I am stuffed... just like that turkey I ate only not as tasty

What a great weekend! The things I am grateful for are too numerous to mention. My world is pretty good. Kevin and I move into our new place at the end of this month, Hank the Tank wonderpuppy is now with us, I have great family, super friends, a good job and time to do the things I love. I really am thankful for everything. Well except the 20 extra pounds, but who's paying attention...

My backyard paradise

"It's my little foothill's heaven on this Northern Rocky Range... my favorite place to be and mr. that ain't gonna change"
- Corb Lund

We just bought our first home together. I am sooo excited! It's a little house on 10 acres in an area outside of town called Sunrise Valley. It's so beautiful, surrounded by rolling hills and views of the mountains in the distance with not a neighbor in site. I can't wait to move in!

Sweet Enough

3 days ago I made the decision to cut sugar out from my diet due to my addict like behaviour. I ATE AN ENTIRE SOUP BOWL OF PEANUT BUTTER ICING. It was very tasty and very gross all the same time. So goodbye sugar. I am addicted to you and that is not cool. New plan: fruits and veggies are okay but anything with sugar added is not. The first 2 days of my new meal plan were complete hell. I got headaches, I was hungry ALL THE TIME. It was ridiculous. I'd eat a chicken breast and some veggies, my tummy would feel full but at the same time I would be hungry.

??????? Hell.

It's day 3. I'm feeling much much better. However, my new challenge seems to be the fact that sugar is in EVERYTHING. No pre-package or processed foods of anykind for me. Looks like I'll be making everything from scratch.

Meet Hank!

Kevin thinks it's a good idea to do one major thing at a time. Meaning: He thinks we should buy a house and then start thinking about a puppy. I much prefer doing everything all at once. Meaning: Although the deal could still fall through on the house, I've found us a puppy and he's ours for the picking up Thanksgiving weekend.

Meet Hank!  His mom is German Shepard X and his dad is a St. Bernard X.

How could I not! I'm totally in love with his face!

Fat & Happy

My life over the past 7 months has been a whirlwind of awesomeness. I met a boy and I fell in love and although that in itself is pretty wicked, that boy and I are going through the process of purchasing our first home and adopting one extremely cute puppy. Life is great, so great that I've gained 35lbs! Not only am I happy, I'm fat. Fat and happy.

I want to do something about it. I want lose weight so I've been reading a bunch of blogs from people who are chronicling their weightloss journey. Problem is almost every blogger I've read, "LOVES FOOD" and I hate it. I hate to cook, so I eat out A LOT or I grab whatever's easiest which in most cases is the box of KD or whatever I can find that cooks in the microwave. When I get hungry I need to eat like now. So that handful of chocolate chips or chunk of cheese while I'm cooking my healthy meal is rather unproductive. I hate it that in order to diet, food has to consume my life. I need to plan, prepare and record. I can't handle all the thinking that has to go into eating.  When I diet I do great in the beginning. I pick 4 or 5 different dishes and I eat them over and over and over again. It's great! Until life gets in the way of my routine. I'm not trying to make excuses, I know there is no easy way and I just have to suck it up and do it. However I am desperately looking for something that works for me and my busy, routine-free lifestyle.

Please let me know if you have any pointers. Otherwise, stay tuned as I take the "fat" out of  fat and happy.

Canada Day & July 4th

OMG I love Corb Lund. It's no secret He performed, I watched, resulting in the BEST. CANADA DAY. EVER.

The show was put on by a charity group raising funds for solar panels. It started out with a local rock group called the Michael James Band, then we heard from a local punk band called Rejects. Both were ok. Nothing special but good listening. Then a band out of Vancouver named Hey Ocean! got up on stage. I've seen this band perform a small set once before and I remembered them being decent. So I was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be much better than I remembered. Kind of a Feist crossed with Jack Johnson feel to them.

As for Corb he was as amazing as always, and the outdoor venue suited him. What I'd really like to know is, where he got his beer from? The venue was dry but Corb had beer. Corb always has beer. Loved it. It was my 5th Corb Lund show and I can't wait for the next one.

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A hiking we shall go! Saturday was my first ever northern bc hiking adventure. We went to Tumbler Ridge where they have TONNES of great trails and some amazing scenery. There is just one catch:



I am scared SHITLESS of bears. I think if I ever saw one while wandering the wilderness, I would probably die of fear. I braved it, me and my bear bell. I'm glad I did, because this is what I saw...






Also I put on a bit of a mountain top gun show wearing my awesome I'm not Benny t-shirt:



Can't wait till our next adventure :)

My pretty little Lilianna

When I first moved back, it didn't take long for me to realize I was bored. I needed something to do, I wanted a horse.

Lucky me, my mom has a whole pasture full of horses and she owes me one. I just had to pick one out. So I went out into the pen and had a look. In that pen was Lil, Jack, and Nifty. I spent some time and decided I wanted Jack. I told my mom and she replied "You can't have Jack, he's sold, you can have Lil" I didn't want Lil, I wanted Jack. I wasn't taking "second best" so I decided I would just buy one instead.

Well months went by and there were a couple of close calls but nothing worked out. Finally when everything at the horse sale went for more money than I could afford, and after a lot of convincing from our horse trainer, I decided that I would settle for Lil.

This is my Lil:




I've been riding her for just over two months now and she is awesome! Best. Horse. Ever.