Bookshelves, Bob, Birthdays

I have bookshelves!!!!!! Matt did me the favor of putting them together while I watched him. haha. Okay i helped a little. Now that I just thought of it, I should take pictures of the books actually on them.. um.. but i wasn't that prepared.. so that will wait until a later post! But here's the bookshelves in action.

We have a psychology club at trinity and i am the president. ha. Anyway, we had a kickoff the other night and watched What About Bob. It was pretty fun.
The other night it was Kristen's birthday and we rang it in by doing homework at Denny's until midnight and beyond. it was pretty fun. She even got a brownie! So Happy birthday Kristen!!! (belated)

Could, Cord, Cut

So, I have been wanting to post every night but i have no idea where I put my camera cord so I cannot upload all my amazing and exciting photographs. Sad day. I lost my camera charger too. Well, not really lost, but it's somewhere in my house and I have NO idea where. Dang. So this post would be a lot more exciting with that cord if I could upload the photos cuz then i'd have stuff to inspire me.

Instead I took a couple of photos of myself for your viewing pleasure. Okay, well I cut and dyed my hair, so I thought I'd show and tell. :) Let me know what you think of the new do. I love it.
Presently I am stressed. I thought I was taking it easy this semester but now I realize I'm taking five classes, being a T.A. for two profs, volunteering a bunch every week, working two days a week, involved in some stuff during the week and plus I am doing my thesis so i have a dumpload of research to do. bah. but today i changed the topic of my thesis and am way more excited and into it than before. But I will talk more about that some other time perhaps. or not, because it's research and might be confidential. Hmmm..

Anyway. I'm tired and sick. So I'm off to bed. But hope you all have a lovely day.

I leave you with a quote and a countdown:

"Familiarization, in a word, makes it unnecessary to attend, to think to feel, to live fully, to experience richly." -Abraham Maslow

Hmm.. wonder where in my life I'm a bit too familiar or comfortable...

Countdown:
5 days until October (I say that in a doomsday sort of way because I keep thinking it's a month away)
8 days until I go to Las Vegas!! YAY!

Tasty, Theft, Turn-Off

So I can't get this not to underline, so underlined it is. I saw these pictures on someone's blog and it made me laugh really hard so I thought I would share it with you. These are anti-theft lunch bags. Think about it. Your sandwich will never get stolen again. I didn't realize sandwich stealing was such a big deal anyway... Enjoy.

Birthday, Broccoli, Beautiful, Boiling

This past weekend was absolutely beautiful and it is still beautiful out! I do like the sunny weather, but I prefer the sun when it is really cold out. So silly me has been wearing jeans and warm clothes trying to bring on the colder weather. It's not working and I just end up boiling hot and sweaty. Lovely.

I have a kitchen table!! YAY!!! I picked my brother up from Abbotsford this morning and drove him to the mechanic's in Coquitlam and luckily his truck just needed to be drained and then it worked fine!! yippee!! Then he dropped my furniture off on his way home. As soon as Matt came upstairs this morning, he started putting together the table, so that was nice. In fact, I am sitting at the table right now! Pictures to come soon. (not that I could take multiple pictures of a table... actually maybe I could).

Last night, I went out for my friend Amy's birthday. Amy, Amy and Laura were all there. They all graduated last April and I really miss seeing them and hanging out with them at Trinity. So it was great to see them all again and have some good laughs! Afterwards Amy and I had a fun time hanging out in my vehicle in the parking lot.. haha! good times.

Laura and I

Amy (birthday girl) and I
Happy birthday Amy!!!! (hope you're actually reading this to read that personalized greeting to you on my ever so illustrious blog. lucky.

This is me and my broccoli salad. I realized today that my grapes were going to go bad and I LOVE broccoli salad (hate broccoli by itself though) so I went grocery shopping and bought broccoli and came home excited to make the salad. I realized then that I didn't have a key ingredient: vinegar. I read somewhere that you can replace it with red wine, but that didn't seem like it would do.

So off to Costco I went. I figured I had already been to the grocery store and I needed to buy a couple things at Costco. I bought a freezer, a garbage can and 10 litres of vinegar. HA! ya, ten is right. I was going to buy one 5L jug which already seemed a bit much but I figure it can't go bad. Turns out you have to buy it in the two pack. haha.. And I really wanted salad and really didn't want to go back to the grocery store, so I caved and bought 10 L. So I have copious amounts of vinegar if anyone ever wants to come over for vinegar shots. Yum.

And starting now I am going to post recipes of the exciting things I make (because I'm SO domestic now that I have my own home.. haha)

So here's the recipe for the broccoli salad. Okay I don't have exact quantities, but this will have to do:

Broccoli Salad

a bunch of broccoli cut up finely
bacon bits or bacon cut up into little pieces
red grapes cut in halfers
raisins (i didn't add those, but sometimes I like to..)

dressing:
-1/4 cup vinegar (NOT 10 L)
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 cup mayo (I usually add half no fat sour cream or yogurt to lessen the fat)

Mix vinegar and sugar together. Add mayo or other stuff you decide to add. The mix it with the salad, and eat it. Tastes especially good the second day when it's all soaked in. Mmmmmm

Not sure if this recipe interests you or is even remotely useful but I had fun sharing it with you all!! Stay tuned for more! :)

And now that I have maximized my procrastination, I will sign off.

I'll leave you with a countdown (figured I haven't had one in a while...):

3 days until the weekend!
6 days until UPSI kickoff (psych club at school)
17 days until girls weekend in Vegas!! Woo hoo!!

Floor, Fun, Frustrating

All right, well since my photos are posted backwards I will go through it backwards. We don't have a kitchen table yet. Well actually we do. But it's in the back of my brother's pick up truck in Coquitlam which is a story I will get to later on... I picked up a plastic table from home and we decided to use it to hold our food while we ate on the floor. Tonight we made sausage, eggs and pancakes for dinner and it was fantastic. Mmmm.. Tasted amazing on the floor. I'm really just trying to build up an appreciation in us for tables... we take them for granted too often, right?

Last night, my housemates, Heidi, Matt and I suddenly decided we wanted ice cream. So in a moment of high energy, we decided to drive to the store. Well first we drove by Denny's to creep through the window at two of our friends studying there. They only noticed the vehicle right outside the window when we called them...it was funny though. Anyway, after some hilarity in the grocery store, we finally agreed to disagree and we all bought our own flavors of ice cream that we wanted. So we had an ice cream party in my new egyptian bowls. good times.

Okay.. So now the ikea story. I hate ikea. I have now been there twice in my life and it just hasn't been all round positive experiences. My brother lent me his truck and the gas tank was empty. So I thought I'd do him a favor and fill the whole thing up. Um.. his old truck was regular gas. Who was to know the new one was diesel? Hmmmm.. So I filled it up and we drove off to Ikea. We went shopping and bought a bunch of stuff.. and then the vehicle wouldn't start. Weird. Didn't sound like a dead battery though. Hmm.. so i called my brother and he thought i was joking when i told him i filled it with gas. oops. Sigh. So we got bcaa to come which was kind of funny because my brother's truck was way bigger than the tow truck. They took it across the street and the garage was just closing... so they let us park it inside until monday when they could look at it. They say they will just need to pump the gas out and it should be fine, so I hope that is the case. Sigh. Oh for adventures with my brother's truck. If you don't remember the last one, see here.

We walked to Dairy Queen in the middle to grab some lunch/dinner while waiting. All in all such a great time!! hee hee...
I can't believe the weekend is over. It flew by so fast!! I feel like I got nothing done. Okay, that's probably because I didn't. Shucks. School is a little stressful presently. Because I"m not organized and I'm takign two classes during the same time block. So being a person who never misses class.. makes it stressful that I've missed the first three for the one class. ahhh..

Until next time!

House, Home, Holler!!

The other day Chrystal and I went to the Backstreet Boys Concert which was pretty fun. Although I was pretty deaf by the end, because Chrystal was screaming so loud while Girlicious was opening. Didn't know she was such a big fan. (okay, slight sarcasm here)...

And now for the longly anticipated pictures of my home!! I am missing pictures of three of the bedrooms, because two of them are people living in them and one is full of boxes of books and boxes containing bookshelves that need to be put together!! So here is the first shot of pictures. The place needs a bit of work but for now it works just fine and I love it!
This is my back porch and it has a beautiful view of the mountains. There will soon be a bbq out there so I can bbq some meat. Mmmm..
Two of my paintings on the wall-from Peru and from Cuba

My corner shot of chests and a tree. The shot of the living room table is missing.. because I don't have one yet.
This is my living room with super comfy couches and my painting from Guatemala above the fireplace! Very cozy and fun to sit in. Oh, and my carpet from Turkey on the floor! :) Let's just say my mom's living room looks a lot emptier now.. These were actually my dad's couches, so it's kind of neat to have them in my place now.

My kitchen!! It's nice and spacious compared to some of the other places I saw and it's great.. it's just missing a kitchen table which I will hopefully purchase tomorrow!

My garage which fits two vehicles and four bikes nicely.

My piano and guitar and drum playing area. I will soon be putting a big couch down here with a tv but i didn't take a picture of the location where it will be because it's just empty for now.
Not sure why they built a huge three man desk with a bright green counter into their basement.. but it's there. and it's kind of ugly, but I'm using it as desk space for now and it works just great!

My bathroom. or the wall of it.. I like to display all the different necklaces I've got from my travels and that way int he morning it's easier to choose which one I want to wear! :) I also have a bathroom journal which I love love love. If you ever come to my house, you will have to go to the bathroom and write in the journal. I figure people have books for others to read or magazines, so I have a bathroom journal and it contains "thoughts thought while in vanessa's bathroom". I love going back and reading it and it's pretty fun to see who's all been in my bathroom! haha.. You might think I'm strange but I think it's a great idea! :)
This is my bedroom. Actually.. this picture makes it look really small but it's bigger and it has an amazingly huge window seat that has a beautiful view of trees and mountains. I think I had stuff over there that I didn't want in the picture. haha

So that is the virtual tour of my house except for three bedrooms and two bathrooms which you didn't see-perhaps I will post pictures of those some other day! If you're ever in the area come visit! :)

Tomorrow Chrystal and I are off to Ikea to see if I can buy a table and chairs for the kitchen. I strongly dislike Ikea. I ahve refused to go there my entire life until last week when I went with my mom. I was grumpy and really sick and ran over an open wound on my toe with the cart.. haha.. so i dont' think it contributed well to my experience. So tomorrow hopefully the experience will be redeemed as Chrystal has declared it her life long goal to get me to love Ikea! haha.. Hopefully she'll be successful, and if not, hopefully at least I come home with a table!

Thanks for waiting for the pics! Hope you enjoyed!

Camp, Cayak, Crazy

More pictures from camp! And yes, I am aware that I spelled Kayak wrong in the title. It's artistic license... Here's my flip flops enjoying the lake.











We had a lot of fun playing around on the playground and doing a mini photo shoot there. Lots of good motion jumping pictures!





Okay, so next post will have pics of my new place! I just have to take them! haha.. So stay tuned and comment so I will be motivated to post them sooner. ;)