life life life life life life life

Alright so it has been awhile since I've blogged, and although I have limited time to do this, I thought, there is no better time than the present to write about how life has been going.
Two weeks ago now, I started my new job as a Float Clerk and a law firm downtown Vancouver. At first when I got this job I was so excited and overwhelmed that I said yes right away thinking, 'man I'm going to be one of those business people that work downtown Vancouver,' great right? Well little did I think about all those other "things" that come along with it. What other things you might ask? Well the 50 minute commute on the train into Vancouver, the rainy walk 15 minutes up the blocks to the office, the 250+ people's names, faces, where they sit, what they do, what lawyers they work for, who are lawyers etc. A little overwhelming you might say? Yes! But it excited me to take this next step. It was however probably one of the hardest steps I ever took. If any of the ladies from MLT in Regina read this blog you may or may not know, that I called there my second day in, bawling my face off, missing every single person in the office, and I can name YOU ALL! Life in the big city just isn't the same. Beautiful? Yes! Exciting? Yes! Fast paced? Yes! Friendly People? Well. ..
Because life is so busy here it seems that people don't really care to get to know you, care about happiness, life, anything. I mean it's different when you are consumed by work and busy, but when you are all sitting down in the lunch room. . . and you are left alone at your table while everyone else continues sitting down with eachother else where, laughing away and enjoying life. . . or you say hi to fellow workers (on your team) in the hallway and they walk past you like you blended in with the wall. . or you ask a simple question because obviously being new you don't exactly know everything. . and get a rude harsh knife stabbing remark back. . . Yup. . those things can bring tears to a persons' eyes. I miss home. . . but I love it here and the work that I am doing, regardless if people like me back or care to know me. As much as I want to through in the towel and say 'forget it.' I know I'm a bigger and stronger person for that. I enjoy my job everyone, don't think that I don't. . . it's just. . . different.
Anyways, what else has life brought me? Rain. . snow.,. rain. ... snow . .. rain. . etc.
Time with Nick has been great and often see eachother daily. . . He even said the other day he would be cheering for Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup this weekend. . I will get pictures and evidence don't worry. . Anyways. . Until next time everyone. .. . .
I will write you tonight or tomorrow. ..
Back to work I go. .

i'm sorry

i'm sorry i haven't blogged in forever! truly forever. .
i will blog for you all tonight
it's been a busy few weeks. . .
i will fill you in tonight
i promise. . .

Ohkie Dohkie

So, I realized I haven't blogged in a very long time. Why you might ask what have I been up to? Well a whole lot of nothing-ness, but obviously little things here and there occurred thus keeping me mildly busy since last Friday. Friday evening we had a wonderful birthday dinner for Nick's mom. Consisting of delicious Greek food, followed by fruit salsa and homemade marble cake for dessert! Earlier that day I had been out with Nick's sister in law Jeneva, and we were discussing the dessert I would be making for supper that evening, and realized she is allergic to nuts, so I made certain that I did not make any desserts that came into contact with any nut what so ever. We had a blast that night hanging out with everyone. Jeneva (the crazy auntie that she is) along with her side kick Lauren (future crazy auntie#2) spoon fed Noah (age 1 1/2) spoonfuls of green icing along with cinnamon and sugar mixed together. Hey we figured if we weren't taking him home, we didn't have to deal with him right? Well Uncle Nick reaped the benefits of a hyper sugar filled red head toddler running around screaming in his high pitched squeal rolling on the floor and pile driving Uncle Nick. He took it in strides though and was laughing the whole time.
Saturday, uneventful in ways, I had the opportunity to sleep in a little bit, then continue on my day in the comfiest fashion possible, lulu's and a good ol' bunny hug.

Side note about the whole "bunny hug," situation. . . I get the weirdest looks from people around here when I call my "sweater" a bunny hug. Come on people, that's what it's called. And I will not conform to calling it a "pull over" a "hoodie" or whatever. Zip up's have hoods. . . they can be called hoodies, some coats have hoods, they can be called hoodies. A bunny hug is a bunny hug. . . deal with it.

Vent over. . . moving on :)

Saturday Nick and I, along with his mom, ventured to the airport hotel where we dropped her off for the evening. She was catching an early morning flight to that hot place in the desert to vacation until Christmas time. . . not that Nick and I were jealous or anything. . . we both strangely enjoy the plus 6 and rainy weather. . if sarcasm is heard in that statement, you are. . . wrrrrrr. .right. . .

Sunday morning after venturing to meet Nick, we went on to get some coffees and off to Church we went. Only to be harrassed for showing up with no coffee for the Pastor, and that it was Tim Horton's not Starbucks. My initial response was "I'm from Saskatchewan, I'm pretty sure we only have one Starbucks in the entire province" to which he responded "Fair enough. .". . I think it's safe to say I will always be a Tim Horton's junky. .
We continued to go our separate ways for the rest of the day. I spent my day with Nick's sister in law Danielle and her lil guy Noah (Remember the crazy red head from earlier) We hung out and wandered the mall, and once that part of my eventful day was over, I ventured to another suburb amongst the many to pick up my dear friend Cid, who happened to have a sleepover watching Pretty Woman at my place! She had never seen the movie, and seeing as Julia Roberts is one of my all time favorite actresses and that movie is ranked highly on my list of movies I love, I thought it was a definite must to watch. Again, it never let me down, I loved every moment of it.  As Cid stated, "I freaking LOVE pretty woman". . . Enough said.

Today, Monday, Cid and I slept in way late, got ourselves a cup of coffee and a yogurt, wandered the cute little shops along the streets in Maple Ridge, made people laugh, talked about good ol' Saskatchewan, made more people laugh, smile and enjoy the day, then ventured to her home land (one of them other suburbs) to which she left me for a . . . date, friend, boy, whatever you want to call it. I ventured home in the slow and i mean slow moving traffic. Got home, cleaned my house, went over to Nick's, had dinner, watched the tv show I recorded yesterday on the life of Prince William and his girly friend Kate Middleton. Watched a movie with Nick, came home to blog.

OH BY THE WAY DID I MENTION NICK HAS NOW DECIDED THAT MONDAY'S ARE FLOWER DAY FOR LAUREN :) :)
I got a beautiful bouquet of flowers today. Orange and red and white :) So pretty. He's great! He also bought me my favorite chocolates. After Eight Mints. . . :) He makes my heart smile :)

Anyways. . long enough blog. . . Bed time for me!

Until next time. . Keep fit and have fun!

Long awaited blog. .

I cannot believe it has been a hand full of days since I last wrote a blog on Sunday! I wish I could say this blog is going to be the best you've ever read, but unfortunately. . . it's not.
I will however tell you about the ups the downs the circles and squares of my life. . . this week . . if you so care to hear it?
Ohk, well I guess moving on. . Let's take a quick look at my week. .
Monday- I. . .hmm I cannot actually remember what I did Monday. . All I know is I made chicken and pasta for dinner. . . moving on. . .
Tuesday- I took Nick's mom to the eye doctor in the morning, and in the afternoon we enjoyed a wonderful day at the Christian bookstore in Abbotsford! Tuesday dinner was sweet and sour meatballs and rice.

side note- I'm telling you about these meals, because Nick and I are trying to be creative with what we have for dinner's in the evening :)  moving on. . .

Wednesday- I GOT A JOB! I was offered a job Wednesday morning at a lawfirm downtown Van-City! I was so so excited! It's going to be similar to what I was doing in Sask-at-chew-an, so I am super pumped for that!
After I calmed down from all the excitement, I went into Fall cleaning mode at the Fun-Home (Aka the funeral home) I cleaned cupboards and removed old unwanted items all day long. Busy busy day!
That night Nick's mom and I made chicken gyros. . . SO delicious!

Thursday- aka today- I helped Nick's mom babysit her grandson Noah and we played outside in the sun all day. I made blueberry muffins (compliments of Martha Stewart's recipe) and then because the Nuckle-heads were playing hockey on tv. Aka the Canucks, Nick had ask we order pizza. So we ordered Panago. Mmm delicious, and then Nick and I proceeded to do ab work outs. . . hurt my stomach.
Also we watched the new episode of The Big Bang Theory. I TRULY Love that show, it is absolutely hilarious. Like. . hilarious. . . I literally LOL yes. . laugh out loud.

And that brings me to tonight.
I would continue you typing but I'm at the stage of tired-ness that I feel sick and nauseous. . .
time for sleeeeeeep.

Remember: Remembrance Day is coming up. . . it's important! Find a place for your moment of silence, or even better find a Remembrance Day service to go to!

one amazing rider fan among boring lions fans..

Ohk so this blog could be long, but absolutely hilarious and proves my AWESOME-NESS...
let me expand..

Nick, oh so wonderful Nick was able to get us Riders vs Lions tickets for today (Sunday) game. The tickets however were 2 rows up from the Lion's bench on the 49 yard line. Awesome seats, not so awesome that I was surrounded by orange. I however took this on as my mission to make a complete fool of myself!!! In classic Lauren style as the amazing green and white jersies took their place on the field, I (of course) was jumping up and down screaming and cheering and having all the practise roster players from BC (poor guys) turn looking at my thinking, "What is that girl on?" Nothing! Just pure team spirit and energy! So, fans around me, NOT IMPRESSED. Lauren = soaking it up. Bring on the nasty comments, bring on the "how do you like that Rider girl" Pfffft you think your words are going to destroy this fan. Nope. Oh and did I mention a rather large man in orange hitting a tamborine on his head as well as his big belly (not in beat might I add) kept screaming at me, in his voice that LITERALLY, you can all ask Nick, sounded like Satan. And then when the Riders had a big play, I turned around, looking him directly in the eyes and said "Do you have anything you wanna say now buddy. . . yeah.. didn't think so"


My main goals going into this game:
#1- Make a complete fool of myself... check
#2- Get the TSN camera guys to put me on TSN live. . .CHECK. . . so get this, pretty much the entire game, every time the TSN camera guy and his handy dandy assistant came by I did my very best to be noticed, and oh so inconspicuously shout "HEY TSN GUY PUT ME ON TV"  Yeah. . wasn't that obvious that I wanted to be on the Tv-o. So finally after laughing and making a fool of myself (as many of you know I am VERY capable of doing this) they finally come over and FILM US!! WE WERE ON TSN WE WERE ON TSN!! HIGHLIGHT OF MY NIGHT. . . or so you might think!
- - - TSN- - - in typical Lauren style. . . making a fool of myself got me far! And after that my phone went crazy with texts saying "I just saw you on the TV". . .I looked at Nick and said. . . . "Yeaaaah they did"

Oh. . another highlight of the game. . . I again, yelled down at some kid with orange footballs saying "Give us one". . . and again. . . in awesome Lauren style. . . We got an orange toy football. . .

Ohk SO THE BEST PART OF MY NIGHT. And the part that made Nick laugh the most. Every single time the Lion's fans sat boringly in their seats. Which was quite often might I add. I would get up and dance around (in classic Lauren style) and rub the Saskatchewan Logos on my jersey sleeves and catch the attention of water boys or players or anyone on the Lion's bench point and smile and say "Yeaaaaah you like that don't you. Yeeeah you like it, you know you do..." Bahahahahaha I'm dying laughing thinking about it. They were killing themselves laughing. Some were trying not to laugh and not to smile but OBVIOUSLY couldn't keep that stuff locked inside. Come on? I mean really! I am so awesome! They had to enjoy it!

So the moral of this story is. I had a blast at the game, now everyone around me, didn't. Which, here comes the rant, because their team WON! Ohk their team won, and they sat their like potatoes in a sack, with no facial expressions at all. I was laughing and joking and having a great time, turning around and trying to get people laughing and enjoying life. NO. No one in that stadium has any concept of what fun is. I laugh and smile at them and they give me this look like, "If you don't sit down in 5 seconds I'm going to rip off your head. Why are you smiling? Smiles are for fun, this isn't fun" Like woah. Enjoy life! It was nothing like Taylor Field, but how can it be? The pride and the sense of entertainment and enjoyment at a football game is non exsistant. People rather pay a ton of money to sit like lumps on a log then smile enjoy the game enjoy the music and atmosphere. It was sad, really really sad. Oh and a side note, the only other people in my section that had a speck of fun were two wonderful people sitting in front of us to the left. . . and guess what. . . THEY WERE RIDER FANS. GO FIGURE!

I however had a great time making a fool of myself, dancing laughing screaming shouting, spending time with Nick and all that jazz. . .
People in BC need to learn to embrace life, enjoy it while it lasts.

Live love and laugh.

naps, music, traffic and planes

so i had to think about what to blog tonight, because i knew that since i havent blogged for a couple days, you all would be waiting in anticipation for this next blog. sorry, it's not going to be that exciting, but i can tell you about my eventful-ish day.
waking up i proceeded to double check the job websites, a daily activity for me lately, and then got ready in my "professional" attire to do more resume dropping off. i headed to a few firms around the city and dropped off a bundle here and there and everywhere. not feeling so good at this point and i head home thinking i just need something to eat. it's now the afternoon by the time i get home, and i feel so "poopy" and drained i curl up in my bed to try and get warm, as i am quite cold and shivering. next thing i know it's 2:30 and nick is texting me letting me know he will be at my place around 3 to head to pick up his mom at the airport. i can barely open my eyes to read the text and a blurried response i roll out of bed now that my stomach feels like it's eating a hole through my skin. i stumble to the kitchen and slowly but surely start to make myself my wonderful toasted tuna sandwich, with the special jar of "Greiner relish" given to me by my mom before she left.
next phase of the day, nick picks me up to head to the airport, in friday afternoon traffic. we both are irritated and nagging each other to the point where we both start laughing. so completely over tired and grumpy that laughter is the next best thing. great tunes come on and we slowly make our way to the airport as i am bopping in the passenger seat. i roll my window down, because now i have become beyond irritated and moved into hyper laughter, every car that goes by i give a "hello" shout, windows down or not, every car around us deserves a hello.
now the rest of our night was boring so i will make it short, we picked up nick's mom from the airport, went for dinner and now are sitting watching the hamilton vs calgary football game! wooooonderful!
more blogging to come!

how we roll. . lauren style. .

bam, i wake up, exactly 1 hour longer than what my alarm was originally was set for. hop in the magical water that falls from the ceiling we call the "shower." blow dry hair, curl hair, do the make up, get on my fancy clothes, put on my "these are not comfortable but i will suffer through the pain because i need to make a statement" heels. yes, i know all you ladies out there have those heels, you just wont admit the pain. someone says to you, "cute heels" your response is "awe thanks, and they are surprisingly comfy". . . you liar, they so are not comfy! a comfy shoe is like. . . a slipper or a flip flop, not a 3 inch stiletto heel.

anyways, re-looping back out of that rabbit trail. . .

so i get in my car and after stopping to say goodbye to nick and show him how "sophisticated lauren" looks, i took off, all by myself, to down town van-city. now, nick gave me great directions, that obviously looking at my track record in the past with following peoples' directions (or lack there of).  i should take these directions and actually use them :) but just like people in the past, nick's directions are great to a point and then they fail, leaving me to be creative and find my way around myself. now let's look at my driving patterns and mistakes and success....

#1- onto the freeway away from "the ridge" i successfully get to first ave (in vancouver)
#2- i stall my car on a massive hill in a ton of traffic . . . .panic settles in. . . . nerves take over and my feet start shaking. . . this makes driving a standard all the more difficult
#3- i turn off of first ave onto main, hoping to turn left onto georgia st.(as per nick's directions. .)
#4- you cannot turn left onto georgia (like nick told me to do) so i drove right into chinatown
#5- i turned on the next available street, went swinging back around down past the hockey stadium back up over onto a new street (sooooo confused by now) up over a hill into a construction zone. . . and finally!
#6- a street i recognized! yay! see? who needs directions when you have a high functioning brain like lauren raine, who is capable of finding a needle in a high stack? or should i not be so bold. . .

moral of this confusing and somewhat useless blog, i found the street i was looking for, walked for hours on cobble streets in 3 inch heels, had a great interview with two great girls from a law firm! i will find out next week what they've decided. i feel at peace about it regardless of whether i get the interview or not. the experience was well worth it.

i wish i could find my camera, i need to document these days. i must say a lil ol saskatchewan girl can get herself lost in this city if she isn't careful.
oh and did i mention it was +12 and warm and sunny today here? . . . i think that's my cue to stop writing. . .

more blogs to come!