birthday thoughts...

twenty four is not a banner year for anyone is it? what happens when you're twenty-four? you're not a person yet. you can already drink, vote and be drafted. i suppose twenty-four is what you make of it. i intend to become a stronger person by taking on more challenges with the little things that bring me much anxiety: driving standard, working during school, taking transit. and also become stronger where i have weaknesses: judging people (although this was one of my favorites for twenty-three), being loyal to my friends, thinking about this year rather than twenty-five, letting go (wow, i'm angry alot). here's to being more than i was at twenty-three.

(thank you to all who participated in making me feel special this year. i got phone calls from kate, mom, (actually, i phoned both of them), messages and cards and money from dad and gma bonnie, an email from nanna and poppy, money from mom and bruce, flowers from the wine club, clothes from kate, and from my best friends (shawn, nicole and andrew) the first five seasons of the gilmore girls. oh, but i am a happy camper. and we (s & s, nicole, andrew, phil, sandra, brody, nic and mia) went for brunch at the river cafe that i blogged about before. so scrumptious. much was consumed including red fife and buttermilk pancakes, elk bacon benedict, and pear, brie and leek quiche. to top off the day we had a recording session with the choir and then shawn and i watched the first three episodes of the gilmore girls before going to bed. i am blessed. thank you.)

so, i loved it

we just came home from andrew's final performance with the emerging artist development program through the calgary opera, otherwise known as opera camp. we were privileged to see him in the brother's grimm in march and he was amazing. he played three characters in the main story and a couple more in the stories within the story and they were all completely different. what a superb actor. if he could dance, he would be a triple threat. actually, he can dance. okay, he's a triple threat.

tonight was so fantastic, not only on his part, but all of the voices in the program were phenomenal. truly, i have very few words actually forming to describe what i heard this evening because you just should have been there. look for this name in opera: michelle minke. she is my new crush and she reminds us a lot of emma love. i also really love dionne sellinger. i feel like i will sleep better tonight knowing that all of those voices are out in the world and making it such a better place. thank you andrew for exposing me to all these wonderful things, for sharing the wisdom that you have and for inspiring me to make the world a wonderful place like you do.

goodbye hyrule

tonight i said goodbye to a world that i have spent the better part of two months in. i hacked and sliced my way through countless monsters spawned by a malice so strong that it nearly destroyed both Shadow and Light. i solved mind twisting puzzles, beat numerous mini-games and, yes, i even made a few friends along the way. all of the blood and sweat; all of the pain and sorrow; all of the fear and terror came to a head tonight as, with one final blow from the master sword, i kicked evil's ass; banishing it from the shores of hyrule. i also saved two gorgeous princesses (and yes...both love me). it was a long and beautiful road worth every minute of the 65 hours it took. i am sad to say goodbye...but that world will always be in my dreams. goodbye hyrule. long live Princess Zelda and Princess Midna.

p.s. i apologize to anyone who didn't know that midna was a princess...spoilers suck.

p.p.s. i apologize to anyone who didn't know that i am a huge nerd...sorry?

best burger ever

haptee easter! we had the best weekend. friday we hung out with andrew and rearranged stuff in our house (got a new desk from someone at church--it's pretty sweet). saturday we hung out some more with andrew and phil and then later went to nicole's to watch best in show and play music scene-it. very good times. sunday we went on a hike with rew and then to dinner at mama love's. from there shawn and i checked into the sheraton suites for the night. yay for having a change of scene and totally spoiling ourselves.

some highlights: we wanted snacks, but the in-suite snack bar was way too spensive so we walked over to the movie theatre and they let us buy popcorn and candy which we brought back to our room and ate while watching the holiday--a very good movie. then we went for a swim (with a water slide), ordered room service and watched sabrina which was on t.v. (i love that movie). this morning we went for another swim and then went to the river cafe for breakfast which turned out to be lunch.

for those who haven't heard of this cafe, it lives in prince's island park in the middle of the bow river. what food! seriously, my new favorite restaurant/greatest restaurant of all time. i haven't been that satisfied with a meal in ever. i had a buffalo burger with feta, apples and some other awesome stuff on it served with chick pea fries and a red pepper aioli sauce reduction. to drink i had a rosemary something-or-other lemonade--very refreshing and interesting. shawn had shrimp flat bread and coffee that was refreshed ever five sips. the place smells like a campfire. what could be better than that. all who live in calgary must go. all who visit calgary must go. no more words. i'll just sit here with my memories.

the end of an era

honestly, i don't even know if i can talk about this yet, but i'm going to try. henric resigned from rocky. he won't be returning in the fall because the whole family will be moving to the states so that robin can get her masters in vocal performance. it is totally the right decision for them. she is at a great age to really go after her career and it's her turn to follow her dreams. henric showed us all to pursue our dreams and we knew someday that their dreams would take them from us.

i will not attempt to say here what henric and robin have meant to us because i need to come down from the shock still and because i think it would be best communicated through a letter being that sobbing and words don't do well together in my mouth.

let me say some selfish thoughts: this will mark the end of an era in our lives. we are not the first to let go of that era, but the others chose to end it. although, i was wondering when we would be strong enough to make that choice for ourselves and i don't know if i would have been able to again. i am seeing that this will force me to truly accept my path as my own. without henric to cheer me on i will have to believe in myself and not in his belief in me. it is forcing me to commit to my choice and to see that he has already given me all of the tools that i could need to pursue it. i feel like a baby bird being pushed out of the nest. and i'm just so incredibly sad that they won't be here to see me fly.

freaking nuts, man...

i cannot begin to describe the weird/confusing/terrifying/surreal feeling of staring at your wife's positive pregnancy test. it was too overwhelming, so let me do my best to relay to you the thoughts that ran through my head:

uhhh...what?...what does this mean?...what's happening?...what's going to be happening?...what does that blue plus sign mean?...pregnant?...what?...no...uhhhh... what do we do...shit...get a second test...who will it look like?...shit...how accurate is that test?...99%...shit that's accurate...is it too late to call a doctor?...how did this happen?...of course she's pregnant...boy or girl?...would it be weird to have sex right now?...shut up...get a second test...sweet...this is so predictable...maybe we'll have sex later...looks like i'm a janitor for the next 5 years...put on your pants and get a second test...99%?...dave and katie had a baby and they're okay...wait for the second test...how the hell did this happen?...steph and jackie had babies and they're okay...don't panic...wait for the second test...katie and alan are having a baby...wait for the second test...ollie, i'm so sorry...wait for the second test...WHAT!!!?

it was freaking nuts, man. really, really freaking nuts.

by the way, in case you didn't read the previous post, it was all a joke...a very frightening and very funny (eventually) april fool's day joke.

ta ta...

so awesome

i have to give a huge thank you to mrs. mia drost and her sister mrs. heidi rousseau for helping me to brilliantly execute a prank on sweet unsuspecting shawn. can you guess? only if you know heidi, i suppose, and you know that she is pregnant. it's true. she took a pregnancy test and then i let shawn think that it was mine. thank you for the very clever idea and for peeing on a stick for the zillionith time.

a brief synopsis:
once mia shared the idea with me i started commenting to shawn how i was worried that we might be pregnant because of certain circumstances ::ahem:: earlier in the month. i told him that i was going to take a test. then i left the positive test sitting on the bathroom sink and went to the bedroom. shawn went in to brush his teeth and asked me if the test was done and how do you tell what it is. i told him and he said "uhhh" and then brought it to me. i let it go until we were re-dressed with coats and shoes on heading to the car to buy another test to confirm. then i said "april fool's!". it was just awesomely fantastic. thank you hunter sisters for making my april fool's day.

also

they grow up so fast. i miss my nuggets.

keeping it up

totally saw blades of glory last night. it was awesome. i thought it would be funny because i'm always happy with will ferrell's work, but this was hilarious. actually, i shouldn't have said that because now a bunch of you will have high expectations and then you might be disappointed. i didn't mean it. it really wasn't that great. still, you should see it. and we went to earl's for brett's birthday. he turns twenty-five today. what a man. i'm going to earl's again today for a celebratory debriefing of the concert. i'm kind of sick of earl's.

and there are pictures up from the concert on our site. and i gave it a better link so that you don't go to that first ugly page anymore. you'll see...