Cabin Getaway

This last weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to head out to the cabin with Cole. My last hang out time with him was May 9th. A Kara-Cole day was long overdue. It was a great weekend to be at the lake. The whole family was out for at least a day (Courtney's family included). That was a first this year so far. The weather was glorious - sun the whole time - my shoulders and upper back are a testament to that as I have turned a beautiful shade of red. As Sabrina described it to me this morning, I had an all out make-out session with the sun - there was no gentle sun kissed glow about me :) She is completely right!


The water was on the cooler side, but that did not stop any of us from spending a good chunk of time in there. I was definitely in there the least. I believe the word chicken was used to describe me on numerous occasions.


Derek and Courtney made a second attempt at putting the dock in. Last weekend they marked where the anchor was left and so this last weekend the dock was officially anchored down. I found it quite humerus that everyone hopped on the dock hoping that one person would brave the chilly water to push everyone else out. I stood on the shore and chuckled. And they call me the chicken! haha.

Eventually someone suggested that they all kick to propel themselves out. It didn't take them long to realize that wasn't going to be effective. I believe Derek finally chose to suck it up and push the dock out.

Frogs were caught:

We spent a ton of time outside - one of the first weekends I have been out there and was able to spend as much time as desired outside. Beautiful.

By the time Sunday night rolled around, we were all exhausted - including the dog. Despite the exhaustion we all felt, I think it was safe to say that it was a weekend well spent. What made it even better was the Cole could join us. It was neat to see how much my family had missed him (it had been since January since they last saw him). Hopefully there will be at least one more Kara-Cole weekend at the cabin this summer.

To Be Loved

My friend Carolyn had this video on her blog and it touched my heart today. It just happened to be exactly what I needed to hear. It's a day where I am craving to love and be loved with hopeful expectation that I will one day be someone's Cinderella.

Summer Goodness

Life has been a whirlwind of activity as of late and the time set aside for blogging has been scarce. The beautiful weather we have had in the past week has made me want to do anything else but blog, but with the rain drizzling and the wind gusting outside, blogging seems to be a perfect activity for the morning. A warm cup of coffee. A hot bowl of oatmeal. Sitting inside where it's warm and cozy. It's perfect.

Most weekends have been spent out at the cabin. They have been wonderful weekends full of puzzles, lots of reading - "Girl Meets God" to be exact and enjoying the sun on the deck (although the colour in my skin might not give evidence to that last point).

Derek & Courtney had the pleasure of being selected to put the dock in this year. Unfortunately the day they chose to do that, the water was dreadfully cold. I think Derek's facial expression says it all! In the end they just marked where the anchor was and will attempt to actually put the dock in this next weekend when the water is hopefully many degrees warmer :)

The book in the above picture is an incredible book. I highly recommend it. More on that another day.

Getting Hitched

After 7 years of dating, my brother Kevin and his girlfriend, Dominika got engaged this last weekend. We are all pretty excited around these parts and are looking forward to the wedding planning that is to come in the next year. The wedding is set for July 2010.

And this is the ring.

Congratulations Kevin and Dominika!

Canada Day Goodness

I must admit that my patriotic duties were not stellar yesterday. I didn't wear red. I didn't wave any Canadian flags. I did not paste any temporary flag tattoos on my cheeks. I didn't attend any big street festival or any other large gathering with fellow Canadians. I did not watch any fireworks. Instead I celebrated Canada's 142nd birthday in Kristy's backyard, sitting by the pool while the kids played and enjoyed good food and conversation.

That being said, we did make an honest attempt at joining the rest of Winnipeg at Assiniboine Park during the afternoon, but we all agreed that to fight the sheer madness of car line-ups and pushing our way through the copious amounts of people was just not worth free admission to the zoo. I'd sooner pay the $8 (or whatever it costs now) to go to the zoo on a non-crazy day. Our sanity is definitely worth that extra $8.

The weather was perfect. We enjoyed ice cold glasses of Coke on the grass and watched as some favorite people delighted in the fact that they could play in the pool together.

Not only was the pool good for swimming in, but it also served as a grape & cracker washer and a drinking bowl.

I'm always up for good fireworks, but by the time 10:30pm rolled around, I was spent. I climbed into bed a tad earlier than the rest of the city, but so glad that I did because I fell asleep instantly as my head hit the pillow.
Our day was not filled with your typical Canada Day festivities, but that's ok by us. We had a great anyways, just laying low. Now, bring on the weekend!

Shopped till we dropped

To sum up this past weekend in one word would be SPECTACULAR. There was not one moment that was bad (ok, maybe the rainy and cloudy weather sucked hey Kristen). I'm pretty sure that if you looked up spectacular in the dictionary, it would read as the following:

Spectacular (spec·tac·u·lar): To spend a weekend with wonderful girlfriends shopping, drinking Starbucks, finding great deals and meaningful conversation.

This particular weekend of goodness began promptly at 6pm when I walked out of work to pick up Aimee & Hayley and Kristen. We made a brief pit stop at McDonalds for some supper before heading out to Rosenort for the night. And just as a little side note, in case you think a large drink and fries is the one you get with a meal, it's not. In fact, it's the medium fries and drink you get. I learned that the hard way and ended up having A LOT of coke to finish - not entirely a bad thing, but nonetheless not what I was expecting.

Now, one might be thinking, why stay in Rosenort for the night??? The first reason was that's where we needed to drop some children off and secondly, there are some mighty fine people in that town. Rather then spending money on a hotel that none of us could really afford, we shacked up with some parents instead. I had the wonderful privilege of getting to meet Sabrina's mom and dad-in-law. They were absolutely delightful right from the moment I walked in their door. It felt as though I had known them forever. What warm and inviting people. They kindly let me spend the night with Sabrina and Gavin at their place and we had a great time chatting, playing cards and eating their yummy snacks. Plus, they got up extra early just to make us pancakes, bacon and strong coffee. It really doesn't get much better than that (and apparently Sabrina and I aren't hard to please :).

At 8:10am, Kristen rolled up in the van her parent's graciously allowed us to borrow and we began our day trip to Grand Forks.

Once we got to Grand Forks, we hit the ground running. Target, Gordmans, Old Navy, Kohl's and the mall provided us with great deals and fun new clothes.

Now this is the way coffee was intended to be drunk.

Hayley was such a little trooper. At only 6 weeks old she proved to be quite the little shopper (we like to train them early). And even when she did get a little tired or hungry, how can you be annoyed with a face like hers??


The purpose of this trip was to celebrate Kristen's birthday. Her wish was to go shopping and we thought Polo Park or St. Vital just wasn't good enough. Grand Forks would be much better. For supper, we let the birthday girl pick and she picked good. We hit up Space Aliens. Don't let the name deceive you because their fries are awesome. The best part was definitely all the dipping sauces you could get with your fries. We definitely indulged.

This was a common sight throughout the day. We tend to laugh an awful lot with each other. Just think happy thoughts, right guys!

As the rain started to come down hard we made our trek home. When we got to the border, the guard sent us inside to pay our duty. However, once we got in, the kind man (who also happened to be good looking) let all of us off the hook without having to pay, except Kristen. Kristen spent by far the most money, but he only made her pay taxes rather than the duty. That made my day! I think that having a baby sleeping in the van, 5 good looking girls walking into the building, a 30th birthday girl and crossing at 10:30 pm definitely helped in his decision to let us all go without paying. We literally shopped until we dropped. I fell into bed at 1:15am, exhausted, yet overjoyed after a most wonderful day.

Thanks ladies for the fun time. Kristen, thanks for having a birthday and giving us a reason to go shop for a day.

Randomness

HAVE YOU:
1. Travelled → I have seen a lot of the U.S. and Western Canada and some caribbean places but I have a passion and a desire to see the world. 
2. What is your weakness → Shopping. I can unfortunately justify buying a new outfit, however I am trying to change my ways. I must admit though that there is nothing like some retail therapy to make your day a little better.
3. Laughed until you cried → yes. Just put Kristy, Kristen, Sabrina, Aimee and I together and that is bound to happen.
4. Met someone who changed you →I have had some pretty amazing people come into my life: Sandra, Carolyn, Mary, My girls (Sabrina, Kristy, Kristen & Aimee). Those are just to name a few. Telling you how these women changed my life would take a very long time, so just trust me when I say that these women are absolutely wonderful.
5. Found out who your true friends were → there is no doubt in my mind.
6. How many kids do you want to have → 3 or 4
7. Do you have any pets → my puppy Bailey and my cat Kitty
8. Do you want to change your name → growing up I always wanted to change it to something that could be shortened. I always wanted to be Mackenzie so that people could call me Mack. Now I really don't care.
9. What did you do for your last birthday → on the actual day I didn't do anything significant, but a few weeks later my wonderful friends threw me a Mexican themed party. It was delightful.
10. What time did you wake up today → 10ish
11. What were you doing at midnight last night → laying in bed watching Sex & the City desperately wanting to fall asleep.

12.Name something you CANNOT wait for → Summer drinks on a patio and to find the love of my life. 
13. Last time you saw your father→ this morning 
14. What is one thing you wish you could change about yourr life → I sometimes wish I could be more content at where I am at in life so that I can enjoy the good things around me.
15. What are you listening to right now → the TV - Ellen Degeneres - oh I love her.
16. What's getting on your nerves right now? → my aching head, neck and jaw. I wonder what it would be like to be completely pain free.
17. Most visited webpage → facebook and mls.ca (I love to look at houses and see how people decorate and dream about the house I could one day buy).

THE BASICS:
18. Nicknames → Missy, Care (only my friend Jenn calls me that). Kara really isn't a good shortening name, so I am basically Kara 
19. Relationship Status → single 
20. High school you attended → MBCI
21. Hair color → blonde - although it is getting darker as I get older.
22. Long or short → on the shorter side - between my ear and shoulder
23. Height → 5'10
24. Do you have a crush on someone? → Nope, but I am pretty fond of my little man G.
25: What do you like about yourself? → I know who I am and I know what I want in life. Whether those "plans" always work out the way I want is another story.
26. Piercings → nose. I have one ear pierced from when I was 2 but the other ear gets infected so it's closed up. 
27. Tattoos → yup. My low back. I am getting ready for another one soon.
28. Righty or lefty → righty 

FIRSTS :
22. First surgery → havent had surgery
23. First piercing → ears
24. First best friends → Amy or Leanne.
25. First sport → Soccer. I am proud to say that I was not one of those kids who picked dandelions on the field. I was and still am far too competitive for that.
26. First vacation→ We  have always gone to Minneapolis at least once a year since I was very little. My first big vacation was to the Dominican Republic when I was in grade 12.
27. First concert → Backstreet Boys in Grade 7. It was the Backstreet's Back tour. I died and went to Heaven that night.
28. First crush - I have no idea.

29. First Love - I have never been in love (at least not with a boy).

RIGHT NOW:
30. Eating → a fresh baked blueberry muffin. Thanks mom!
31. Drinking → a Latte with 2 raw sugars from Mountain Bean. Thanks again mom!
32. I'm about to → I have parked my butt on the couch for the afternoon. I am hoping that I will doze off soon for a much needed nap.
33. Listening to → Ellen on Tv.
34. Waiting for → my head and neck to relax a bit so that I can get comfortable.

YOUR FUTURE :
35. Want kids? → definitely.
36. Want to get married? → yes
37. Careers in mind? → I already have an awesome job as a Massage Therapist. If I could do anything though I would love to be a personal shopper.

HAVE YOU:

38. Lost someone special? → yes - my Grandpa
39. Been depressed? → yes since grade 9 
40. Been drunk and threw up? → unfortunately yes. 18th birthday and teaching sunday school the next morning is not a good mix and not one of my proudest moments.

41. Broken someone's heart → i hope not 
42. Had your own heart broken → sure, but not due to a relationship with a boy.
43. Cried when someone died → Oh yes.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
44. Yourself → At times. 

45. Miracles → yes. I think you have to otherwise life can seem pretty grim at times.
46. Heaven → Yes. I am hoping to meet a couple of people when I get there. 
47. Santa Claus → no although it's kind of a fun idea.
48. God or a Higher Power? → God. No question about it.

FAVORITES:

49. Drink - Latte's and almost anything in the form of coffee.

50. Food - Vereneki with white sauce. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

51. Movie - Sex & the City

52. Band - Backstreet Boys

53. Memory - summers at the lake with my grandparents - just the 3 of us. A close second are some of the times spent with my girls laughing until we are crying. 

54. TV Show - There are a bunch of them: Gilmore Girls, Alias, Ellen, Grey's Anatomy, Sex & the City, What Not To Wear, Criminal Minds, Numb3rs

55. Hobbies - I love to take pictures. I would love to take a photography course sometime. Cake decorating. Drinking coffee and having good conversation with friends. Puzzles.

56. Subject - I loved english in high school but since graduating from Massage Therapy I have a new respect for science - specifically anatomy. The human body is an incredible and intricate thing. I don't know how people can say there is no God.