns. At the bottom we were handed a glass of champagne and a warm wash cloth to wash our hands from the game drive. There were several camp fires going with chairs set up all around, lanterns all around and several tables set very beautifully and all fancy with each chair having its own blanket to be used. We were to bring our own drink so I had a cooler. We were served a yummy soup and bread to start with then went through the buffet. There were many different choices especially the meat. I made sure to try the impala sausage which tasted pretty similar to some deer sausage I have had before. Then there was lovely dessert buffet afterwards. As we were sitting there visiting we were all asked to be quiet. We sat a few moments in silence and then heard the elephant herd trumpeting. They were agitated earlier in the day so whatever it was must have been bugging them still. But it was such a great experience. Then to topped it all off, the staff got up and did some Zulu singing and dancing which was awesome. I love hearing it and watching them all have fun as they are doing it. The one song has been stuck in my head which is great!!

Weekend in St. Lucia,

2011-10-04T04:28:00.000-07:00

Well we were allowed out of the bush for the first weekend after our hard week of learning and boy did it hit the spot. I was really set on going to the Thonga Village for the weekend to experience some African culture, but unfortunately no one else was interested. I still really enjoyed myself in St. Lucia though so was glad that I went.

Our accommodations were lovely. We got to have real showers with guaranteed water. Hot and lots of pressure which we now don’t take for granted like back home. Our room also has no gecko poo all over it. P.S. the gecko poo on my bed count is now at 17 for only the first week. We also got a tv and a little kitchenette and I got set up for wifi so we could get in touch with everyone back home (hence the few quick updates to the blog).

A group of us met up for dinner on Friday which was great. The food at Thanda is nice, but it was also great to get out and have some more variety and options. We were all pretty tired from the week so we all headed to bed after supper.

Saturday my roommate Robyn and I had a pretty lazy morning watching tv, lounging and enjoying the breakfast we’d grabbed at the grocery store, although we were still awake at 6:00am. We just hung out in our room most of the morning. We headed out to walk up and down main street to check out some shops and local stores. We enjoyed tea and cake as people call it although I had coffee and a muffin.

In the afternoon, most of our group all went on a hippo and croc boat tour for a few hours. It was a nice little trip. We got to see lots of different types of birds and lots of hippos. Unfortunately crocs are not very common in that area anymore so we only saw one, although I’m convinced it wasn’t alive, that it was a fake one just staged on the shore as the guy pointed it out long before he was able to see it there.

The hippos were neat to watch. Some were just hanging out watching us, a few young ones were busy play fighting and some would hide under water just as we came along. Apparently a hippo can hold its breath for up to 6 minutes. And they do not swim, they simply walk on the bottom of the water. You have to be very careful in St. Lucia at night as that is when the hippos come out of the water to feed on land in the town and they are very territorial and feisty. Emil said he was chased by one once. I think when I’m there in a few weeks that I’ll keep to daylight walking tours.

A few of us went out for dinner to celebrate a British girl Caris’ birthday. Again, it wasn’t much of a party as we were all tired and headed to bed early.

Sunday was a crappy weather day, pretty rainy all morning. Robyn wanted to do some shopping so I followed her around in the rain. We then headed to a cute, fancy looking coffee shop and sat outside on their patio under a roof. They had some comfy deck chairs with cushions on them so we sent up camp there. We asked if there was a power point to plug the lap top in and they ran over an extension cord for us and brought out some fuzzy, warm blankets for us. It was so lovely, sitting listening to the rain, all cozied up, having a coffee and I was reading a book. I order a scone later and the presentation of it was amazing. The jam, cream and butter all came on its own tray in fancy dishes and crystal. I loved the whole experience.

Then at about noon the weather broke and the sun came out so we decided to go for a walk to the beach. It was about a 45 minute walk and we came out onto a huge sand dune. It was pretty cool. We didn’t have a whole lot of time to hang out so we started heading back. We got back just in time to gather our stuff and hop in the van to head the 1.5 hours back to Thanda. It was a great weekend and it made me look forward to spending 2 weeks there during my second project with African Impact. It will seem weird to be in civilization for more than a weekend.

Photography Overload

2011-10-04T04:25:00.000-07:00

Well the officially photography course part came to an end on Friday September 22nd after 5 days at Thanda with professional photographer Emil Von Maltitz. You can check out his website at www.limephoto.co.za and you can check out the link to his blog http://emilvonmaltitz.blogspot.com/ which has tid-bits to help improve your photography skills. He is full of energy and very excited and passionate about photography which made learning about it easier and fun. He not only has a lot of knowledge on photographs, but on photography in general and its history. It was nice to learn the reasons behind all the settings on my camera.

It was a pretty full on week with lots to cram into a short about of time. I did my best to stuff my brain full of all the information that I could but I know a lot of it seeped out or just plain old didn’t fit. The one day we started at 5:30 and didn’t quit until 9:30, so it was a long day on the old thinker. Most of the people in the group have more experience and knowledge then I do and several of them have many years of ‘hobby’ photography behind them so they have a really great understanding of photos, composition and cameras. It’s been handy using their knowledge since Emil left to help me out. But during the course I did find myself lost many times as they all seemed to be 20 steps ahead of me.

We had 3 or 4 different assignments over the week to put into practice what we learned. We would then go through each person’s 3 or 4 photos, vote on the best one, then critique each one so we could learn from it all. I found these intimidating and nerve racking as I knew I was up against some great photographers.

Our first assignment was we were each giving a plant and we had to produce 3 different photos from that plant. Our second assignment was to produce 4 photos from a game drive and one of them had to be only 1 element in the photograph. I was quite excited about the picture of the one element that I took which was simply a rhino horn with grass all around it. I got a lot of great feedback on it and Emil even said he wants to steal the idea from me. So that helped to improve my confidence. They also quite liked one of my other photos of a wildebeest.

At the end of our longest day, we learned how to paint with light. Even though I was dog tired, I actually really enjoyed this and would like to play with it some more at home. I did a simple one using a tree. I don’t have the painting technique down yet but you get the idea.

Our last assignment was on the Friday and it was the one I liked least of all. It was difficult, awkward and I had run out of steam for the week. We had to pretend like our camp was a 5 star resort and had to photograph it to show it off. So we had to stage different scenes and be models and act and it was just not fun. It really made me realize how many little details there are that go into those perfect shots that are on brochures. We also had to do a portrait of someone. I was really short on time so just snapped a shot of my roommate which didn’t really turn out.

All in all I had a great week learning about photography and improving my skills. I’ve got a long way to go but that all just takes time and practice. And I have another 3 weeks to hone my skills. For the 3^rd weekend at Thanda, our group is heading to the Drakensburg Mountains for a 4 day photography course with Emil while hiking the area. I’ve heard it is a beautiful, amazing experience even without the photography course. Plus I am looking forward to learning some more tips and techniques from Emil while I am there.

Just a few of my 'photography' photos:

Thanda Game Reserve

2011-10-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

Thanda game reserve is home to the Big 5. The Big 5 consist of the elephant, rhino, leopard, water buffalo and lion. So far, I have seen 3 out of the 5.

We saw Tulani, the elephant on the first day but haven’t seen any other since. There is a whole herd of them, including babies that I am looking forward to seeing.

We tracked the water buffalo the other day but didn’t see them. We knew where they were, but they were too far in bush for us to get at via vehicle.

The leopard is very elusive as it can actually get in and out of the game reserve (by jumping over the 15 foot high electric fence). There are some people who work here that have never, or rarely seen a leopard. So we are all pretty excited and are keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll be lucky enough to spot one.

We’ve seen most of the lions so far. But not the two brothers of the south pride. So hopefully we’ll see them soon.

We have seen several giraffe on 3 different occasions. They are so huge and lanky and elegant. They almost look like they move in slow motion. I like watching them run. They mostly don’t’ mind us and keep eating away. We did come across a group of them one day and one of them was pretty inquisitive. She came over closer and just stood there looking at us. She was a very pretty one was huge beautiful eyes and long eyelashes. Another time we found a mamma and her about 2 week old baby. He was pretty cute to watch. He’s pretty flexible and coordinated as he could scratch his face with his hind foot, something that an adult wouldn’t be able to do.

We found rhino only once so far. It was a pair and a baby. They were pretty happy to just continue eating as we watched and snapped hundreds of photos. They came fairly close to the truck as they grazed away. Although some of the people got chatting too loud which made them graze away a little further. I am planning on learning what the difference is between a white rhino and a black rhino. Black rhinos are more skidish and tougher to find. Apparently they dropped a few new rhinos in the reserve next to Thanda (Kings Land) which will eventually be joined with Thanda one day. The research group got to go and watch it and they said it was pretty cool).

We have seen many other animals on the drive. Lots of different species of birds (a lot of the photographer guys are big into birds), impala, inyala, kudu, bushbuck, zebra, wildebeest, wart hogs, and some monkeys. There are still lots of animals to find so many more game drives to come I’m sure!

Game Drive # 2

2011-09-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

Well the amazing experiences on game drives have continued. Most of our game drives start at 6:00 am. It is so easy to get up so early when you are going to do something as exciting as a game drive.

Basically our game drives consist of driving around the 70km sq area of Thanda on search of animals. The guides at the Thanda 5 Star lodge as well as our guides and other people of Thanda will radio any spotting of the animals so we can decide which wayto head, depending on what animals we want to see. There are dirty trails all around the reserve that we follow and can sometimes go off road, depending on the area and the animal we are spotting. There are strict rules about certain animals and the etiquette when watching them.

Our second drive was just as amazing as the first. We were lucky enough to spot the south pride of lions which consists of the mom, Sahara, her 3 cubs, and her older daughter. Usually a lioness will keep her cubs in hiding for about 2 months. But she actually kept them in hiding for 6 months so they haven’t been seen very often so this was a really exciting find. The big main male of the reserve was killed a few months ago so Sahara had to raise her cubs and hunt all on her own. Her teenage daughter has recently joined up with her again so they are a happy little family.

The cubs are fairly inquisitive of the vehicle as it is fairly new to them. The adults are more used to it and just carry on with their day as we watch them. The cubs are so cute and playful. It was great to just watch their family dynamic and follow them around for a little bit.

We almost got to watch a kill. 2 jeeps from the lodge were watching the lions which means we had to leave because there can only be 2 vehicles with the animals at once and the high paying guests at the lodge get dibs over us. However as we went to leave the lions, they sort of turned back and were stalking some wildebeest right in front of us. It was great for us, but we could have gotten in trouble as we ended up breaking the rules. It was neat to see the lions body language change as they went into stealth mode. Unfortunately they didn’t catch anything so fortunately for us we weren’t in trouble. We also saw some zebra, who seem to travel with wildabeest quite a bit. They were just intently watching the hunt go down.

What weighs 26kg?!?!

2011-09-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

(written Monday the 19th)

Well, my first game drive is in the books and boy was it is worthy of the history books!!! If every game drive is going to be like this, then I’m in for an exciting 4 weeks. Only 2 minutes into the drive, we find the biggest and oldest elephant of the park, Tulani. He was maybe 20 meters off the road just eatin some trees so we got a pretty good glimpse of him (except for the dead tree branch on the ground which blocked my view of his face).

Oh ya, and by the way, there are 9 of us volunteers on the jeep along with the photographer teacher and our guide, so it is pretty cramped. And also especially cramped because most of the other volunteers have pretty nice cameras and gear and need to bring it all along so that made for even less space.

Our guide, MaryAnna moved the jeep a bit so we could get a better view and sure enough, the elephant came walking over to our vehicle. He is so big! He was towering over us. At one point his tusks were within inches of the vehicle near me. The guy on the edge was pretty nervous and even leaned out of the way a little bit. It was unreal. To look into his eyes, too see his skin and to smell him (he’s in musk which means he’s in heat so he excretes a oil that is quite strong). He was so close that we couldn’t get much for photos because we had our long lenses on. But it was unreal to hear his ears flapping, to hear his feet as he sauntered. Just awesome! In some ways it was very intimidating but in other ways, so calming and surreal.

He was actually getting too close so MaryAnna was talking to Tulani, and making some tapping noises on the side of the truck. She was just communicating with him that we were in this space first, so he needs to back up out of our personal space. Which he did. Our guides know their stuff for sure so it makes things feel a lot more comforting.

Then we drove on and found some cheetahs. It was 2 brothers who were being pretty lazy and just grooming each other. They'd get up and walk a few feet and then lay down again. Then get up and walk a few feet, then lay down. We got within 20 feet of them and at one point one of the walked directly in front of the jeep. They were pretty cool to just sit and watch them interact. I love watching their backs move and how flexible you can tell they are in order to be able to run as fast as they do.

I tell ya, if every game drive is like this, I am set. It’s so exciting and amazing! We are off for a 6:00am drive tomorrow so hopefully we’ll get a bunch more close encounters again!!

P.S. An elephant penis can weigh up to 26kg….they are huge!!!!

Safe and Sound

2011-09-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

Thanda Game Reserve Day 1-Monday (pronounced like Tanda)

Well after a long and tiring 24 hours + of travelling, I arrived safe and sound in Durban late Sunday morning. Unfortunately I didn’t sleep much on the plane so I was pretty darn tired.

I had a wonderful whirl wind tour and time spent in London. It is so full and rich with history. There is so much to learn and see and do there although the loads of people and the busyness is not quite for me. I took lots of photos from the hop-on-hop-off tour bus as I was told some interesting facts. Although I already forget what some of those are. I did hop off the bus to check out Buckingham palace which was great. The queen did not come and waive at me but I didn’t take it personally as I understand she is away for a short while. Some heads up would have been appreciated though.

Me in front of Buckingham Palace

Big Ben

Yesterday was a hot hot day which I was not dressed for so it was a sweaty sweaty day for me. The people from my project all arrived one at a time as we waited at a patio café at the airport in Durban. So we got time to get acquainted as each person came along. There is a wide range of age and experience so it will be interesting getting to know everyone.

It was a 3 hour sweaty drive to the game reserve (which for me, included a lot of head bobbing. I tried to stay awake to take it all in, but my body had other plans from the lack of sleep). The drive was interesting. I saw a lady doing her laundry in a creek alongside the road. I saw a lady carrying something on her head as she walked down the highway. Of course being a farm kid, I had loads of questions about the land, the farming, the cattle breeds, etc.. I am hoping to get some of those questions answered over time.

I had envisioned the game reserve to be in a very remote locations at the end of the pavement, at the end of a gravel road, at the end of a dirt road. However it is only about a 10 minute drive off of the pavement. But the nearest town is 1.5 hours away I believe, so it is isolated enough. It is a lovely little set up here. There is a big common building where the offices, kitchen, eating area and common lounging area are. The main hall is ‘open’ to the outside so there are birds flying around, eating up breakfast crumbs and pooping on the floors. There is a balcony that overlooks the watering hole that I was so excited about. Unfortunately, with the terrible drought, it is simply and dirt whole and not many animals come along. There is also a swimming pool that I was also quite excited about. Unfortunately, with the terrible drought, they used the swimming pool water for showering and have yet to fill the pool back up.

I am rooming with a gal, Robyn form Australia and her accent makes me miss all my Aussie family. So far we are getting along quite well. Out little cabins are nice (not fancy) with our own bathroom, single beds and chairs. Along with our own geckos who poop on everything. So nothing is safe. Even your bedding, pillow, clothes, etc.. Robyn had some poop drop on her as we were first getting acquainted with our room. In some aspects, the accommodations are nice, but there is still an element with roughing it which I believe will be more difficult for some people to be okay with then others.

Our hut

The dark nights and beautiful star filled sky is something most people have never experienced so it is interesting. I was explaining last night that it is common for us to have a fire and to sit out and enjoy the night sky, so I am thankful that I get to enjoy that.

There are a few rules at Thanda:
• Stay on the paths as there are snakes and scorpions that are tough to see in the grass
• Never walk alone at the night, always take a buddy with you
• Always take a flashlight or torch with you while walking at night
• Keep a keen eye for animals in the camp area. Although there is a fence, animals to get in, including impala, warthogs, hyenas, lions, etc..
• If you come across an animal of the scary kind, stand still and make lots of noise so someone can come and find you and help you (hopefully). I doubted impala fit into this category so I wasn’t too worried when I saw some of them on our walk to our cabin last night. However I was reminded to be worried about what eats impalas. That they could be nearby as well.
• Water is in short supply so use it sparingly. The good old saying ‘if it’s yellow, let it mellow - if its brown, flush it down’ applies here. As well as 2 minute showers.
• Electricity is also in short supply and there are times when we might be completely without power. So it is also to be used sparingly.

We are having our first photography session this afternoon followed by our first game drive which I can’t wait for. We saw 3 giraffe’s on our drive in that we had to wait patiently for them to move off the road and they are magnificent!! I can’t wait for more close encounters and from what I’ve been told, there will be plenty. Nothing like getting a look into the eyes of a lion or having an elephant run its trunk through your hair.

Eye on Africa

2011-05-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Well, my dream of going to Africa is now one step closer to becoming reality; I’m sharing my goal with my friends and family.

I have always wanted to go to Africa, for as long as I can remember and as the years went on, that desire grew and grew. I knew I needed to experience the life, culture, animals and nature that Africa has to offer and, and to give of myself and to make a difference in someone’s life. I’ve realized now is the time in my life to make this dream a reality before we begin a family, so I have officially started my journey. I am registered for 2 volunteer projects in South Africa and will be spending a total of 6 weeks immersing myself in everything the projects, land and people have to offer, while providing education and care for the people, land and animals in need.

The first 4 weeks will be spent on a photography and conservation project on a game reserve. I will spend 4 weeks doing bush walks photographing the plants, animals (including the Big 5) and insects of the game reserve, helping researchers collect animal identification information, create a photographic database, and help raise awareness in the local Zulu community about the importance of conservation. It was THIS project that made me realize that this is something I HAVE to do. This project speaks to my soul. For anyone that knows me, I am an outdoor girl who loves to get out, get dirty and experience what God has created. I have always had a love for animals, and lately I feel myself being pulled towards photographing nature’s wonders, so this is a perfect fit for me. I love the fact that I won’t just be experiencing Africa from a vehicle on some 4 day safari. I will be submerged in the land and culture and will actually get to feel and understand what this area has to offer, and will help make a difference.

The remaining 2 weeks I will be spending in an Orphan Day Care Center near a town on the coast where I get to interact with and educate children who have been infected with AIDS as well working alongside other exciting community outreach initiatives which include: HIV awareness in the community, farming to encourage positive living, refurbishment of community buildings and helping at an after-school reading club with high school students. I have heard that spending time with these children who are so innocent and have so little yet beam happiness and wonder can really bring a sense of awareness and gratitude to your own life; an experience that could change anyone’s life. Not only do I get to give back to nature, but I will also get to give back to the people; another big motivation for this trip.

So where am I at with this process? I have registered and paid my deposit for the 2 volunteer projects. Now I am working at earning the rest of the funds for my trip. My goal is to make $10,000. This will cover the expenses of my trip and will also allow me extra money to be able to give to the project as a donation and to purchase some additional photography equipment.

This is where you, my friends and family come in. With this goal in mind, I plan to expand my airbrushing business and book as many parties as I can so I can make my financial goal for this trip a reality. I have registered to be leaving in September 2011, therefore I have the next 4 months to make $10,000. So if you are looking for a fun get together with your friends where you get your toes fancied up for summer, I’m your gal. Also, I’d appreciate any referrals you can give me. Do you know someone that might enjoy hosting a ladies night in toe party? I’d love to meet your friends and family and to expand my business. I welcome you to check out my Facebook PAGE "Beauty in Balance Airbrushing' and click LIKE to check out all the fun options to fancy up your feet.

If you’re not interested in a toe party, that’s okay. I am open and willing to earn my goal doing other odd jobs so please consider me when you have some work that needs to be done.

Thanks so much for your time and support. It is greatly appreciated!!

Ngiyabonga

(Thank you in Zulu)

Live An Amazing Life

2011-02-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

A friend and fellow (and much more avid) blogger is celebrating the 2 year anniversary of her blog 'Live An Amazing Life'. She is also a motivational speaker and has published a book so her ideas, thoughts and insights are always an uplifting read. So check out her blog and her giveaways and enjoy a read while you are there! Just click on the linked picture below

Therapy with the Judds

2011-01-06T07:09:00.000-08:00

I recently watch an Oprah show that had Wynonna and Niomi Judd on it. The Judd's were my absolute favorite singers when I was younger. I love love love them!

Over the years they have spent many hours in therapy as their relationship has always been very strained. They shared a few of their learned communication keys that work with any relationship in your life with Oprah and I really liked what they had to say so figured I’d pass them along.

1. ‘Is this a good time for you’. Whether it’s wanting to have a discussion with someone, or simply phoning a friend to chat, being considerate of their time is important and asking if this is a good time for them shows that.

2. ‘What I hear you saying is’. I like this one as I know all too often I come out of a conversation with my husband, mom, boss or just a friend and I think I’ve understood the outcome. And so have they, yet we each have different ideas of what that outcome is. By repeating back to someone it gives you a chance to confirm that you are both on the same track.

3. ‘Do over’. I think this one is great, especially for moms. If you ever snap or react to someone quickly without thinking and don’t like your response after you’ve thought about it, ask for a do-over. Perhaps it would come with an apology, depending on how bad your reaction was.

4. ‘That doesn’t work for me’. I know we all have a tough time saying no. Either you can’t turn down someone needing you or you don’t want to sound rude. Well this is a better way to respond to someone especially if it’s followed by what does work for you. Example: “Wednesday night does not work for me. But Thursday morning works very well for me”.

I love all this ideas and am trying to implement them into my life which will hopefully increase and open the communication which will in turn create a better relationships.

Our vows

2010-11-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

Dustin and I felt it was important to write our own vows for our wedding. Generic words just weren't going to be enough. We wanted to tell eachother how we felt, in our own words. I had mine figured out several months before the wedding and thought they were very touching and couldn't wait to say them to Dustin.

About a week before the wedding Dustin still didn't have his vows done and he was stuck! He asked for direction and I said that this was the time to tell me exactly how he feels, as it might never get said again.

Well for a guy that was having troubles, he did an amazing job. He made me a charm bracelet and his vows explained what each charm represented:

Heart – This heart represents my love for you, and I give it to you from this day forward
Key – This key represents honesty and trust, the ability for each of us to be honest with each other about anything, and the trust I hold in you with all of my dreams and fears
R – This R symbolizes respect and understanding, the respect that I have for you as a person, as a woman, and the respect we have for each other, and understanding that in times when we don’t agree we can still respect each others differences
Cross – This cross represents my faith in you, in us, and the faithfulness we will share in our lives together
Moon & Stars – These moon & stars represents guidance and our ability to lead each other through even our hardest times, and to share the direction of our lives, wherever it may take us
Leaves – Theses leaves represent our tree, growth and support, we will both continue to grow as individuals but we will also grow together, and as we grow I will support you and us in whatever life brings our way
Lock – This lock represents strength, we are stronger together than we are separately, and together we can take on any challenge that life throws our way, and I look forward to facing those challenges with you
Smiley Face – This represents your smile, there is nothing I enjoy more than seeing your smiling face, every time it makes me realize just how much I love you

WOW was all I was thinking! It was so personal, touching and simply amazing. There wasn't a dry eye there when he was done, as you can tell by the photo of me and the girls behind me doing the ugly cry.

Everyone was congratulating me on picking such an amazing man to do such a beautiful thing for our wedding. And all the guys were giving Dustin a hard time, saying he set the bar too high!

Once we got into the motorhome to tour around to take photos, Dustin gave me his wedding gift to me. It was a shadow box with his vows printed out and a spot to hang the bracelet to display it!

I am one lucky woman!!! But I knew that long before the wedding day!

The Old Married Couple

2010-11-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

So, another Halloween has come and gone and we did our best to enjoy the most of it.

Dustin bought 2 pumpkins with good intentions of carving them.....but that didn't happen! Next year!!

We did do a little decorating this year. I clean-sweeped Canadian Tire and took advantage of a gift certificate I had from Christmas and updated my Halloween/Fall/Thanksgiving decorations. I got rid of the old and outdated decorations I had from when I first moved out when I was 18.

And....best of all this year, we got dressed up. Now last year we were fortunate enough to dress up twice. This year it was just the once, but we had a lot of fun and the costumes ended up looking great. We went to the NCC community family dance which was great to see everyone and watch the kids dance and enjoy the haunted house!

It wasn't until a few days before Halloween that I decided I was going to quite waiting for Dustin to decide what he wanted to be and went ahead with picking a costume. My initial thought was to go as an old housewife, the 1950's kind that would be in a home economics book. With a perfect dress and apron, perfect hair, and rubber gloves.

Well this idea got my wheels turning on a different type idea. So in the end, Dustin and I ended up dressing up as ourselves.....an Old Married Couple. We thought this was a great spin to take considering we've not been married for almost 2 months now!! ha ha

It was the easiest costumes. We used our own housecoats and slippers. I borrowed my grandma's curlers and scarf and I found a quick tutorial online on how to make our faces look aged. Add some glasses, coffee mugs and a newspaper for Dustin and we were set.
Some people joked that we were old Mr. and Mrs. Farr and some even went as far to say we were Lloyd and Laurangel. Guess we each can see what we have to look forward to. It'll be neat to look back on these pics and see just how true it comes.

The Proper Sneeze

2010-10-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so with all the viruses, germs and diseases that are flying around, threatening our livelihood, (you know the ones; the new viruses that are sure to wipe us out each year) they are teaching us to be more germ aware.

I will not lie, I am not a ‘germ-o-phobe’ so being germ conscious isn't always the first thing I think of (after all, I'll be out moving cattle, riding, and branding and then will break for lunch and probably not wash my hands).

But....I AM aware that other people are ‘germ-o-phobe’, so I try to be thoughtful of them. 'They' tell us that if we have to sneeze in public, to do so into our elbows.

MY question is.....what do you do when you are wearing short sleeves??? The other day I was trying to be conscious of my germ spreading so I sneezed into my elbow, which happened to be bare. Afterwards I realized my elbow, forearm and upper arm were all slobbery wet. So I wiped it all off with my other hand and proceeded on my way. ha ha. Realizing later that all my germs were then transferred onto my other hand and onto everything else I touched.

So, what is the proper way to sneeze with bare arms?!?!?!

Thank you

2010-10-15T07:33:00.001-07:00

Well I was thinking about this blog post as we were driving the 4 hours out east to my cousin’s place where we celebrated thanksgiving with my mom's side of the family. As we were driving, I was checking my Facebook and reading everyone's post saying how thankful they were this weekend for their friends and family.

I decided to update my status, and I changed it to "Jody is just as thankful today as I am each and every other day'.

It got me to thinking, yes it is amazing that everyone takes a moment on Thanksgiving weekend to realize what they are thankful for. To realize what they are blessed with: health, happiness, family, friends, etc....

My challenge for you....don't be thankful just on thanksgiving. But sure to give thanks everyday for everything in your life you are grateful for. Have a extra good day, say thanks!. Arrive at your destination save and sound, give thanks! Finally get over that nasty cold that has held you hostage the last few days, give thanks! The kids only fought once today, give thanks!

The more you are thankful for, the more abundance you will draw into your life. And the best way is to start and end each day with acknowledging all the blessings in your life. Even if it is simply, thanks for the breath in my lungs!

This morning I was thankfull for:
- my headache being gone
- Dustin having a great time at the hockey game
- Friday and I'm looking forward to a quiet, productive weekend at home
- my two treatments yesterday and feeling more healthy and directed
- my health
- all the special people in my life

No more excuses

2010-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 4 months since my last blog entry and now that wedding planning is over and life has started to get back to normal, I no longer have an excuse for not blogging.

I have to admit, the thought of trying to update my blog during the summer amidst the wedding planning was not something I was willing to tackle. I felt like every waking moment and thought revolved around planning that day. It is a lot of work to plan a wedding. It is a lot of work to plan a wedding in 3 months. It is a lot of work to plan a wedding in 3 months in the middle of an already busy summer. I struggled a fair bit with the stress of it all and mostly did not love the process.

That is until I gave myself an attitude adjustment. It took an early morning out camping, to sit quietly by myself along a river to gain some perspective. How could all the activities leading up the most special day be CRAP! (Which were my thoughts exactly, all that planning was CRAP!). I realized that although they may not be my most favorite activities, they were all an important part to making that special day special. And I knew that it didn't matter what happened that day or leading up to it, as long as I got married, that's all that mattered!

After that 'self attitude adjustment', I was in a much better frame of mind. I took on the planning tasks with a much happier outlook. When an issue did arise, I took it in stride and dealt with it without getting stress (other than 1 issues which honestly at one point almost brought tears to my eyes and even spoke the words 'this is ruining it for me'). I swore I wouldn't be a bride that got that wrapped up in her day, but it happens. I resolved to not let those issues bring me down and to just 'let them go'. I felt much better after that! Nothing was going to wreck my special day.

Much to the stress of many (perhaps even some guests as many of them said they had their fingers crossed), we decided to get married outside. I always knew I wanted to get married outside but wasn't sure if I could handle the stress of the weather. Yet as soon as we choose our ceremony location and the decision was made, I was very calm and at peace with it all. We made a backup plan (just in case) but I never put much thought into it, somehow knowing it wouldn't be needed. I was calm and trusted the weather would be perfect. Everyone was telling me the forecast, but I never looked at it myself or stressed. I trusted the weather would be perfect. As the week went on, the forecast was getting worse, I trusted the weather would be perfect. When the wedding day arrived and that morning was cloudy and a bit windy, I trusted the day would be perfect. My dad asked me "Well, are we playing like we got it?" (which is his way of saying, are we going ahead with the ceremony being outside), I trusted the weather would be perfect.

It ended up being about 12 degrees and cloudy, with bursts of sun throughout the day. Only a bit of wind and a few spits of rain came during one part of our photos that afternoon, but all in all, the weather was perfect!!!

Well those are just a few of my wedding thoughts that ,although it is all over with now, still occupy my mind as I reminisce and relive that most special moment of my life.

Don't be surprised to hear more post wedding thoughts from me. Hopefully I can keep the blogging up to date now that I have no excuses!

Engaged!!

2010-05-26T07:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I’ve had enough people ask me about the details of the engagement that I figured I’d better tell the story. Plus it’s definitely worth sharing. Dustin did an excellent job pulling it off.

So it started off earlier in the week by Dustin suggesting that we go hiking if he got a day off on the long weekend, since we wouldn’t be camping. Of course I loved the idea.

Friday after work he informed me that unfortunately, he wasn’t getting a day off. So I went about planning my weekend and was to go help friends move cattle with my dad Saturday morning and had it all lined up.

Saturday morning, 6:20am, Dustin’s alarm goes off for work. I made a comment about how crappy it was he had to get up. Then he quite excitedly announced that he didn’t have to go to work today.

I was half asleep and groggy with my eyes still shut. I think the conversation went like this:

Dustin: I don’t have to work today!
Jody: What, but you said you did.
Dustin: I was pretending.
Jody: (after a pause) Are you serious?
Dustin: Yes
Jody: You aren’t being teasy?
Dustin: No. We get to spend the day together.
Jody: But I have to go riding.
Dustin: No you don’t
Jody: Yes I do, I told dad to catch me a horse in the morning.
Dustin: I called him and told him you weren’t coming.
Jody: WHEN?
Dustin: Last night.
Jody: Really? You aren’t just being teasy?
Dustin: No! I’m seroius
Jody: Oh yay!!!
Dustin: I figured we’d go hiking!
Jody: Oh yay!

So we had a bit of a sleep in (although I didn’t sleep well after that), hit Tim Hortons, hit a few garage and were on our way. I was surprised when Dustin didn't head west for our hike, but was happy to just be along for the ride, wherever he was taking us. Next thing I know, we were south of Calgary. He has an area out there that he likes to fish at so I figured that was where we were going. Then I realized he was taking me to my uncles land SW of Nanton. Which is my most favorite place on earth!

Once that secret was out of the bag, he said he felt bad that he was sick the last time we were there and didn’t get to go for a walk. And since I’d helped him out this spring while he’s been busy, he thought this would be a good way to thank me. So needless to say I was very excited!!

Looking up to the top of Old Stormy

So we hike up ‘Old Stormy’ hill that my family usually rides up each summer. We got to the top and just looked around, chatted, ate our peanut butter and jam sandwiches and just simply enjoyed the view.

I was a little cold so he sat behind me to cuddle and warm me up. He grabbed the camera and took a picture of both of us. It must not have turned out because he went to take another one (or so I thought). He actually was taking a video. The next thing I know he whispers ‘Will you marry me’ in my ear and pops the ring in front of me!! I was so shocked! And the video shows my surprised look. It took me a second to comprehend it, then it sunk in and the water works and the ugly cry started!!

He said I took a little longer to say yes than he would have liked, ha ha

I was amazed, shocked, excited, emotional, ecstatic and overwhelmed all at once. We just sat and held each other for a bit and took in the most amazing moment in the most amazing location!!

We snapped a few more shots then decided to head back down and hit the road. We knew we needed to tell our immediate family in person and needed to do it before it hit Facebook so we were on a mission.

As we were hiking down, I was asking him all sorts of questions, about the logistics of how he pulled it off. He said he had called my parents earlier in the week to ask them for their permission, which of course they gave him. A few days later, my dad called Dustin back and said that it wasn’t his business but if he didn’t have a plan as to where he was going to propose, up in the hills would be a special place for me. My dad knows that I’ve cried up there before and that’s as close the Maker as you can get. As soon as Dustin told me what my dad had said, emotion ran over me again and I said, ‘Aw, I now have 2 special men who’ll love me forever!’.

I also told Dustin that one time I was up there I thought to myself what an awesome spot that would be to be proposed to! And boy was I right!

Every few minutes it would hit me and I’d tear up. And still do. Every time I watch the video, I tear up. I can’t describe how happy I am! I can’t wait to officially start my life with him. He’s been well worth the wait!!

Tag your it

2010-05-21T07:11:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by my friend and avid blogger Robyn in her post today. It's a fun game of questions and answers.

Where were you five years ago?
- I was working for a oilfield consulting company and commuting to down town Calgary everyday
- I moved back in with my parents which, although was meant to be temporary, turned out to be for 3 years. I loved having them as roommates and miss sharing my day to day stuff with them.
- I had a waitressing job at a friends pub which was a lot of fun and made a lot of fun memories
- I did some major growing and learning from a fairly major heart break (and funny looking back on that time now - THANK GOD FOR UNANSWERED PRAYERS!!)
- My niece Sheya was born 5 years ago this year and has graced us with her presence ever since.

Where would you like to be five years from now?
- Married with a kid(s)
- Own our perfect acreage west of Didsbury on a river/creek
- Own several rental properties
- My airbrushing business being full time (or as much as I want)
- Continuing my goal to be healthy and in shape

What was on your to-do list today?
- Get through work (ha ha)
- Mow my lawn (depending on weather)
- Get my glasses adjusted
- Get groceries
- Figure out plans for this long weekend

What snacks do you enjoy?
- cereal
- ice cream
- popcorn
- craisens
- any candy or baking

What five things would you do if you were a billionaire?
- Have my dream home, land, holiday property
- Travel anywhere I want
- Contribute my time and money towards charities and groups that I'm passionate about
- Share my wealth with friends and family and splurge on myself
- Buy a Yogen Fruz franchise so I can have frozen yogurt anytime I want!! ha ha

And I’m tagging:

Anyone who is interested, especially fellow bloggers to post on their blogs!

Pinocchio

2010-05-14T09:12:00.000-07:00

Spring has sprung
And the garage sales are on the riz
I wonder where all the deals is?

Ya, so like I said before, I’m not much of a poet. But….garage sale season is upon us. I love garage salein’. You always find the neatest things! And sometimes, when you are really lucky, you find that one specific thing that you’ve been needing (or wanting) and can get it for a steal of a deal! That’s what garage saleing is all about!!

On the other hand, you always seem to find something that you think is just AWESOME at the time and you just HAVE to have it…….only for it to be thrown in your ‘junk pile’ and end up in your garage sale next year. The old saying ‘one person’s junk is another person’s treasure’….isn’t always the case. Sometimes one person’s junk is EVERYONE’S junk. Ha ha

Anyway, I’m quite the Disney movie fan. I have quite a few in my collection, all of which are still in VHS form. Well I came across a box full of Disney movies for $1 each at a garage sale last week and just HAD to check them out. I happened to find 3 movies that I didn’t have in my collection that I was pretty excited about. I got The Fox and the Hound, Sword and the Stone, and Pinocchio.

I watched Pinocchio the very next day and had actually forgotten a lot of the story line. I was impressed with the moral of the story and thought I should share it with all of you who also don’t remember it all that well.

Well…..the Blue Fairy comes to bring Pinocchio to life. She tells him in order to become a real boy, he has to show that he’s a good boy by proving that he doesn’t give into temptation, tells the truth and shows bravery. When Pinocchio gets himself into trouble by giving into temptation, the Blue Fairy comes to help him. When she asks how he got into trouble, he lied and told her that monsters made him do it. Well, as we all know, his nose started growing as his lie grew.

When he ask the Fairy why his nose grew, she explain that a lie is as plain as the nose on your face and lies just keep growing and growing!

So there, there’s your moral story for the day!

Patience

2010-04-27T13:21:00.000-07:00

I came across this write up in a local community paper. I just love it. I think I am naturally a pretty patient person in some aspects and I strive to improve my patence in other aspects of my life. I think there are many people out there that could stand to have more patience!! Maybe this will help:

Patience is quiet hope and trust that things will turn out right. You wait without complaining. You are tolerant and accepting of difficulties and mistakes. You picture the end in the beginning and persevere to meet your goals. Patience is a commitment to the future.

You are practicing patience when you....
- Calmly tolerate a delay or confusion
- Are willing to wait for things you want
- Set goals and persevere until they are met
- Do somethig now that will helpe you inthe future
- Accept things you cannot change with humour and grac
- Are tolerant when mistakes are made

Afirmation:
I am patient. I am gentle with others and myself when we make mistakes. I wait calmly. I trust that things will turn out right.

Hallmark says it best

2010-04-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Something I strive to do is to make sure that the people important to me know how I feel about them. Unfortunetly, my deep, meaningful poem writting skills need a little fine tuning. Unless you consider this a deep meaningfull poem:

Roses are Red

Violets are purple

You're as sweet

As Maple Surple!

Anyways, I am a fan of greeting cards. I am NOT a fan of how expensive they are, but if you can find just the right card that says exactly how you feel, it is definetly worth the money and the feeling of knowing you are sharing your feelings with that special someone you are celebrating.

I quite often find the most perfect cards that I buy and keep on hand for when that certain occasion arrises.

We recently celebrated my dad's 61st birthday and I found just the right card. I couldn't have said it any better and was very happy to get to tell my dad just how I felt. I think many of us 'little girls' would agree with this card:

First guy to ever love me.
First to sweep me off my feet
or plant those scratchy whisker kisses gently on my cheek.
First man to take me seriously.
First pal I ever had.
First guy I ever gave my heart to

My daddy will always be my friend, and will always have my heart!

Mush!

2010-04-06T10:12:00.000-07:00

As much as I can, I try to expand my horizons and try new things. I've got quite a long list of things that I'd like to go and do and see, unfortunetly I need to work harder at getting them off my list rather then leaving them on the 'some day' list.

For several years, I've wanted to take in the local sled dog races hosted in Didsbury. Fortunetly, I was finally able to go and check it out this year and am so glad I did. It was very entertaining and interesting. I was surprised at the different mixes of dog breeds. I'd highly recommend anyone to go and check out the races next year.

Cowboy Knee boarding

2010-03-30T08:04:00.000-07:00

We were very fortunate this year with gorgeous weather on family. We spent the day with Dustin's family at his parents house. We all made the trek down to their coulee and spent a few hours tobogganning down the hill. It was great fun and every one of us took a turn taking at least one trip down. I took more than my share of 'turns' and was a bit sore the next day, both from wipe outs and from hiking back up the hill so many times. Here's one video of me going down backwards.

We had the horse saddled up and was pulling the kids around on the sled. When all of a sudden, I had a great idea....getting pulled behind the horse and going over some sweet jumps!!! So Dustin and I each took a few turns. This definetly turned out to be my highlight of the day.

Snow fun is sooo fun!

2010-03-18T08:07:00.000-07:00

Well, I"m finally making myself take a minute and update my blog. I apologize for my absense and thank those of you who are interested enough in reading my blog to give me a hard time for not updating it. I will do my best to stay on top of this.

So,

I am not a fan of winter, to say the least!(Notice how I didn't say hate. As per my friend Robyn, it's a cold and negative word that isn't in my best good of positive energy). Since I usually don't partake in many winter activities, I realized I don't even give myself a chance to enjoy even a portion of our everlasting freezing season. This year I made sure to do my best to enjoy winter while it was here. I did do a few activites in the snow that was a ton of fun!!

For those of you who don't know (but let's face it, only my friends and family that know me well can love me enough to bother following this blog and so already know this), I grew up right next to the Olds overpass. I remember being younger and thinkin what perfect tobogganing hills the overpass had. However, as they should, my parents wouldn't let me as it wasn't safe.

But, as Dustin put it, I am now a grown up and can make my own decisions! So, while putting the safety of myself and all Highway 2 drivers aside, I finally was able to take advantage of the perfect tobogganing hill. Or as Dustin said it, the hill with the perfect fun-to-workout ratio. Explanation: The amount of fun going down the hill is directly proportionate (and worth the effort) to the size of the hill you have to haul your tired, lazy, over dressed carcass back up each time.

We had a great time and went up and down many times, forwards, backwards, sitting, laying, kneeling, etc... We moved to one spot that was close to the big light pole so we had to keep a pretty close watch so we didn't toboggan out butts right into it.

Here's a few pics and videos.

Doing my part

2010-02-04T08:38:00.000-08:00

About 4 years ago I decided that I wanted to do more to give back. I decided one way I could do that is to donate blood. I know a lot of people are almost shocked when they know that I donate blood. They say 'I could never do that', or 'I don't like needles', or 'I don't have time'. Well my answer to that and reasoning why I decided to donate is because being scared of needles or not having time aren't options when you are the one in dire need of blood. So, praying that the day doesn't come that I'm the one that needs the blood, I will be so thankful that other people have so graciously donated, forgetting their fears and finding time in their schedules to save my life.

It's not like donating is all fun and games, but it's a sacrifice that I'm willing to make and hoping that many other people will too. I still remember how scared I was the first time that I donated. I wasn't sure what to expect and from my bad experiences with IVs during surgery, I was not looking forward to that needle. I was pleasantly surprised at how well they look after their first time donars, making sure to explain the process and make your experience as pleasant as possible. The nurses are great - I wish those nurses worked in hospitals doing IVs. They have that needle in there in no time at all!

I'm not the greatest donater. I take a long time to fill my bag. Which I think is probably a good thing for myself that I"m a slow bleeder, ha ha. And I can struggle with feeling faint afterwards, but have learned to be sure to eat and drink lots of water before donating.

Even with my little fears or experiences, I still feel donating blood is worth it to try to do a little something for someone else. Please think about donating next time a clinic is in your area or find a local clinic. It's worth it! And you'll be extra glad you did if you or anyone close to you ever needs blood.

Oh, and p.s. Drinking and eating lots after donation is a great idea too. I found out this week that an early and light supper + donating blood + early morning workout the next morning = feeling faint and queasy on the treadmill.

Happy donating everyone!!!

Positive Thinking

2010-01-19T09:11:00.001-08:00

Are you a fickle fan? Do you jump on the bandwagon when the going is good?

I don’t know if being a positive person is something that I’ve necessarily strived for, however I have been told that it is a trait that I possess and I am thankful for that. I don’t know if I have to remind myself to stay positive or if it just comes natural. Believe me, I have my moments: moments of self pity, of sadness, of defeat. However, they never seem to last very long for me. I naturally find it easy to see the bigger picture and that things could always be worse! Granted that I’ve been blessed to have an amazing life that with only minor incidents, I am a firm believer that you don’t have to look very far to see someone worse off than you.

It’s as simple as sports fans. I went to a Flames game a few weeks ago and was appalled when at the end of the game (which by the way the Flames did basically hand the win over to the opposing team) the Flames fans began booing. What kind of a fan is that? You say you love the team and you’ll be the first guy whooping it up on the Red Mile when the Flames make the playoffs, yet here, when your team just faced a defeat, you boo them for it?!?!?

The world of Facebook allows us wear our heart on our sleeves, or should I say, on our profiles. I find it so interesting to read everyone’s status. You can get a real understanding of a person’s true personality and overall outlook on life if you take a look at their status history. Are they always complaining? Do bad things ALWAYS seem to happen to them? Or are they always upbeat? Do they have positive statements and thoughts? The ones that I get the greatest kick out of are the ones that praise positive thinking when the going is good. They are thankful for everything in their life that day because it’s a good day. (Which by the way, being thankful for everything you have is the way to attract more positive energy in your life). Yet, the very next day, when the going is not so good, these people are the first to get down on life, be mad at the world and to blame everyone around them and complain about how crappy their day is, their week is, their year is!!

Want to know what I feel is the best way to attract positive energy in your life? Be thankful for what you have, even when you are feeling down. Even when things have crumbled, be thankful for what you do have, even if it’s the simplest thing: Today, I have breath!!!!

Ever start your day off bad and you say to yourself, this is going to be a crappy day. And surprise, surprise!?! The whole day turns out to be crappy! Best way to confirm a crappy day: tell everyone on Facebook! Ha ha Have you ever said to yourself, okay, that sucked, but this is going to be a good day and make a conscious effort to look forward to it being a good day.

A friend’s recent status caught my eye recently and it really struck home. Her status said ‘took off my grumpy pants’!! YAY!!! Why can’t we all do that!?!?!? I love that she acknowledged she was having a bad day and made a conscious effort to remove her ‘grumpy pants’ and to commit to making her day better. We all have ‘off’ days. So why not try this next time you are having a grumpy day. Commit to taking off your grumpy pants. Now just think how pleasant and upbeat the world would be if we could all make that commitment!!

So just some food for thought, don’t be one of those fans that jump on board only when the going is good. Be thankful for what you have when you know you have a lot. More importantly, be thankful for what you do have, even if you don’t feel like you have anything. Realize positive thinking is most important when the going is not so good. And remember thoughts are things and words have power!!!

You can decide what kind of a day you are going to have!!

What kind of energy are you going to attract today?

The Matriarch Grandmother

2010-01-13T08:03:00.000-08:00

I have been so very blessed to have grown up with both sets of grandparents. I was lucky enough to live only a few miles from my mom's parents so spent a lot of time with them. My grandparents are the most special people and are truly the pillars of our amazing, strong, fun family and have set a great example of how to live a full life with values and to respect everyone around you.

Last week my grandma, the still vibrant, active, quick-witted 84 year old suffered a stroke. She was very fortunate that it was fairly minor (in comparison to several other patients in her ward at the hospital). She's had her ups and downs and as of most recently - up! She can walk, talk and is still just as sharp as ever. She has lost use of her left arm but as of yesterday could wiggle a few fingers. We are definitely hoping for further recovery of her mobility.

**Just a side note to share her still quick witted mind, as she was sitting in a chair one day and my aunt was curling her hair, her non-mobile left arm slipped off to the side. As she was reaching over trying to grab a hold of it with her right hand, she was saying 'You get back here'!**

I was blessed to get to spend some time with grandma in the hospital. That afternoon she was very tired and was not having one of her best days. She mostly slept and I spent quite a bit of time just looking at my amazing Grandma that I love so much! I can remember her saying one day that if she's ever in the hospital, to just play with her hair. She loves it. At one point, as I was stroking her hair to help her get back to sleep, I had a weepy moment. Just thinking about her strength, her love, her understanding, her compassion and her never ending giving to all those around her. Now, in this moment, it was her turn to let someone give to her.

I came across this on a website with the posting 'The Matriarch Grandmother' by Russel Mosley and thought it was ever so fitting. She will always be the Matriarch Grandmother in our family.

The matriarch grandmother has been the glue and support of the family structure for thousands of years. Her strength exist in her ability to bring clarity to the challenges and blessings encountered by her family. She is often a silent leader. Bypassing the opportunity to pass judgment on those that have chosen to perform less than she would expect of them. Instead she offers them love and guidance during those times most needed. Encouraging the quality efforts of those that have chosen to lead their life in way that honors her expectations.

She is a proud grandmother, that will do anything for her family.

She has faith in the ability of her family to achieve greatness. Though the world may sometimes offer a difference in opinion, to her the world has no control over the ability of her family to prosper when they are joined together as one. The challenges of the world are minimized at her kitchen table. Her meals bring refuge in a way that only her family and friends have had the benefit to appreciate. Through her recipes, the sun shines brighter, the birds sing louder and the flowers bloom quicker. Even in these amazing feats, the effects of her love can still not be measured.

Through her love she shares her wisdom on such topics as finance, relationships, health and faith in a way that brings joy and hope into the lives of her family.

From her meeting place, the kitchen table, she prepares more than just meals. She shares the wisdom of life as it has always been, still is and always will be. She creates an atmosphere that makes you wish that time could both, stand still and rewind in an instance.

When you visit this matriarch grandmother, her arms are always opened wide, her smile is always shining bright and her love is always flowing. Though she will not always be physically present in our lives, what she has taught us will never die.

For many of us that have become great leaders in our lives, she was our first example of how leadership can effect another persons life.

What a blessing it has been to be a grandchild of a matriarch grandmother.

What a way to end!

2010-01-08T09:24:00.000-08:00

First of all I must apologize to all my blog followers (like the whole 2 of you that read this, ha ha) for not updating this for the past few weeks. I will however try to be better and doing regular updates.

Well another year is in the books and it was ended with another holidays season full of blessings. Dustin and I were very busy with lots of fun family gatherings. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and were joyed to get to celebrate the holiday season with them all!!

The 19th was spent with my mom's side of the family. It was our usual loud, busy, fun, food filled get-together. We had a great time catching up and had lots of laughs over our gift exchange. The new generation of kids (as my generation still feels like the kids even though most of us have their own kids) got to partake in one of my favorite activities as a kid. Being pulled on the toboggon by a real powerful, one horse power machine, ha ha My dad used to pull us behind the horse a lot when we were kids and I loved it. I'm sure he wasn't pulling the kids as fast as we used to go. There were 2 horeses and 10 kids

The 24th was spent with my family. We had a yummy lasagna meal (trying to switch up the usual traditional turkey dinner). We opened gifts and got spoiled. Played some games, watched a movie and got ready for Santa with the kids. I got to read the kids The Christmas Story before they wisked off to bed before being seen by Santa.

After watching the kids open their stocking, we headed to Dustin's parents house to spend some time with his family. The tree was overflowing with gifts. We were all spoiled! Then we headed to his aunt and uncles house in Calgary for a yummy turkey dinner.

The 26th we went to Dustin's aunt and uncles house for the famous Boxing Day party with a bunch of his family and family friends. It was heaps of fun and I can see why it's something Dustin looks forward to every year. Dustin took part in the poker game and I enjoyed a copule reall fun games that required blurting out answers. So of course I was good at that!! Any game that cane make use of my big mouth is always a good time!!! ha ha

The 27th my mom hosted my Dad's side of the family Christmas. It was great catching up with everyone that we don't see very often. And in tradition, we played a game of Scatagories. It was lots of fun with many laughs. At one point I thought my mom was going to loose it she was laughing so hard at one of Dustin's answers (it made her blush a bit).

The 28th we got to celebrate my favorite little guy! Cayden is 7!! He had a awesome cowboy themed birthday party and was spoiled rotten.

We rang in the new in year in fine style. We went to a friends place for a Super Hero themed party (which we remembered only that afternoon. Unfortunetly for me, it takes me a month to be creative. So I was Super Sport and just wore a sporty outfit with a towel as a cape. Dustin on the other hand is very creative, even last minute. He went as Captain Canada. Our other friends planned ahead and had great costumes.

Tis The Season of Giving

2009-12-22T09:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas time! They say it's the season of giving! Unfortunately, that idea has been misconstrued into spending hundreds, and even thousands of dollars on gifts for every man, woman, child and dog in your life.

I love love love giving someone just the right gift that you know they'll love and getting to watch their reaction as they open it. For me, when you find the perfect gift, price doesn't matter (to a point). Whether it's $10 or $100, it's worth it to see their reactions. However a recent conversation with a friend brought up the controversy of prices of gifts. Her lucky husband is lavished with amazing expensive gifts that are just perfect for him. For her, price doesn't matter, it's seeing the look on his face. I told her I agree, but only to a point. Because if I spend too much money just to see the happy look on their face that one day, they'll have to suffer seeing my poor sorry face the whole rest of the year because I ran out of money!!! ha ha

Where I run into struggles with the 'season of giving' is when you are suppose to buy someone a gift and you have no idea what to give them so you basically just run out and grab the best (and let's be honest, the quickest) thing that you can find. For me this totally takes away that wonderful feeling of giving. I figure you might as well just chuck their gift at them and say, 'fine, here's your damn sweater'. Isn't the idea of giving is that it's something you know will bring them joy and happiness, not because you are 'suppose' to give them something. Maybe I’m old school, but when I’m in a bind with what to give someone, I like to give them homemade baking. I’m not sure if everyone appreciates it, but to me it shows much more time and caring, then just grabbing the quickest thing at the mall as you race through it to finish your shopping. I love a homemade special baking (I can’t say the same for my hips though).

For me, the true meaning of Christmas is the gift of time. It's not just about spending money on everyone, but spending the time with family and friends. My holiday season is jam packed full of many different festive gatherings. And although it’ll be a busy run, I am so blessed that I have so many special people in my life to share it with and I look forward to each and every day this season!

I know a family that has definitely figured out the gift of time! Instead of buying a gift for whose name you draw, you are to spend a day with that person. Unfortunately, and most honestly, I’m pretty sure everyone has that one family member that they’d prefer not to have to spend a day with, ha ha. But hey, let’s be optimistic. Maybe you’d find a new found appreciate for the person they are. Anyway, this family got creative!! The mother got her sons name and since he loves pickled carrots and beans, they spent the day together pickling. The son-in-law drew his mother-in-law and knowing her adrenaline junkie side, took her zip lining. A brother-in-law drew his sister-in-law and they took a nice serene kayak trip. I just love this idea of Christmas giving!

I think there’s no better way to give the gift of giving then to volunteer your time. This is something that we can do all year round is so many different ways. Although the holiday season is a time that volunteering is definitely in need. For the past 2 years I have been blessed to volunteer with the Olds and District Christmas Angels. They work all year gathering food, clothes, toys and supplies for those in need. I helped out yesterday as people came in to pick up their pre-packed and organized hampers as well as delivering hampers to those unable to come and pick up. I love the feel of knowing you are helping to help make this a special Christmas for them and their family! It warms your heart as you bring in the many boxes full for them and seeing their look of amazement and gratitude on their faces. My goal for 2010 is to do more volunteering throughout the year!

My mom’s side of the family has come up with an idea that I love. We enjoy the gift of giving and of the time spent with each other. Instead of doing the usual Pirates (or Chinese) gift exchange each year, where we'd all spend $20 to attempt to find just the right thing for whoever may end up with your gift, only for everyone to come home with some piece of crap that we'd never use and ends up in our garage sale pile. Now, instead of throwing away our $20 on something useless, we pool all our money together and make a donation. Each year, one family gets to choose where the money is donated to. This year it's been donated to Medic Canada to provide micro loans to people in Africa. As well, because my family still enjoys the time spent with us all in one room (with 35ish people, that doesn’t always happen) and fun of a friendly competitive gift exchange, we've kept it to something homemade or from your house, to alleviate the costs. Some of the top gifts this year were homemade ice cream, tarts, chocolates, Baileys and lots of yummy baking. This year I hit the jackpot (at least I think I did) and came home with a bunch of canning!! I can’t wait to dive into my pickled carrots.

So, as the festive season arrives, please remember the true meaning of Christmas. Take the time to spend quality time with those that you love. Give to those that are less fortunate. And above all, be thankful for all that you have. We don’t have to look far to realize there’s someone worse off than yourself. It’s amazing; the best way to improve your situation, boost your spirit and to find true joy is to give to others and count all the wonderful blessings in your life.

Merry Christmas to you all! Thank you for being in my life!

Mother Natures Wonder

2009-12-07T12:25:00.000-08:00

Well, us Albertans were at the mercy of Mother Nature once again. It put a huge damper on my plans. I had a sparkling clean house, fully decorated and my party was cancelled due to the weather. So I enjoyed my fancy clean house to myself Friday night instead.

Although Mother Nature can cause havoc for us, I can't help but marvel at the power and beauty. With all the snow and the strong winds, I think we all were shocked to see some of the crazy snow drifts that were left for us to find Saturday morning.

After shovelling my way out Saturday morning (for the second time), we took a walk around were in awe at all the snow! It was a funny wind this weekend because there were drifts in places that I don't think I've ever seen before at my place. It was quite entertaining checking them all out.

Here are a few of the photos we took. The first 2 is of a drift right at the corner of the pen/driveway. It was just about over Dustin's head and was almost 2 feet above the fence! Crazy!

This is one out in the horse pen - yucky cold wind still blowing!

Truisms

2009-12-01T07:59:00.000-08:00

I got this email today and it cracked me up! Hopefully it will make you giggle too when you realize how many of them are true:

1. There is a great need for sarcasm font.
2. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
3. Bad decisions make good stories.
4. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
5. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
6. The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.
7. The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again
8. A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
9. Was learning cursive really necessary?
10. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
11. Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
12. Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
13. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
14. Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"
15. What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
16. While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.
17. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
18. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.
19. I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
20. Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
21. If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
22. Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
23. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
24. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
25. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
26. 'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
27. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
28. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
29. I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
30. Why is a school zone 15 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...
31. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
32. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
33. It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
34. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.
35. I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college

Science Experiment - Conclusion

2009-11-19T09:20:00.000-08:00

Well after actually 3 weeks of my science experiement, here are my findings:

Observation: Although my control wasn't quite as controlled as I had planned (I never seem to be able to get to bed a regular time. Plus throw in some fun weekend nights - it's impossible), I feel that I did notice a difference. Also, another variable that I didn't count on was doing work outs in the morning. My goal is to get up and walk/run everymorning. However this never seemed to happen as often as I'd like, as it it only happened 3 times in the last 3 weeks, ha ha, oops! However I do feel that it played a part in my energy levels for those day. Days that I decided I"d get up as soon as my alarm went off were reletively easy to get out of bed. Days that I was going to snooze, even after 3, 4 or even sometimes 5 snoozes, I still was having to drag my ass out of bed. It just never seemed like enough.

Results: I believe there is a difference in how much I struggled to get out of bed when I got out of bed at first alarm as opposed to snoozing numerous times.

Conclusion: After my extension and labour intensive experiment (ha ha, ya right), I have come to the conclusion that snoozing is infact a FOE. Although at the time it feels glorious and you feel like you are really cheating the system by getting to sleep longer than planned (where in reality it is totally planned because I set my alarm so that I can have a distinct number of snoozes before I really have to get up and get ready so I"m not late for work - therefore, this whole process may start an hour earlier than I actually need to wake up), I feel that snoozing does not increase energy levels or limit my sleepyness for the day. And, even though I've snoozed and unrealistically made myself feel like I got extra sleep, I still struggle to drag my carcass out of bed when it's time for me to really get up. So what did I gain. That last hour of snoozing interuppted my last good hour of sleep.

When I set my alarm for the correct time and knew I was getting up right away, I didn't have a sense of regret for having to leave my warm cozy bed and start my day the same way as if I had snoozed. It just was! It wasn't a struggle! My carcass found it much easier to get it's self up and at'em!

My energy levels and tiredess throughout the day didn't seem to depend on the snooze, or not to snooze. They seemed to coincide with simply how much sleep I got. And just like 'they' say (does anyone ever wonder who 'they' are....I'd like to be a 'they' someday I think, you'd get to take so much credit for things although that means you'd also get blamed for many things as well, oh well), 8 hours of sleep is best!! This girl definetly needs her beauty sleep (you don't think I just naturally look this good do you, ha ha)

Anyways, thanks for partaking in my experiment for you commenters. Would love to hear more comments on your snoozing, or no snoozing habits. Do you get a full 8 hours of sleep?

10km walk = 2 day sore to walk

2009-11-09T15:19:00.000-08:00

Sunday afternoon, Dustin and I set out for a 10km walk along the Bow River in Calgary for 2 reasons:

#1 as a finish to an activity challenge that I participated in this summer and in order to receive my winnings for being the activity challenge winner!!!! (yay for me and yay for $$$$$)

and #2 because we need to get our buts in shape which is the reason that Dustin came along. I think he may be a little miffed that he doesn't get in on the contest winnings which in all honestly he maybe should get a portion as he did accompany me on a hike trip and a bike trip so we'll see. Maybe I'll give him a few dollars to buy himself something nice. ha ha Or, maybe having a slimmer girlfriend is enough of a payback. ha ha

It was a pretty chilly day but we dressed up and headed off. It was a beautiful walk along the river with lots of good people watching. As an added bonus, it gave us a chance to have a chat along the way. For us, that's not much of a problem, we are talkers so spend a fair amount of time just 'catching up' on eachothers lives (I know most of you are laughin and thinkin this is bound to change down the road especially once kids are involved). However I can see this being an awesome activity for every couple. I believe that all too often our regular day pace of life makes us tend to push aside spending time and just talking with the one we love. Going for a walk together is a perfect chance to do that. You can get active, enjoy being outside and you have nothing better to do but to catch up on eachothers lives and just visit - like friends, rather than like roommates and parents. I think it's times like that when we force ourselves to slow down and enjoy life - that we can keep our souls happy, and inturn create better relationships in our lives.

Now being that neither of us have been doing much physical activity recently (as in we are lazy bums), we were sure to stretch at the beginning, stretch and the middle and stretch at the end of our walk. We had a turn back point (bridge) that could have cut our walk shorter, but once we reached it we were still feelin spry and figured we could continue on the whole way. About 4 km left, our bodies started 'speaking' to us. At about 2 km left, our bodies started 'screaming' at us. We decided to try a little jog to get other muscles moving and that did help for a bit - until our out of shape lungs started 'speaking' to us to!! For the last 1km we were definetly feeling it in our legs. We spent most of that last km talking about how glad we were that we did this. How great it'll feel to be done, how we're going to try to increase our activity levels from now on. This positive thinking helped us make it back to the car! The warm car! Even though I had my heart rate up, I still had frozen fingers and a body chill that was tough to shake!

We did it! And we're proud of it! We realized that we definetly need to get into better shape and increase our activity levels. Hopefully we can stick to that plan and come spring (more enjoyable walking weather) we can do our 10km walk again and see how far we've come!

2 halloweens, 2 costumes, 2 times the fun!

2009-11-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

Well I had another awesome halloween. We went out both nights, which in my world, meant 2 costumes!!

Friday night we went to a family/community dance in Airdrie. We dressed up as trailer trash/hillbillys. Dustin's costume was awesome. Even his own family hardly recognized him. I got a few evil looks at the bar where we went for a quick drink aftewards so obviously my pregnant belly looked somewhat real. It was lots of fun watching the kids dressed up and having fun dancing.

Saturday night we went to a friends housewarming/halloween party. He went all out on decorations and had his DJ lights, music, strobe light and fog machine set up to totally set the creepy, spooky halloween mood. Dustin put on a mask and sat at the bottom of the steps to scare all the innocent treak or treaters. It was great to watch the kids enjoy (and be frightened) by it all.

I dressed up as an 80's work out chick and Dustin dusted off his old Boy Scout uniform (well only some of the orgininal uniform). They were fun costumes. I loved my hair and makeup.

Our friend Thomas had the best costume. He dressed up as the boys' hero: Captain Morgan:

The weekend was wrapped up with Dustin's neice and brother-in-law's birthday supper which was lots of fun. So it was an awesome Halloween weekend! I'm already looking forward to next year - thinking of what I can dress up as. I hope you all had a spooktacular weekend as well!

Science Experiment

2009-11-03T08:56:00.000-08:00

For me, the toughest part of the day is that moment when you have to make yourself get up out of bed. So I usually end up pressing snooze for 2 or 3 times, putting off the enevitable. But I've wondered if it's really doing me any good, or is it making me feel worse in the long run. So I decided to do a little experiment.

Questions: SNOOZE BUTTON - FRIEND OR FOE? Does pressing snooze on your alarm clock in the morning actually leave you feeling more rested?

Hypothesis: After being a cronic snooze pusher for many years now, I'm starting to question if it allows for longer, more restful sleep, or does it in fact leave you feeling dopy, drowsy and low on energy to start your day. I am starting to think it's the latter of the two is true.

Variables: snooze, or no snooze

Control: I will go to bed at the same time each night, allowing for the equal number of hours of sleep

Materials: Bed, alarm clock

Procedure: For one week I will get up way my alarm first goes off. For the second week I will hit snooze 3 times before waking up.

Oberservation: stay tuned to my observation in a future post

Results: stay tuned to my observation in a future post

Conclusion: stay tuned to my observation in a future post

I'd love to hear any comments you may have. Are you a snoozer? Do you bounce right up? Notice a difference one way or the other?

Happy Happy Halloween

2009-10-30T08:18:00.000-07:00

The day is finally here!

As my blog title says, I love 'living life' and having fun! I am definetly a big kid and halloween is a time that I think let's your inner child come out to play!!. Although I think my inner child comes out to play way too much sometimes (future blog to come: Dustin and I playing on a kids playground one afternoon). Even if you are a poised, cool, collected individual (which I certainly am not, ha ha), Halloween let's you be who ever you want to be and just let loose and have fun!!

I usually start my costume planning several months in advance. One reason being is for several years, I've sewn my own costume and considering I'm no professional seamstress - it takes me quite a while. I thought I'd go through my halloween picture collection of the last few years to share with you some of my costumes. Recent years have been more of a 'throw my costume together the week before'.

(On the left) Last year there was a group of us that went as farm anaimals. I was the sheep. There was also a chicken, donkey, pig and the farmer was missing. This picture doesn't show my outfit very well, but I had a dress made of cotton batting. (On the right) I'm a cave women. I had to laugh, that year there were quite a few ladies dressed as cave women or Pebbles. They were all cute, and pretty and dolled right up. I took it to a whole new level with crazy, wild, teased hair, blacked out teeth, dirt all over my body and a cow rib that I carried around.

(Left) Bar wench - probably one of my most favorite costumes I've made. (Right) Pregnant hillbilly - and I actually had a bartender ask me if I was really pregnant when I ordered a beer.....ya, and this baby I'm shaking on the dance floor is real too!?!??!?!?

(Left) 70's Chick - complete with a real hair piece my aunt used to wear. (Right) Chiquita Banana - I quite love how this outfit that I made turned out. Except that fruit headpiece was a pain in the a$$ to keep on.

(Left) Another 70's chick. (Right) Geisha - this is also one of my favorite outfits I made, although the white makeup was kinda itchy.

Stay tuned for this years pictures. I am so excited because I'm going to 2 halloween parties this weekend so of course figured that was an excuse to have 2 different costumes.

Hopefully in the next few years to come I can get back to sewing costumes as I still have patters for a Flapper girl and a Fairy!

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Let your inner child out!

This Is It

2009-10-28T08:24:00.000-07:00

This is it!!

I will be the first to admit, I’m not exactly an avid Michael Jackson fan – other than being a fan of his major hits and his oh so famous dance moves. Dustin won tickets to the preview of his show ‘This Is It’. Now this isn’t something that I would have probably paid money for, and yes, I did feel a bit guilty in going and feeling that way when there are some real diehard fans that can’t wait to get that final glimpse of such a renowned and controversial entertainer.

The footage was from rehearsals of the big production he was planning for this past summer as his farewell tour slated for 50 shows in London. Unfortunately, as we all know, that final curtain was closed all too soon. The show geared to be an amazing exhibition of lights, smoke, props, and the best of his best songs and of course, the King of Pop’s legendary dance moves – and man could he still move!! I don’t think there’s a dancer that hasn’t incorporated at least one of MJ’s branded dance moves. Who doesn’t recognize the moon walk, the crotch grab, and the theatrical Thriller dance? I still intend to learn that dance some day. Wouldn’t that be awesome to break out into the real Thriller dance moves at the next wedding your at!! Ha ha, I love it!

He definitely was a different character. Watching his interactions and his conversations with those around him was a great insight into the type of person I think he was – pretty much what I had envisioned of him. Despite all the controversy around this man, he did seem to be very grateful for those around him and to be doing what he loved! He changed the world of pop and dance forever! And for MJ, this final curtain call was appropriately named ‘This Is It’. That’s all she wrote folks!

P.S. From what I hear from stories from Dustin’s family, when he was about 10 years old he wore a hat similar to what MJ always sported for about 2 years straight – even if family photos, he had to have the hat on! I might have to track one of those pictures down for a display with this posting.

New Road

2009-10-27T15:58:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone....or no one (depends on who's reading this)!
Let me introduce myself. I am a virgin blogger. I have read and follow several blogs and decided this might be a road for me to try!

I don't know if I have anything to offer to anyone reading this other than simply myself - my life, my stories, my lessons I've learned, and my weird daily thoughts and experiences. I've had quite a few people comment on how they enjoy finding out what I'm up to Facebook. I try to get out and about and try new things, find new adventures and to just enjoy life the best I can. So that's what I thought I could write about.
So we'll see where this goes and what I come up with to talk about! Thanks for reading!

2009-10-27T15:54:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone....or no one (depends on who's reading this)!

Let me introduce myself. I am a virgin blogger. I have read and follow several blogs and decided this might be a road for me to try!

I don't know if I have anything to offer to anyone reading this other than simply myself - my life, my stories, my lessons I've learned, and my weird daily thoughts and experiences. I've had quite a few people comment on how they enjoy finding out what I'm up to Facebook. I try to get out and about and try new things, find new adventures and to just enjoy life the best I can. So that's what I thought I could write about.

So we'll see where this goes and what I come up with to talk about! Thanks for reading!