Crazy Cute

There were some crazy squirrels out and about at the farm a little while ago. They were of the crazy squirrel variety - you know, the ones that like to eat everything and destroy even more...so my dad set up some live traps to try and catch the sneaky little things before they did even more damage.

Then I came by and from a distance saw something in one of the traps. As I got closer...I could see it was a raccoon. A cute little semi-baby raccoon. That was all cute and little and was sitting with its head in its paws.

I felt so bad for it - and as I got closer I cooed over its cuteness and awwed over the fact that it was stuck in this trap.

It looked up at me with the worlds saddest puppy dog raccoon face and my heart melted.

And then it started making the WORLDS SCARIEST NOISE.

Yeah. It started HISSING and GROWLING at me.

WHO KNEW THAT RACCOONS COULD GROWL??????

Yeah, not me.

So todays lesson? Raccoons seem cute, sweet and innocent - until they pull out the CRAZY.

Love & Marriage

Did I mention that my friend Steph was getting married?

I forgot to?! How COULD I!?

Well it's true - My little Miss. Stephanie got herself married yesterday - and what a day we had!

Taping hems, flower fixing, a bright red dress, a four minute ceremony and a happy couple! We took a TON of pictures and I'm happy to say that they turned out REALLY well! Their photographer cancelled a little while ago (boo!) but it actually turned out more than great anyways because we had so many people taking pics that it was like the paparazzi was there and my lovely cousin came to help us get some group shots and the like so we have 8 million WONDERFUL photos that captured the beauty of the day!

It was a great day - low key - no stress, no worries. We went with the flow, chatted, ate good food, toasted to the happy couple and took a gagillion photos! All of the ones I took were on Steph's camera (which I had a little love affair with...ha) but I have a few (hundred) that my cousin took on my computer of the bride and groom gettin' themselves hitched at city hall and then coming out to the farm for fun and photos :)




The newlyweds as Thomas and I sign as their witnesses!





I wonder where they got married!? :P



Some of the goodies after - chocolate peanut butter cupcakes...YUM!

And then we just went about and took a bunch of cute photos! :)













I'm so happy for one of my best friends ever and her lovely HUSBAND!

Congrats!!!!!!!!!

Fuel Fairies

The other day I filled up my gas tank...paid the gas dude and went about my daily business.

Then the next day I did some driving, went home and yadda yadda.

The next day - I was all...driving around..when I was like..what the heck, yo. Car, I filled you up DAYS ago - and you're still at full. Are you MAGICAL!?

Thinking I had hit the motherload with a magical car I got all cocky and was about to start creating a song about how awesome I am in my magical car...Then suddenly - to my dismay, my gas tank was like...HA! GOTCHA! SUCKA! YOU TOTALLY FELL FOR THAT! HAHA! YOU LOSE! and the needle dropped.

Boo.

But the next time I got into my car? Totally more full than it had been before.

And after that - it would play a little game and alternate. Sometimes it would be full, sometimes it would have dropped a little - but it never got THAT low...

So I was all...what. the. heck?

And OF COURSE - the only logical conclusion to come to was that I had one of the mysterious, rarely seen but always sought after fuel fairies.

I know. Be jealous.

Knowing that the fuel fairy had found me in this time of need...when gas prices are stupid high and annoying...and knowing that I am full-o-awesome...well..you can imagine that I was pretty excited about my fuel tank being randomly filled up by magical little fairy-elf things.

But then - to my dismay...my car turned on..and the gas tank was all...DANGER WILL ROBINSON - DANGER!

And my fuel fairy was gone.

The orange light telling me I had no fuel was back.

And my bank account took a blow it never saw coming.

If I didn't know any better...I'd say my crap-a-licious car had decided that breaking itself more would be fun...good thing I'm in the know that stupid fuel fairies are notorious for getting peoples hopes up and leaving them on empty.

Jerks.

Country Girl Vs. City Girl

For the vast majority of my life...I have lived in the country.

It's where I feel comfortable. It's my home. It's lovely.

Sure, I was born in the city. Well - let me rephrase that. I was born in the "city" - I'll use that term loosely - as the place I was born is preeeeetty small (now it's BOOMING and it's population is above 70,000) and its demographic is just...weird. The saying goes that this town is "nearly wed or nearly dead"...and being a town with a university and a college - as well as about 178 nursing homes..it rings fairly true.

That being said - I moved outside of this "city" when I was 5. Returned when I was 17 for some schoolin' and have bopped back and forth since. It's not like it's THAT far away - my parents farm is only 20 minutes from the university.

Recently though, I've been staying at my cousins house in town..and it's a little bizarre.

When I lived in town before...I lived in residence on campus - which is unlike anything else in itself.

Then I lived in a house where our backyard basically merged with a giant field.

Next I moved to an apartment on the 7th floor of a building where all you could see was other apartments, where we generally kept our blinds closed as to not end up being creeped by people like the characters on Friends.

Now though - I'm in a very residential area.

It's friendly - it's cute.

But man...it's weird.

I'm so use to being like...la la la...I'm standing on my deck and can't see or hear anyone...whereas at their house...I'll go outside to sit on the deck...and there is someone else on their back deck looking at me...a kid in the yard nextdoor eating bugs and an old man duct taping his house back together (True story. Really happens. Not even joking a little bit.)

When I was little...we had two neighbours - both of who were (in city language) probably a block or two away from us. Down LONG rural driveways on the opposite side of the road. Unless we biked to see them in the summer - we couldn't just be all HOWDY NEIGHBOUR! Infact we never saw them unless we made the effort to see them, or yanno, saw them driving down our long backroad.

It's odd to get into your car first thing in the morning and wave to everyone else in suburbia as they also head off to start their day. Or collect the mail and bring in the recycling bins as everyone else on the street is doing it too.

To actively know stuff about your neighbours - when you've never met them.

And then get UBER creeped out because they probably know stuff about you - EVEN THOUGH THEY'VE NEVER MET YOU EITHER.

This city living thing is okay - but I'm not convinced it's for me.

Give me some neighbours I can wave to when we pass on the road, some fencelines and trees seperating us...not being able to know what anyone else is having for dinner without asking...and hanging out your laundry without wondering who is watching you...and I'm good.

AKA - A few acres, a cute little house..and neighbours off in the distance.

Yeah - I'm down.

Creeper

I have a confession.

A confession which most of you already know.

Which most of you probably would do too. Don't judge me.

I, am a creep-a-holic.

Now - in the age of facebook and the internets and all of that fun stuff...it's not difficult.

Only thing is - I feel like a super creeper.

You see - I was all...this isn't so creepy..until I thought about it. I actively went out of my way to search for (and find - my skillz are le awesome.) the blog of the girl who took over my job last year.

Actually - it wasn't that difficult. I just like to make myself sound AWESOME.

Anyways - the first time I searched I tried to use serach engines..but when people don't want to be found..they can just click that little box that lets them be unsearchable. Boo to hindering my creeping. Boo I say.

Next - I just started typing in random URL's based on information privy to anyone on facebook.

First URL? Winnah.

Kinda scary.

KIND OF AWESOME.

It's so interesting to read about her life there and be like..OMG! SO IT WASN'T JUST ME! ITS FOR REAL LIKE THAT!

To know that the same challenges, frustrations and situations occur.

To know that I'm not the one who was crazy and ridiculous.

I want to comment. I want to be like..I've been there, I know. I know what it's like..and I'm sorry for being in a good mood, for having my rose coloured glasses on when I talked to you. As much as I know that she's enjoying the travelling and the adventures..the job part...eck...kinda sucks. But I can't comment or write..because I'm terrified that if I comment...she'll be like..WHOA! HOW ARE YOU SUCH A SUPER CREEPER?! AND then get freaked out and censor herself and the hilarity that comes from me reading her blog - lmao.

It's funny too..because as I go through her blogs..I'm like...HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! I WROTE THAT POST! I'M SURE I DID! I KNOW I DID! And I go back and find an almost identicle blog post about something that they did or said or WHATEVER and I'm like..holy CRAP! How is that possible?!

And then I get freaked out and worry that she found my blog and is just duplicating it.

Except that..well..some of the stuff she writes about didn't happen to me. And we travelled to different places with different people. But the job part? I'm pretty sure that she's probably plagarizing my old blog.

Well. Except that that one had super high security settings because I was freaked out that they'd find it or someone else would find it and be a super creeper on my life there.

You know, kind of like how I'm being right now.

Whoops.

Love Is All You Need

This weekend was lovely.

Pure and simple - I was in a little bit of a funk. I was frustrated, exhausted and needed a break from life...it was needed.

So girls came from near and far...and we piled into my car...and we drove. And then we drove. And we drove some more. And then for fun..we drove a little bit more.

And we chatted and caught up. We laughed and smiled. And then we kept on driving.

Finally - three hours later - we arrived at our friend Carlys house.

From there - a million and a half more chats ensued. Laughter. Giggles. Far too many carbs. All sorts of awesome.

If you want some words that describe this girls night it goes a little like this: carbs, cheese, cards, chit chats, carrides, cute cats & chill.


There is no way that I can even begin to describe how much I loved hanging out with my girls last night.

It didn't matter that we were in a city we'd never been to before - that most of us hadn't even HEARD of before our Carly moved there for work. It didn't matter that we haven't had a chance to get together just the five of us..probably since our fourth year of university...where if more than a day or two went by without us all hanging out...it was absolutely craaaaaaaaazy. But it didn't matter that things have changed, that people have changed, that we've lived in other countries, travelled to other countries, gotten raises, new jobs, new boys, rings, houses, cars and all of those other things that happen in life. We sat around the coffee table in a living room like we've done a thousand, million times. We shared. We laughed. We reminissed. We talked about how we MUST be getting old...and we played our favourite games - yeah - we played bid euchre. In a word? AWESOME.

It made me happier than I could ever describe to have myself surrounded by people who I love so much..that love ME so much.

It made me grin from ear to ear to laugh and talk as if we were 18 again and sitting in residence blabbing away for hours...to just transport back to that time and realize that despite everything..some things never change.

And now - because I forgot/lost (?) my camera card somehow on the WAY to go visit the carly...I give you some oldschool pictures...because I took a bunch of pics..but they're all on CARLYS camera card..which is with..her...and not..me. Boo.

















Happy, silly, ridiculous, classy, and everything inbetween...love! :)

Wherein My Skin Crawls

Tonight I heard a little "arrahhh...Erin...will you...heeeeeeeelp meeeeeeeeeee" coming from upstairs.

Thinking that the dog had stolen something she wasn't supposed to have or the world was ending or some other disaster...I lept up the stairs like a klutz walking in pants that are too big up multiple flights of stairs like SUPERMAN TO THE RESCUE!

I inquired as to what I could do..and my cousin pointed to the bathtub.

Wherein I saw the most disgusting bug I've ever laid eyes on.



And I grew up in the country - I've seen some pretty disgusting bugs. And I'm not really afraid of them. I was *that girl* who would pick up spiders and taunt her bug hatin' friends with 'em....but alas...this little fella...well...he creeped the bejezus outta me.

In complete disbelief of what he could be I immediately ran and grabbed my camera to document what I could only imagine could be a strange new breed of GDB (gross disgusting bugs)...was he a spider? A caterpillar? Some sort of...hybrid? I didn't know....I just knew that he was disgusting.

And fast.

He ran around the bathtub like he was running a marathon.

Which of course got me even more freaked out.

Between the antenna on both ends of his body. The myriad of legs and the rigid nature of his body...I had no idea what I was up against when he started running.

But I did what I needed to do. I put on my big girl country pants and asked for my bug killin' tools..and smushed the heck out of that thing.

And then from underneath the paper towel I had covered it with BEFORE killing it...I could see it twitching - and being the kind person that I am...I didn't want it to suffer...so I smashed the living daylights out of it again.

And man - am I glad I did.

Because I googled that thing.

And it has eyes.

And venom.

AND LIKES TO FOOL THINGS INTO THINKING ITS DEAD BY TWITCHING AND RELEASING ITS INJURED LEG TO GET AWAY.

Let's just say - by the time I was done....it was not getting away.

Ugly gross thing couldn't fool a country girl like me.

And because I know you're all sitting on the edge of your seats worried - have no fear...the shoe is okay. It was protected by a brave piece of paper towel (which sadly, gave up its life for our dear shoe...) and is now resting comfortably and recuperating after being sterilized where all traces of possible contamination were removed.

And now yours truly wants to go and have a shower to remove any possible trace evidence of gross off of herself...and to stop her skin from feeling as though bugs are crawling all over it...but she fears that she is probably scarred for life from showering...seeing as though the worlds most gross disgusting bug climbed out of the drain today.

Vicious cycle. Vicious, vicious cycle.

Tetris Addict

Sometimes I like to hide from the world.

When there is lots going on and tons for my brain to process...I hide.

Well, I don't REALLY hide. I'm here. I just...don't do much.

I sit on my computer and stare at the screen...I read books..I watch tv...I do anything to avoid thinking about the real world, real life or all of the things I should be doing.

One of my favourite ways to hide, to forget about the world...is to play tetris. I play and play and play...and forget everything else. I play so much that I don't even need to hit up my favourite online free tetris website...I just close my eyes before falling asleep and all I see is tiny little multi-coloured blocks falling down...and then I put them into place.

I don't need no stinkin' technology. My brain does it for me.

That being said...during my waking hours...I do play.

And lately - I play A LOT.

I would just like to point out how much hiding I must be doing...because..well..last night I sat down and played...and got the highest score I'm pretty sure ANYONE has ever gotten.

My previous high score was something like...level 40.



I must be stressed. Level 71? Seriously? I dare you to try and beat that. It takes a lot of stress and a lot of hiding..this I promise you.

Hurry Up! Hurry Up!

I forgot how much I love some of my old university friends.

It's going on a few years since I've finished university..and it's starting to hit me how much I miss certain people and how nice it was to have everyone in the same town for those lovely years which we spent in university together.

The other night at Jenna & Jeff's house though...our other friend Jeff was there..and I walked in and he gave me the biggest hug...and it brought me right back to our university days...he's always given super good hugs..and there is just something comforting about being like...we don't live in the same city, we rarely see each other...so many things in our respective lives have cahnged...but we can still just see each other, give each other a hug..and it's like nothing has changed.

I love that comforting feeling of being hugged by a familiar friend. Just seems to make the world better - no matter what is going on.

I love Jeffrey hugs - it makes life happy.

Another thing that makes my life happy? My bestest university girls randomly getting together in a strange city where one happens to be living...so that we can eat far too much food, catch up on all of the gossip in our respctive lives..play some card games...be a little ridiculous and probably stay up WAY too late giggling.

Oh weekend - hurry up! More of those 'old familiar friend' gatherings are waiting for me!

Dinner Partays

Tonight I headed over to my friend Jenna's house for a BBQ.

Something that we've done a million, bazillion times.

But something that we haven't been doing much lately..as, well, it's only just become BBQ season..and because I've been uber anti-social/tired/blah/etc. lately as a general rule in life.

But tonight, we gathered. And it was fun :)

....It was a crazy wakeup call though.

That we're getting old. And older. And older still.

That maybe we're not just getting old..but we're also growing up.

The boys had cooked at the BBQ while the girls gossiped around the kitchen..

Instead of talking about cute boys and music videos...we now talk about rings and furniture and whose having babies when.

Instead of throwing together some bought burgers onto a paper plate and eating off your lap...we had homemade burgers with potato salad and roasted veggies. On real plates. At a dining room table. WITH SERVING DISHES. Delicious?....yes. Grownup?...Oh boy you betcha.

Instead of leaving the dishes where they were and forgetting about them..the girls gathered up everything and tidied up...put the leftovers away and wiped down the table.

And then the boys made ridiculous jokes and comments about this, that and the other thing.

And suddenly we were 18 again.

I had rewound seven years.

We were these silly little kids. Making each other laugh. Loving life. Being ridiculous.

And I missed those times.

I love grown up dinner parties. I always have. They make my heart happy..but sometime..you just can't beat laughing so hard you're trying hard not to spit out what you're eating.

That's the sign of a REAL dinner partay.

Ketchup Terrors

I'm weird.

If you know nothing else about me..you probably know this.

But of course, this weirdness presents itself ONLY in awesome ways.

This is just general knowledge, and although I don't HAVE to write it - I thought it'd be nice to just...state some facts.

Like the fact that I have a fear of ketchup.

Now I know you're all scratching your heads and being like..what the heck Erin? You LOVE you some ketchup.

And you're right. I DO love me some ketchup.

But it also scares me. Bunches.

For obvious reasons - such as the fact that it doesn't look or taste ANYTHING like the thing it comes from...but also for not so obvious..very peculiur reasons..that don't have any explanation or make any sense.

If I were going to eat french fries..you're darn right I'd love some ketchup on those. Yup, dump a puddle of it on my plate and let me dip away - yum!

Hamburgers? Sure!

Well - as long as I don't have to put it on myself.

If I have to put it ON food myself - and am not just dipping something into it..yeaaaah...no.

I'm not so down with that.

I won't put ketchup on my own burger, or hotdog or anything else like that.

It flat out freaks me out.

But sure - I'll eat it on a burger or other food - if you put it on there for me. And you're darn right that I'll enjoy it - lots. Well, as long as I don't have to see you putting it on. That kind of freaks me out too. And when it's really cold. Ew.

Make me put it on myself though...and I'll avoid it like the plague. Mustard? Yes please! Relish? Of course! It's one of the most overlooked condiments EVER! But ketchup?

Yeah. Kinda freaks me out.

You have my complete and utter permission to judge me...now.

The Coffee Date Crasher

Tonight I went out for coffee with one of my bestest friends, Rhiannon.

Now - Rhi and I lived together for many a year.

We get each other.

We can not talk for weeks, and then it's like..wha-bam - didn't I see you yesterday?

Yet we can hang out 24/7...and never run out of things to talk about.

When we haven't seen each other or been able to catch up for a while..coffee dates are our thing.

We order a large of something (the coffee part of the date is optional - especially when they often take place late at night..) and sit.

And then we talk. And talk. And talk some more.

We people watch.

We talk about the latest this or that.

We share what's been up in our respective lives.

And we have spent countless hours...just sitting. Often in ONE sitting.

Yeah - we've been known to have to have multiple pee breaks and multiple warm beverages in one night - because we've been sitting at 'our table' for 3, 4 or 5 hours. Just chatting.

It's kind of our thing.

Well - tonight...she had to run an errand..and then she had to run another one at the last second...so I came with her...as did her fiance. We were going to drop him off before we went for coffee..but he said that he'd come with us since we were driving right by 'our' coffee place anyways.

He had no idea what he was getting himself into.

After eating some food and drinking his drink...we'd barely made a dint into our drinks OR or conversation..and he was staring at us like we were crazy...as if he couldn't believe that this was ACTUALLY what we did when we said we were going for coffee.

I'm pretty sure he thought that we were going to some wild crazy party whenever we said we were having coffee...and just wanted to check up on us. But no...it's what we do.

After 15-20 minutes he was like..yeaaaaaaaah...we either need to leave or I need to walk home...I'm way too bored for this...so we headed on back to their place where Rhi and I continued our marathon chats and warm drinks..while he zombied out via videogames.

I don't think that he'll be crashing anymore of our coffee dates in the near future...ha! There are just some things in life that the opposite sex doesn't seem to be able to understand...and evidentally women's coffee dates may be one of those things.

Crazy Going Slowly Am I...

As I was lying on the couch in an extreme bout of lazy...I smelt..burning.

Campfire.

Smoke.

So of course I freaked out.

And was like...OMG!WHATSONFIREIVEGOTTOPUTITOUT!AHH!

I glanced around - nothing.

I looked at the fireplace - not on.

I looked everywhere.

I checked the stove.

The furnace.

Even the BATHROOMS for some sort of source of fire.

Thing is though - it didn't smell like smoke anymore.

So I went back to being lazy and lying on the couch...

And then..as soon as I sat down...I smelt burning again.

What the heck?!

I got up...and I didn't smell it.

I sat down...and I smelt it.

Up - yep.

Down - nope.

Fearing my sanity...I turned to my cousin..and with all seriousness was like...why do I smell burning only when I sit down?? What's WRONG with me?

Thinking a brain tumor or some other weirdo neurological disease (Yes, I have been watching to much Grey's Anatomy)...my mind only stopped racing when my cousin looked around, laughed and then pointed out the treat that one of the dogs was chewing while lying on the couch beside me. A treat that just so happened to have a weird, bizarro smokey flavour - and made everything within its reach smell like...burning.

Diagnosis? Not crazy.

At least not in this particular situation :)

Icecream Cake + Lazy = Lucky # 100

So today I've been all bummy. You know, doing nothing. As some of you may say, I'm taking a day off...whatever THAT means. It's a new phenomenon these days...but not an unwelcome one. In the summer I work a lot, and it's busy...maple season also happens to be busy like that...which means that days off are few and far between.

Despite having the day off...I've been up since 5:30am. Yep. Of course. The day that I CAN sleep in, I'm up in the wee hours of the morning...figures. So by the time 10am rolls around...I was working on my fourth load of laundry (So many clean clothes! And towels! And sheets! Huzzah!), I had loaded and unloaded the dishwasher..and then found some more dishes to tuck away in there for another load of dishes. I'd taken out the garbage, sorted the recycling, folded 2 loads of laundry and put clean sheets on three beds. I'd tidied up my room, scrubbed all of the counters and whatnot...fed the birds and the cat...and even changed the cat litter.

Oh, and I watched a movie. AND showered.

I was a busy, exhausted-but-can't-sleep bee. Evidentally early mornings are productive? Who knew?

Generally the sand man has my complete and total attention at these time of the day - but for some reason...I was all...able to get stuff done.

After doing my tidying and cleaning and general fun like that...I was bumming around reading random blogs and noticed Amanda's post about her next post being her 100th on her blog.

Out of sheer curiousity and boredom I was like...hmm..I wonder how many posts I'VE written in this blog.

So I looked - and found...that I also had written 99. And that my next would be my 100th. Sometimes I'm convinced that Amanda and I are twins. Except different quite different. Besides the whole..living in Peru, being married and yadda yadda...basically the same person.

Anyways! To think - I almost missed the occasion! Luckily - my almost-but-not-quite twin was all over that.

I've been blogging, journaling and writing in various places for the vast majority of my life...so I guess it's not THAT big of a deal...but it's always fun to celebrate..because who doesn't like to celebrate?!

So in celebration I am watching fireworks...and eating icecream cake (Awesome.)

Okay. Not real fireworks. But I did win a game of solitare and it's now shooting off fireworks on my computer screen..which has gotta count for...something? AND I really really really AM eating icecream cake (for real - not just virtually!) - and we all know that icecream cake is REALLY what matters in life anyways.

So here's to the next 100 posts..should anyone actually ever have read the last 100 and care to read the next ones :P

And should you be in the area...come on over and have some icecream cake to celebrate. And while you're at it..bring me another slice. After my cleaning spree this morning I've been lying on the couch and fear that I've permenently attached myself to it and will need more sugar infused with reese's peices to gain enough energy to drag myself to bed...and am feeling a little too lazy to go and get myself some more of that delish cake fun. This just in - sugar infused girl going craaaaaaaaaazy and needs more sugaaaaaar.

So come one, come all..and bring sugar. Stat.

A to the We to the Some.

Let's not beat around the bush.

I have many awesome qualities.

I mean..common..I'm ME...How much more awesome can you get?

(You can stop laughing now)

(Okay...really, stop)

(No seriously...you need to stop)

(Okay..you're kinda bruising my ego now...)

But SERIOUSLY folks.

I'm just filled with bunches-o-awesome.

Take today for example.

We're nursing a sick goat back to health (yeah, it's what I do...erm?) and I was trying to feed her some apple. And I was like...WHA-BAM with my mighty powers of awesome and ripped that thing in half. And then in quarters. WITH MY BARE HANDS.

See? I told you. A-W-E-S-O-M-E.

I mean..between THAT..my ability to pick up things with my toes (Ha. I just made my friend Carly puke a little in her mouth...I'm SURE of it.)and my ability to remember random useless facts...how much more awesome can you want in a person? Much more and I'm sure it would be an awesome overload.

Okay. This post is done. Filled with way too much laughter regarding my levels of awesome...Pssh.