A Bittersweet Farewell

As I write this post, my dear friend Jenn from school is making the long trek with her 3 year old daughter to Whitehorse, Yukon. I was able to hang out with her for about an hour yesterday, say our goodbyes and catch up a bit, which was very nice, but I am sad to see her go.

Jenn is a very neat woman. She possesses such strength and courage - it's unbelievable. I know that for myself, if I were the one contemplating travelling 3000 miles to relocate my family I probably wouldn't do it. I like my routine. I admire Jenn's desire for adventure. Don't get me wrong, she still has some unsettling thoughts from time to time, but the overall experience of moving to a new place intrigues her and gets her excited. I love that about her. So although moving away from Winnipeg means that I will miss Jenn's presence terribly, I am also pumped for the new and exciting opportunities that Jenn will have in her life out there. I know she is and will be a fabulous therapist and that she will have the opportunity to impact the lives of her clients. I have no doubts about that! So our goodbye was bittersweet.

Jenn was an amazing friend from school. In previous posts I have mentioned a little about the diversity of my classmates (now my fellow collegues - haha) and how them and I don't always see eye to eye, mostly on lifestyle choices. But despite our differences I have become such great friends with a few of these classmates of mine. It's so neat how God places people within our lives who are not necessarily seeking Jesus, but who still have a heart that desires to help the lives of people around them and who can encourage and support their friends. This was in many ways the dynamic between our class. My hope is that God was able to use me to speak truth into my school friends. Trust me, I was not always perfect, but I hope that these friends of mine were able to walk away with some nugget of truth to hold on to.

It's finally arrived

I am the proud new owner of the Kitchen Aid Pro mix master. I have been wanting one of these machines for awhile now to do my baking and now I finally have it! It was a beautiful graduation gift from my Grandma and I am excited to try it out in the days to come. Also from my Grandma for grad I recieved the entire series of Sex and the City!! Wahoo! It seems kind of funny that my Grandma bought me that particular series, but what she doesn't know about the show won't hurt her.

While out shopping and picking out my mix master, my mom and I came across these super cute cupcake plates. How fitting and adorable! I think a tea party is in order with Ella and Sophie once they return from holidays.

You know, how some days when you go shopping you manage find all of the great deals? Well, that day for me was today. I took it as a sign that I was meant to be shopping! haha.

This afternoon Kristen, Sabrina, Gavin and I enjoyed a lovely visit with each other and went for a nice walk outside where we were able to enjoy the beautiful warm weather. It feels as though summer has finally come. I love somewhat spontaneous afternoon get togethers. Thanks girls for a nice few hours out! Kristen, your puppy is adorable!

Cabin Weekend

Friday after a day with Ella and Sophie, I headed out to the cabin to spend the weekend relaxing and soaking in the sunshine. Little did I know things do not always go as planned. Later on in the evening on Friday, the wind and rain started to pick up, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, when I awoke on Saturday morning this is what I woke up to:

The wind blew steady for 24 hours. This wind was not your ordinary little gusts and gentle breezes, but rather full out stormy strong gusts. I ventured out on Saturday afternoon to check out the storm first hand to see how strong the wind was. I ran with all of my might and by the time I got back inside I was exhausted (and I hardly went anywhere). Apparently it was quite the sight to see me running, but no one else had a camera there to capture the moment. Lucky me!

By Sunday morning, the wind had died down completely and we had a gorgeous day. It's amazing how quickly the weather can change from one extreme to the next! However, we had a lot of clean up and draining of the yard to do. Thankfully it was nice and after all the work was done, I was able to find myself laying on the deck. I even managed to get some colour on me, which was very much welcomed.

My aunt and uncle's patio on the beach got ripped to pieces by the waves and the wind knocked a huge tree, including the roots right out of the ground. I had no idea how much damage water could actually cause!

Despite the mess we had to clean up, Sunday also proved to be a perfect day to enjoy the water and take the jet ski out. Derek and Courtney arrived late Saturday night, so it was nice to spend some time with them and have some people to hang out with other then my parents and my grandmas.

On Monday when I woke up, the weather was back to cloudy and windy, so we packed up a little earlier then we had wanted and headed back to the city. Graham had called me earlier in the weekend to see if I was available to sub on his ultimate team. It happened to work and I was happy to play. As I sit here writing this post, I am extremely sore from the running as I had not ran or thrown a frisbee since last August. In a previous post I had mentioned that I wanted to become more active and I got my wish sooner then expected. Be careful what you wish for or at least make sure the activity is introduced in small increments. I have a feeling I am going to feel a reminder of ultimate in the next few days to come. Oh well, it was worth it and it was great to play again!

Plans

Sunday night I sat down and planned out everything that I needed to get done this week and what was all going to happen in my days. It's funny how when we attempt to be so organized things tend to get messed around on you. For example, for my graduation, my Grandma wanted me to buy me an amazing mix master to aid me in my baking endeavors. How sweet is she? On Monday night we had planned to go and pick one out together, but were disappointed when the store was already closed. Darn it! We have planned to go one day next week during the day when the store is hopefully open. Right now the debate is between a Bosch mix master or the Kitchen-Aid Pro. We'll see which is the better deal. So rather then just going home, my mom, Grandma and I moved our planned shopping trip up a day to Monday night. It was wonderful to buy a shirt at the regular price (although I got a bunch of great deals). Esprit is definitely my friend.

Originally on Tuesday the plan was to go shopping with my mom and Grandma, but since we had done that the night before, I was freed up in order to go to Rosenort with Kristy to make Strawberry jam with her and her mom. It was great! Kristy's mom fed us a very yummy lunch where I ate more then my fair share and after clean up, Kristy and I headed out to the strawberry patch to do some picking. Due to my "city girl" nature, I showed up wearing some nice jeans, cute shirt and sneakers. Little did I know how muddy the garden was going to be. Kristy's dad graciously let me wear a pair of his rubber boots to wear instead that came up to almost my knees. I was quite the sight! It's a good thing I had those boots because I would have been VERY muddy by the end of our picking. I should have had my camera with me to capture the moment. I felt like I definitely belonged in the country -haha! 

Our jam making was successful and Kristy walked away with 7 jars I think. I was just along for the ride as my mom already makes her own jam, so I didn't need any. 

Kristy...I very much enjoyed the day with you and your mom. Thanks for inviting me along. I enjoyed our chats in the car and just loved hanging out with you. You are absolutely delightful!

Today I am back looking after Ella and Sophie. It's been a busy morning so far. LOTS of colouring has been done, Easy Bake Oven cakes have been made and devoured for lunch (Don't worry Heidi, they had a good lunch too!), A good hour was spent playing Polly pockets and now it is rest time. After a rest, I'm thinking it might be time to hit up the park and enjoy the beautiful weather outside! 

Tonight I get to hang out with Jon and Jess for a bit before they leave in a couple of weeks for Hamilton. I am looking forward to good times together tonight with good conversation. Perhaps there will be some pictures to follow as I have been lacking in this department lately. I'm not sure what is wrong with me.

In the days to come I am craving some time to spend with God. I must admit that with the busy-ness of these past number of months with school and life, He has been put on the back burner. It's time to put him in focus. I'm always curious as to why when something needs to be put to the side it tends to always be my relationship with God. Does that happen with anyone else? A couple weeks ago, my church gave me a book for my graduation called "Vintage Jesus". It looks intriguing and I am anticipating diving into it by this weekend. I need to create moments in my days where I can spend time listening to God. So hard to do sometimes.

My other plans for the summer is to find ways to be active. For the past 2 years I have been sitting on my ass doing only reading and eating. Not a good combination! My goal is to do something and develop some sort of routine that gets me out running, to the gym or going for walks. I need to get back into shape. Along with this goes eating better. I love having the responsibility of finding sensible and healthy lunches and snacks for Ella and Sophie because it then forces me to eat that way also. Thank you Heidi for not have chips and junk in your cupboards. 

Well, rest time is almost up so I should finish cleaning up the lunch dishes and get ready for a park adventure. Until next time...

It's Official

It's official. I am a Registered Massage Therapist as of July 3, 2008. My business card now reads: Kara Friesen Adv RMT. It's pretty exciting. Over the past week I have found little time to blog, take pictures, etc so I apologize for not many pictures in this post.

On Thursday I had my graduation ceremony. It was good to get that done with although there were some sad goodbyes with some classmates. My friend Jenn is moving to Whitehorse this week so it will be a long while until her and I will see each other in person again. The ceremony was supposed to be short and sweet but due to some miscommunication, one of our guest speakers was told that the ceremony started at 6:30 rather than at 6:00 so the director felt the need to stall by telling AWFUL stories of his experiences of online dating. All 18 of us sitting on stage were mortified at his stories and apologized profusely to our families and friends as they had to sit there and listen to this horrible speech. Once that was over, all was good we could continue on with the ceremony.

Annick and I shared our last cup of coffee together before school.

Aimee, Kristy & Sabrina came to the ceremony too - it was great to have them there.

These 2 were absolute stars during the ceremony!

By 8:00 pm our house was packed full with about 40 people. I have some wonderful people in my life and it was neat to share the day with them and celebrate the past 2 years. Thanks to everyone for putting up with me in my stressful moments and understanding when I was unable to come out and have a good time with the rest of you! Now I am free in the evenings to party it up!

I was so busy mingling with everyone on Thursday ( I must admit that I found it fairly overwhelming) that there was no time to take pictures. Afterwards I was a little disappointed, but there's nothing I can do about it now!

Friday night I headed out to the cabin for the weekend with the family. I spent the majority of the weekend relaxing, reading and doing puzzles. I needed to decompress my head. Again, due to my overwhelming tiredness I failed to take any pictures as my weekend would be fairly boring to see in pictures. I will do better. I promise!

This upcoming week is shaping up to be another busy one. I am looking after Heidi's girls on Monday, Wednesday and Friday all day, Tuesday I am shopping with my mom and grandma and Thursday I have some work stuff to do in order to get my clinic room ready for August 1st when I start along with church in the evening. I better get some sleep to prepare my head for this next week.

Better Days

Our house has been hit with a whirl wind of emotions over the past few days. There have been things to mourn and yet lots to celebrate.

I must admit, with the passing of my Grandpa, sadness has not been an emotion that has consumed me. My grandpa and I were not close - in fact, he was not close to any of his children or grandchildren. There are times when I feel almost at a loss as to what I perhaps should be feeling. Sometimes I feel bad for feeling as sad as I probably should, but it's hard when there is very little connection with the person. I do grieve for my dad though. This is effecting him the most as it was his dad. My dad, along with his brothers are in a state of figuring out how to grieve for a father that has wanted very little to do with his family and that has to hurt. I can't imagine what that must feel like. I have mentioned in previous posts that there is a lot of healing that needs to happen in this family of mine. I'm trusting that God will somehow use this to bring family together rather then drive them apart. Thank you for all of the prayers that have been sent up on behalf of my family. I appreciate it immensely.

So, in dealing with the death of my Grandpa, we have also had milestones to celebrate in this house. Courtney (Derek's girlfriend) graduated from high school on Thursday as well. It was neat to be able attend the ceremony and support her as she begins this new chapter in her life.

This coming week is also my grad ceremony. We are having a big get together here at the house on Thursday following the actual ceremony with friends and family so I am looking forward to that. Dominika, my mom and I are going to be busy in the kitchen over the next few days preparing some pretty delightful food. It seems crazy to think that this is it. I am no longer bound to being in school. I am now embarking on a new and exciting journey - I guess I can be called a career woman now - haha.

This past week I have enjoyed the break off from school. My week has been great, but busy. I have had numerous opportunities to hang out with my dear friends, who, over the past 2 years have seen not as much of me due to the copious amounts of studying I did. I believe I have made up for lost time this week. Some of this week's highlights include:

Tuesday - spending the afternoon with Sabrina and Gavin enjoying beautiful weather, conversation and slurpees.

Wednesday - my grad dinner and hanging out with my wonderful classmates

Thursday - Hanging out with some very lovely ladies: Jen, Kristy, Sabrina and Aimee (Kristen - we missed you). It turned out that Aimee also had holidays this week, so the 5 of us got together for an afternoon get together. Jen served us with awesome food that may make an appearance at next week's grad celebration and we had a couple hours to enjoy each other's company and conversation, not to mention some wonderful cuddles too! I am so blessed to have such wonderful friends. I think sometimes we take for granted the joy and delight that good quality girlfriends bring to our lives.

Friday - Hung out with Kristy and Norah. I got to give Norah a bath which was pretty exciting for me. I got lots of smiles out of her and enjoyed being a little more interactive with her. She is going to be a ton of fun in the months and years to come. Norah, some aunties are going to have lots and lots of fun with you.

Today - I spent almost the entire day in my pajamas - until 4:30pm. I watched movies on TV and put together a puzzle that Kristy had borrowed me. I put the entire thing together in only 1 day. I was pretty impressed with myself. The only reason I changed and got ready was to go to church. We are starting the book of Revelations at church and that makes me excited. It is such an intriguing book of the bible and I'm excited to learn more about it and get into more depth with it.

So all in all it's been a fantastic week and I am anticipating another good week to come. This next week I begin looking after my friend Heidi's 2 girls for the summer. I think the 3 of us are going to have a lot of fun!

In Memory

Early this morning my Grandpa finally passed away. He has been struggling for the past 2 months, proving the doctors wrong everytime they said he was going. In the last 2 days he took an exceptional turn for the worse and this morning his battle finally ended.
There is a lot that is going on with the family right now. I am praying that siblings will stick by each other and put their differences aside for the next few days. I am praying that Hate for each other will not consume the hearts of family. It's a sad situation, but glad that Grandpa is no longer in pain and that things may finally be dealt with after years of being withheld.
The funeral will be on Monday or Wednesday of next week, so in the meantime there is a lot of garbage that needs to be sorted through. So if you think of me and my family, please pray for peace and grace to be evident amongst the family members.

A Night to Celebrate

Last night, my 17 classmates and myself celebrated our accomplishments and graduation by enjoying an amazing meal together at Oui Bistro. If anyone is looking for a quaint, delicious dinner to enjoy, this is the place to go. It was slightly strange to see everyone dressed up. The norm is for us to see each other with our hair pulled back, minimal make up on and in lululemon.

Jenn, Adam, Crystal and myself ~ We have called ourselves from the beginning the "Dream Team" - it somehow got us through the first year of anatomy and physiology. (ignore my closed eyes)

The guys in our class.

My lovely Annick and I

These were 2 of things I had for dinner - there was a set menu and under each course, there were 2-3 different things we could order. For my appetizer I had a very good salad followed by Gnocchi for my main course and some fancy dessert, which I cannot begin to attempt to pronounce or spell, but essentially it was 4 cream puffs filled with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce. It was delightful. It was fun to try different foods, which I don't often get the opportunity to do. Between about five of us, we took bites of each other's food so that we could taste everything. Some other dishes that people had were Pate, salmon, and a chocolate mousse triffle thing (I didn't taste that as it was WAY too much chocolate for me - others said it was very good though).

The King's Head

Following dinner, we went around the corner to the King's Head Pub for drinks. Most people had a few too many drinks, so conversations were entertaining to say the least.

It was a great evening spent together with some great people that I have gotten to know extremely well over the past 2 years.

A Weekend to Celebrate

The time has come...I am officially done school!!!!

On Thursday at exactly 5:27pm I left school with tears of joy in my eyes as I walked out of my last exam. I was anxious to go and celebrate, so I picked up Kristen and Aimee and the 3 of us enjoyed some deliciousness at Baked Expectations for supper.

After a great time with these lovely ladies, I picked up Cole and him and I headed out to the cabin for the weekend. It was such a freeing thing to be able to go to the cabin guilt free and with no homework in my bag. Friday morning I dived into my first novel of the summer, "Love the One You're With" by Emily Griffen and I anticipate many more enjoyed novels to come. I love being able to sit down and enjoy a good book when I don't have other textbook reading to do.

My weekend was not only spent reading and sleeping, but it was spent entertaining Cole and spending some good quality time with him. I have missed that kid!

However, I did get some moments of reading in. I'm so lucky that Cole is capable of entertaining himself and content to sit and read a book too.

One of the jobs on our "to do" list for the weekend was to help my dad cut down a very large tree on the yard. It was unfortunately dying, so rather than running the risk of it falling on top of the cabin one day, we chose to take it down. It was a sentimental moment as limbs of the tree fell to the ground, as this was our climbing tree as kids. We spent hours up there on its branches summer after summer.

Cole was a great help in the whole process. He eagerly volunteered to help drive the quad as we loaded branches and took them away.

The highlight of the day for Cole was when my dad took him up in the bucket truck for a ride. He was sooooo excited, he could hardly stand it!

Now that Cole can ride a two-wheeler with no hesitation, we spent a lot of the weekend biking around. On more than one occasion our bike trips landed us up at the corner store for a popcycle, ice-cream or chocolate bar. We decided that what goes on at the lake, stays at the lake.

SWIMMING

The lake is finally starting to look like it should in the summer months - much warmer. However, Cole was the only one who braved its cold waters this weekend. I am hoping that in the next few weeks we can take the jet ski out and fully enjoy the goodness of the water, but right now it is just a tad too chilly for me!