Christmas day has come and gone once again. Funny how it takes so long to get ready for one day. I spent Christmas eve with the new guy. We dined on lamb, watched Christmas shows and I convinced him to let me open a present. Gotta keep up the family tradition!

Christmas day was lovely and full of so many wonderful presents from family and friends. I spent my afternoon and evening doing some scrap-booking. I completed 4 pages and was pretty happy with my accomplishment. Tried to do some additional pages today-was thinking of doing a calendar page like last year but after many attempts was not able to find something I liked. The table is covered in papers, photos and accessories as is the floor and all the space around the table. I put a blanket over it last night to keep the kitty cats out of it and will again tonight cause I'm hoping to do some more this coming weekend and putting it all away seems like a really big chore.

The tree though is coming down tonight/tomorrow. I know it seems early but I have an itch to re-arrange the furniture and the tree is in the way of accomplishing that. I'm starting to not like the shelves I have up--they seem cluttered. Not sure how to fix that problem....

Less than 60 days until I leave for my trip to Vietnam. I am pretty excited about it.

Goodness a whole month between posts again...I am getting bad at this.

It's been quite a year and I'm happy to report it is ending on a happy note this year.

Let's do a quick recap of 2012.
The girls and I started 2012 living in Fort McMurray with no plans to move on or change our living arrangements. I paid off Big Red aka Oliver so the truck is officially mine. That was a good feeling.

In June I took a lovely road trip with my friend Kim. We traveled from Alberta to Northern British Columbia up into the Yukon and then finally into Alaska. It was a terrific trip and one I would love to repeat anytime. I can certainly understand why people enjoy Alaskan cruises so much now.

The end of that trip brought me to Red Deer for a job interview. I showed up in shorts and flip flops and incredibly enough got the job. I guess my charm out weighed the attire. LOL. They knew I was returning from a camping trip so my attire was forgiven. They should just be glad that I had time to shower before I arrived at the office. After going for almost 10 days without seeing a shower I was probably pretty ripe.

July saw the preparations to move on to a new job and another new city. My two kitties are so adaptable and I'm grateful for that. They flew to their new home in Grande Prairie and stayed with a lovely lady for a couple weeks during the transition time. I officially received the keys for our new home in mid-September and by the end of the month our belongings from PEI had arrived. The girls settled into their new surroundings and although they haven't said anything I am sure they are much happier here than in FMM. The amount of space they have is great and it is nice to see them run around and chase after each other.

I did some traveling for work in the fall, including a lovely trip to Canmore. I was happy to be able to slip in short visits with lots of friends as I traveled around Alberta. I am certainly looking forward to more travel next year as well, including my upcoming trip to Vietnam in February/March 2013. I will be traveling on my own the first week and spending the next two weeks at a Habitat build.

This fall has been busy in all areas of my life. Work has been busy but absolutely terrific and I am as much in love with my job today as I was the first week I started with them. In late October I started dating(??) a lovely guy and have been spending time with him ever since. I am taking it one day at a time and just enjoying life as it comes.

I have five days off starting on Saturday and am looking forward to a bit of an extended break. I haven't done any scrap booking since arriving in GP and am hoping to get some done during my mini-break.

I was also able to give up salt this fall and am happy to report that I am not suffering any ill side effects. LOL. I've thought about giving up my diet pepsi or sugar too...but darn it I like my pop. LOL

If I don't update before hand....

Merry Christmas everyone.

Another weekend is coming to an end. Sigh. It was a good one and I'm not ready to let it go. LOL

Didn't do a whole lot but I did get some real good cleaning done in the bathroom and kitchen. And clean I did. It was one of those clean each line of grout and hands and knees on the floor scrubbing kind of cleaning sprees. I have no idea why but as one who hates to clean I should take advantage of these moods when they come along.

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend. I am surprised that it is almost over. Last Sunday I came down with a nasty cold and it has been keeping me moving in slow motion since. I am feeling much better than I was early in the week but I am still a walking mucus producing machine which makes me cough on an all too regular basis. Cough isn't even the right word hacking, pieces of lung being hurled up...yeah, it isn't pretty.

Saturday though I decided to embrace the day and headed down Highway 40 to Grand Cache. Perhaps I should have researched it before hand but there didn't seem like a lot to see and do. It's ok--the sky was blue, the music on the radio great and I was in good spirits (aside from the cold). It is just over 2 hours each way. I took a few pics but  not many. It was a balmy -16 and I didn't want to be in/out of the heat/cold.

The depths of snow I will go to for a shot.

And a couple shots from my trip in Northern Alberta.

Here's to feeling healthy--for all of you, your friends and loved ones and me.

And I'm back. The short trip to Edmonton was delightful. Caught up with a friend and did some frame shopping at Ikea. I always think I've finished framing my stuff and then I find more. I did it again this time. I had all the unframed art in a pile and measured everything then when I came home and opened a drawer I found more! Ah. I think I have a problem. LOL I will never have enough wall space to hang it all no matter what size house I end up with. Guess I should consider some sort of rotation process for it.

The shelves are up and the cats decided not to knock anything down from it. Pictures later today. My boss and my bosses boss are coming up to visit next week and I'm having them over for wine noe night to show off the apartment and pet the cats. The bosses boss is a big animal lover and I'm sure my furry pals will be happy to have the company.

I was travelling from Monday till Friday this past week and the two furry roommates were pretty happy to see me and were never far from my side. And even today are still close at hand. Furry purries on a Saturday morning. Does life get any better?

My new chair is in and will be delivered on Monday--hopefully. I am hoping I don't regret the colour decision of purple when I see it. It might be a lot of purple.

Back from Edmonton. It was a good if not short trip. I had an employee meeting Friday morning and spent the rest of my day at the hotel working. A short supper followed by a bit of conversation with an old pal and then off to bed for me--I'm such a party animal. Saturday my big stop was at Ikea of course. Frames for more of the art work that I seem to forever be collecting.

Then a short stop to pick up lunch and then on the highway back to Grande Prairie. Tonight I am attempting to put together the two shelves I bought at the Brick last weekend. I am just over half way finished of putting the first one together and am taking a well needed break. I think the second one will need to wait until tomorrow as my patience will surely be gone by the time I am finished the first one.

My two furry companions survived their two days of freedom and unbeknownst to them at the moment they will have another 5 days and 4 nights of freedom this week as I make my way North to La Crete and High Level. That is if Hudson survives the weekend. She is hyper tonight and testing the little remaining patience I have left from the shelf building. Right now she is up on her kitty condo playing with the curtains. AURGH.

Poor little bugger...its my fault she's hyper---no exercise while I was away...but she really knows how to push buttons. LOL

My shelf is the one on the left...times two. Pics once I finally get them together.

I was out yesterday trying to pick up a shelving unit (x2) for my living room and while I came home empty handed (until Tuesday) at one of my stops I bought--the carrot. It is a stuffed toy with feathers at the top and apparently is full of some of the best cat nip on the go. The cats have been fighting over it since I introduced them to it. They were very entertaining last night and were having some great fights--ears back, tails puffed up, backs arched. Quite amusing.  Tundra seems to be winning most of the time. She lays on the carrot and then Hudson can't reach it and no one can see it--fatty cat.

It is snowing again today. We had snow earlier in the week and you can feel the nip in the air on the way to work now every day. I'm looking forward to winter. I want to get my craft room set up and spend time in there working on more scrap-booking while my two lazy kitties sleep on the bed beside me.

Off to Edmonton again this coming weekend. I need to be there Friday am for work and it is good timing because I wanted to go down on Friday anyway for a night or two. My Christmas shopping is almost finished believe it or not and I think I could get it finished this weekend if I was super smart and even into the mail before November starts.

These were from earlier in the week. It melted but I think we will soon have snow that stays.

Tuesday evening and I am parked on the rug in front of the tv avoiding kitchen duties and responsibilities. I cooked a nice sized turkey on Sunday and have made a large batch of my yummy butter chicken and am almost finished making a HUGE batch of soup.

The dishes are sitting in hot water waiting for me and the cats have calmed down some...spoke to soon. Tundra just took a crazy run and jump across the living room.

Work is fantastic. I am still as much in love with the company, my boss and co-workers as I was on the first day. And I hired some help for myself on Friday. She is great and is going to learn fast.

GP continues to be my friend and I am having a great time slowly exploring the city. Last Saturday I went downtown to enjoy the sunshine. It was one of those fantastic crisp fall days when you can get away with a great sweater and a pair of sunglasses. I stopped into the farmers market, visited a locally owned tea store and found this great store that smelled of pickled beets and fresh garlic. They have jars of locally made pickles, jams, jellies, carrots, etc. I will be back for sure. Downtown is nice and only a few blocks so it doesn't take a lot of time to cover it but you can easily spend an afternoon wandering from store to store. I happened upon a festival(?) of sorts. There was a band, artists painting on the street, activities for passersby and art to buy. I didn't buy any.

The apartment is coming along nicely. I have hung a total of 4 objects so far. So many more to go but I can't figure out where I want them. All in good time.

I think another trip to Edmonton is coming up at the end of the month. Maybe just one night this time...but I'll see. I think the trip will be good for the soul.

Later this month I'm heading up to Northern Alberta for some visits. By then I should have found the cord for the camera so I can take some more photos. I filled up the only card I have been able to find a few weeks ago and can't download the photos to take more. LOL. Ah well...c'est la vie.

Guess I have procrastinated enough...off to finish the soup.

I owe emails and blog posts to a few of you. All coming some day soon. Things in GP are going great I've just been busy. Good busy. Hope everyone is well.

The girls are certainly enjoying the new apartment. They have so much room to run and play in. The large deck with wide ledge makes it great for kitties to explore and watch the world go by. Their giant kitty condo thingy is in the window and allows everyone a view outside even when I'm not at home.

Our stuff from FMM arrived on Monday morning and the PEI furniture, etc was picked up yesterday so soon there will be an apartment overflowing with stuff. Here's a few of the before pictures when I first arrived in the apartment.

The big deck.

 Yep, its a bathroom.

 The spare room for visitors. It will mostly be a craft room. And look--two windows with lots of light. Ah.

The shelving in the storage room. This is going to be great to have for off season stuff.

 The master bedroom. That's a twin mattress I bought to sleep on until the arrival of my furniture. The room might be a whole foot bigger than the other room....but I have decided it is mine.

 Living room. We were roughing it the first few days.

 Small galley kitchen but it works and its mine.

More photos when it is done.

Finally in Grande Prairie.

Arrived here yesterday afternoon about 10 minutes late for the pick up time of the two kitties. They were sitting so nicely in their kennel waiting for me. The lovely crazy cat lady who looked after them said they were wonderful and would be glad to have them back. And she will this Saturday as well.

I'm off to Canmore early Sunday morning. We are having a week long work thing and I am soooo looking forward to it. After the sessions I get to come back to GP and on Friday afternoon grab the keys to the new home and start to settle in. Ah, home again.

The girls are enjoying the hotel room. It has a living room/kitchenette area and I can hang out in the am drinking my tea while watching the news. It is almost like at home. They are not entirely sure of the surroundings and Tundra keeps crying out now and then for no reason that I can determine. Oh well. She has her 'little' sister to keep her company.

Not to wish our time away but I am sure they are looking forward to the 14th/15th as much as I am--even if they don't know it.

Just what every fur mom wants to hear....

"Great news! They arrived on the earlier flight today so they are here and settled already! The gals at the airport were fawning over them :-) They are such a cute pair!"

Of course they are cute--and well behaved. :)

Dropped the two fur babies off at the airport this am. They meowed when I separated them to get them downstairs but as soon as they were in the big kennel together they were quiet. They didn't say anything when I was with them at the airport. So much better behaved than most animals that arrived there so I'm told.

The movers arrived two days early--Saturday afternoon instead of Monday so it was a bit frantic that afternoon but no problem--I got it done. OK, the movers got it done. My stuff is now in storage awaiting my arrival in mid-September. The rest of my belongings will meet me in GP at the end of September. So very happy about that. I keep looking at the apartment layout and re-arranging all my furniture in my head. It will be very exciting to finally move in...and I will be kept busy for weeks re-arranging furniture. :)

 

 

Tundra behind the gate. Hudson was hiding in the back.

A couple of weeks ago we were lazy, happy kitties.

 Now we are traveling kitties again. Tundra loves to travel but it always worried she won't get fed. LOL

I bought a couple of paintings from a local artist. The two paintings on the board beside him are mine. I am not on vacation but what a  wonderful way to remember my time here in Fort Mac. I've been in a number of times to see his work. He does wonderful portraits. I love the smell of oil paint and turpentine in the shop.

And this past weekend I tried my hand at geocaching. What is it?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Geocaching is an outdoor recreational activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device^[2] and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name. Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (Tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value. Geocaching shares many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.
Geocaches are currently placed in over 200 countries^{[citation needed]} around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica,^[3] and the International Space Station.^[4] After more than 12 years of activity there are over 1.7 million active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.<sup>[5]

  
So there you have it. Here's a few pictures from the trip.

When you find a geocache you should sign it and let people know when you found it.</sup> 

 This is the cache I found. They don't all look like this.

 Can you see it?

No, look closer.....

 <sup>See the bolt behind the bolt....that's it.

I may have found  a fun new hobby.</sup>

A few more pictures from the June vacation...hey, I'm only 2 months behind.

Just a few random shots that I managed to upload from the Yukon/Alaska trip.