Back in 2001

So as some of you may or may not know, I am a convert to the Church. I was baptized when I was 12. After I was baptized I moved away... errr, I mean, across town. Warren always tells me these fun stories about people he taught on his mission and how awesome he feels when he finds that they are still around and active. It's really humbling to hear him speak of those people because I can tell that they meant a lot to him and that he feels good knowing that he had such a profound impact on their lives. He told me that I should try to contact the missionaries that taught me- because it would mean a lot to them knowing that they didn't waste their time. Being so young, I couldn't really remember who they were- I just remembered that one of them spoke Spanish.
A couple years ago my grandma made me a photo album that had a copy of my baptism program in it, with the names of the missionaries. I was stoked- so when I sat down to try to find them online, I thought it might be considered a little creepy because I'm now 22, and being a girl and them being guys I thought it might look weird. So I decided that I wouldn't make it a priority. Since then I have been getting nothing but Spiritual promptings telling me I should just do it. Last weekend in in Relief Society (my favorite part of church... not) a lady stood up and talked about how the missionaries that taught her the discussions were in town and attending church with them, and how they have stayed in contact all these years. This isn't a small compliment because this lady was well into her 70's and she was baptized as a young girl still living at home with her family. That was the final push for me to just try a little bit to see if they were still around. I got onto the Boise Idaho Mission website, and bam! I found one of them! Good enough for me! So I resorted to good ol' Facebook, and found both of them! I'm glad to report that we are now 'Facebook friends' and had a good little chat with one missionary about what we have been up to since we last saw each other. The other is back in Madrid- I told you he spoke Spanish... *wink*
It was quite the experience. I have always been one of those people who knew who everyone was, but no one knew who I was, or could even remember me. I was really shocked to hear that he knew exactly who I was- he even knew my middle name and how old I was when I got baptized! He told me that I made his entire year by contacting him. He said that he felt like his mission was a total waste up until now. Now I know why the Spirit has been prompting me to contact them. Apparently, this missionary and I attended Utah State at the same time! Small world, eh? It's crazy to think that two complete strangers could have such a profound, lifelong impact on each others lives. I just wanted to share that with everyone because I thought it was pretty awesome. ...(left to right, Elder Landerman, me, Elder Lopez)

Such is Life

I'm glad to report that it is finally getting warm here in Calgary. The hottest so far has been about 80F. Warren complains when it gets this hot. What a wimp. I can't wait for it to hit 90! So far summer has been quite good to me this year. I have been making it a goal of mine to spend less time on Facebook and reading people's blogs, and just being online in general. Does this ever happen to anyone else- you get online just to check your email and the weather and you end up spending hours looking at the most ridiculous things? It happens to me a lot and I decided that no wonder I feel like a dead beat all the time, I need to get out more. Surprisingly, I have been quite busy since cutting back the internet. I go on lots of walks through the neighborhoods and have even gotten a fantastic tan. I layed out on the deck at Warren's dad's house for 3 hours, not a sign of a burn, just tannage. The UV rays must be different here? Since I've been walking so often, my bikini bod has come back a bit. I decided against P90X, in case anyone was wondering. I knew I wouldn't be able to hack it, so I decided to just keep it simple with lifting some cans of soup and walking/running daily. It's been good.
Well, I have lots of updating to do. Since my lack of internet has kicked in, I haven't had much of a desire to sit down and blog about everything single little thing.
First off, we have callings in our new ward up here. Warren is in Scouts with the 10/11 year old boys. He loves it because he gets to do fun activities with them and he gets to teach on Sundays. He loves teaching. I got called to be assistant ward chorister/choir director. I was really excited when Bishop Hofmeister told me, but after meeting with Sister Baker, the lady in charge- I am ready to break my leg, or do anything to get me out of it. I love music, and I used to think that I was quite educated in the field- you don't get straight A's with Mr. Totorica 3 years straight by just showing up to class. I don't mean to sound cocky at all, but I love music and felt really confident. Little did I realize that just being educated doesn't mean a single thing. It's like that scripture mastery scripture, "faith without works is dead"... You can't just do it and be good at it, you have to have the Spirit lead you and rely on it to help you out. I've got a lot to learn before I take over for Sister Baker for 3 months. Awesome.
Second, I have officially experienced (and survived) my first tornado warning of my life. I have this huge fear of tornadoes, I think it stems from that one time when I watched "Twister" and a very young age. I have a friend who moved to Indiana a year ago and she blogs about the tornado sirens and the warnings that she gets. I feel more scared for her than she does I bet... maybe not, but they freak me out that much! It was quite surreal. Last week we had lots of thunderstorms, as per natural summer weather. This particular day had been sunny and warm until about 3pm. The most common time for tornadoes is between 4 and 7pm, with the peak at 5pm (something I learned from Erin). All of a sudden this massive thunderstorm moves in and it gets really dark and kind of cold. Warren got home about 3:45 and said it was starting to sprinkle. We live on a busy street with lots of trucks that drive by, and I thought I was hearing a bunch of trucks but turns out it was thunder. It just kept rolling and rolling, which is another thing I learned from Erin about tornadoes. Well it got louder and louder and the rain just start pouring, then the hail came and the wind started blowing really hard. I kind of laughed and said, 'hey I wonder if there is a tornado somewhere close'... then of course the idea hit me, and I logged on the internet to check the weather and BAM! There it was. A big fatty tornado warning for the city of Calgary and the surrounding areas with tunnel clouds already been cited just north of the city and in the South East part of Calgary (which wouldn't ya know, I live in!). I panicked. Actually, that's an understatement. I FREAKED! I never saw any funnel clouds and for all I knew it could have just been a storm had I not looked at the weather report. It passed an hour later and the sun shined again and dried everything up. That night I went walking with my friend Kyley, and on our walk this big fat DEER just walks right in front of us. Again, a typical Kelsey-freak-out session occurred. It was quite the day.
Third. Warren and I finished the TV show Freaks and Geeks, and I have to admit that it's a close second in my list of favorite shows. Freaks and Geeks got canceled a few years ago and only had one season, which made it nice because it was kind of like a really long movie, or a novel. You all should watch it, it's deep. Plus it has a lot of big name actors in it before they got famous.
Fourth. We got a last minute invite to a wedding reception for a work friend of Warren's. I had a lot of fun coming with a fun gift. I had always wanted to make one of those cookie's in a jar thing. So I did. I looked it up online and found cute recipes for different styles and sizes of jars. Here's the finished product:

Here is the gift all together, just an IKEA salad bowl filled with candy

 I used the rest of the ribbon to put in my hair, Warren told me I look adorable with it :)

Fifth. I finally got a pair of sandals. I have been wanting a pair for months but my picky tastes in shoes enabled me to find said pair of shoes, until the other day!

Sixth. We got a coupon for 2 for one at Marble Slab (which is just like Cold Stone). It was my first expensive ice cream cone of the year. Warren doesn't let me get Cold Stone or even Ben and Jerry's because it's so expensive here, so this ice cream cone is a big deal to me, thus needed to go on my blog. 

(this of course is after Warren finished his enough to drive home, the ice cream was double the size in the beginning.)

Seventh. Warren's brother Graham won tickets off the radio to see Iron Maiden. Warren's favorite band from high school- also my dad's favorite band of all time. So they went yesterday, kind of a big deal. They didn't allow camera's inside so I took pictures before they left!

Ninth. We are about 95% sure that Warren has a hernia. He about passed out when he found it and again when he showed it to me. I got a little uneasy when he flexed and it popped out... yuck. I was reading about them online and I guess the only way to 'fix' them is by surgery. Warren doesn't do well with blood and needles and human bodies... neither do I, but I can handle it better than he can. He's really scared. I think that this feeling of him being scared and depending on me without actually coming out and saying anything, is what it must be like for a mother and a sick baby. It was a bit of a humbling moment when he came up to me and layed his head in my lap and told me he didn't want to have a hernia. It was like his way of saying he was scared. But thank goodness for free health care, it will cost us nothing.

Anyways, that's all I've got for today!

Just for fun

Last night we finally got to make our project that I have been waiting patiently all week to do. We made a fruit bouquet. Seriously, just go buy one. I know they're expensive but who cares, it's probably worth it. They are pretty hard to make. I had forgotten that fruit tends to be juicy, and messy. It's way harder than it looks. But, we had fun. And now we have a lot of fruit to eat... ;)

Okay first, no judging me and my lame vase with blue gems. I had bought the foam blocks that you stick fake flowers in, but then didn't have a vase to fit them in. So this was the best I could come up with. Plus it's pretty. Also, my fruit had been sitting on my counter for 3 days, and got extremely ripe... good for eating, but not for crafting.

He's just a little guy- believe it or not but this is a lot of fruit. Even with how small it is. Two people couldn't finish this in one day.

Also no judging because my pineapple was a tad small for the cookie cutter, so yes... that is a bit of the rind you see on the edges of the pineapples. I can't wait to eat this bad boy!

In other news- I need a work out partner. I am thinking of starting this P90X.... has anyone tried it? What are your thoughts? Tips? Any suggestions for a bored girl who needs to work out?

I hand fed a gopher

The one time I don't have my camera handy is when all the animals in the world are out to attack me. 

Tonight we went out on a picnic to a different part of Fish Creek Park that I hadn't been to before. We bought Subway and drove to the picnic site. As we were driving down the little road, a big fat DEER is spotted on MY side of the road (no doubt). It had big horns and was hiding in the trees. We were only going about 20 k/h so of course I made eye contact with the creature... scream and jump, yelling 'DEER!'. Warren about had a fit because I was screaming over a deer. It sounds silly now, but I know that that deer wanted to eat me and my sandwich. We kept driving a little bit further and the trees broke away into a bit of a meadow, and out pops another deer, only this time I had warning because Warren spotted it first since it was practically in the road. I could have rolled down my window and touched the thing if I wanted. Which I didn't. We parked at the picnic site and walked in a bit, I was nearly walking backwards to assure that no deer or any other form of wild life were following. We found some picnic tables in this little meadow which totally reminded me of Twilight. It was all forest like and cloudy, but light enough that you could still see clearly, then BAM, a big opening into a meadow with sunlight peaking out through the clouds. Warren rolled his eyes because he hates Twilight, but I was thoroughly amused. We picked these tables and benches because there was a cluster, herd, family...? of gophers running around and popping in and out of holes in the ground. They were very friendly. We fed them. One of them, even got close enough to me that I hand fed him a piece of my sandwich. It was adorable. I kind of want one as a pet. He/she, I'm not sure which it was, had babies, too. It would eat all of the food we fed to it, stuffed it into his big cheeks to the point where his head looked like it was attached to it's shoulders and it's neck had disappeared, then went into it's hole... a couple minutes later came back out all skinny again wanting more food. We walked around towards the river and talked about my fear of deep water and fish that nibble my toes. Also the big coy fish at the pet stores that can smell my fear when I come near them. No more deer were spotted, thank goodness! But that was our date. It was fun. Minus the whole deer incident.
Sorry this was so random and quite honestly, a bit pointless. Also sorry there are no pictures. I probably could have gotten a good one of that deer's nostril if I had the courage to roll down my window as we drove by.
OH! I almost forgot the best part! As we were walking back to our car, I notice a person walking quite strangely through the trees on the other side of the road, completely off the paths. I got a better look, and this person was dressed in black with a long black trench coat, and super long blond hair. We are talking well past his/her shoulders. I start jumping up and down again, yelling to Warren that there's a vampire sneaking around the trees! I am not even kidding! It wasn't enough that this picnic area looked like the scene's from Twilight but now there was a real life vampire stalking the woods! We got in the car and watched this person, he/she had started running at one point, I totally thought he was going to start running at warp speed like in Twilight. Turns out it was a woman who walked like a man. Warren thought I was crazy to say it was a vampire since there is no such thing... but as soon as we past her, he turns to me and says... "maybe she's a Wicken"... and then of course I interject with "yeah! and she's going to hold a ceremonial seance in Fish Creek!"
Canada is seriously the place to be.

Cooking Blog

I started a cooking blog- it's nothing fancy yet. Plus I'm not a photographer, so all the pictures are taken by me in my small, dark and outdated kitchen on my hand-me-down plates. I think it gives it character though ;) Most of the recipes that are posted are repeats of things I've put on this blog, so I apologize for that. I'm going to try to get at least one new recipe up a week, if not more. Take a look around!
www.kelseycancook.blogspot.com

What I've been up to lately

I had an aloe vera plant that was in dire need of a transplant. So I went in search for a cute pot, but it had to be a pot that had holes in the bottom to drain out the water. Aloe Vera plants are succulents, much like a cactus and can die from moist roots.

Before

After

 I also got my very first house plant! I like it a lot- BUT, we bought it from IKEA, and sure it had the name of the plant on the bottom in weird Swedish words, like how they name everything... So I bought a cute pot to put it in, just a normal, everyday pot. When I got home, I looked up the type of plant it was so I could care for it best... turns out it also needs to have a good drain system... and wouldnja' know, my pot doesn't have any holes. Boo. So no transplanting this one for a while...

Warren went garage saling today (a Saturday ritual for this guy) and he found me a spice rack. I have been needing one for a while, as you can see...

My spices were in bags. BAGS! Do you know how hard it is to use these? Extremely hard. Because the spice rack Warren got for me was from a garage sale and had been used quite a bit- I thought this would be a good opportunity for a craft.

The labels were gross from people's jam hands and some of the bottles with spices still in were stale and kinda nasty, so I dumped out all the spices and made new labels that are way cuter than the ones that came with it.

And, I like my new shirt. I'm not much of a soccer player, but I follow it almost as much as I follow baseball (which is my #1 favorite game to watch and play...). So I decided I'm rooting for Portugal this year. 

Just ignore my piles of laundry in the background... ;)