Day 31 - A photo of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day

Day 29 - A photo of your favourite memory

I have lots of nice memories... It was hard to pick  my "favourite"

I really liked getting married..

I was super happy to graduate from UBC..

I have enjoyed many vacations.. 

Anyways I found this picture when I was looking through a box of old pictures and I thought I would put it on here! I only have a vague recollection of this occasion, but I remember bits. I've always liked this picture of my dad and I. We're at the Enchanted Forest, probably on our way to/from Prince George or something.

Day 28 - A picture of your favourite musical instrument

 

I like hearing the Trumpet. I love big band-type jazz music! 

 

Simon and I went to see Handel's Messiah a couple weeks ago and at the end the trumpets join the orchestra (mostly string instruments). I thought that the sound the trumpets added was wonderful and made the orchestra seem more complete! Simon on the other hand was hoping for some saxophones! The trumpet player who did a solo in Handel's Messiah was amazing as well! We both went away saying that she was the best! And I believe that everyone else in the audience thought so too, from the loud applause she got!

Day 27 - A photo of something you wish you were better at

Knitting! I tried making mittens for Christmas presents this year.. I even started in October! 

I only got about an inch into the mitten and school got busy so I forgot about them, and then it was too late to have them ready for Christmas. I think maybe if I start again now they might be ready for NEXT Christmas :p

(This is not my mitten, taken from Google images)

Day 26 - A photo of your favourite book

These are some of my favourite bookes, but I can't necessarily say my absolute favourites, just the ones that came to mind right now. 

I really like the Love Comes Softly series by Janette Oke. I think I must have read it 5 or 6 times throughout my life so far! I have my mom's set of the books and have been adding to it since this series goes on sale for $2-3 each book! 

Mine definitely don't look this nice though, same cover and all, but dog-eared and sometimes wrinkled from being dropped in the bath... oops!

Simon got me this book for my birthday. I have read it at least once before, but it's great! It's a thick book, but I got through it pretty quick! Can't put it down!

Day 25 - A photo of your day

Merry Christmas!!!

Day 24 - A photo of somewhere you'd love to travel

Two places I have ALWAYS wanted to go are Australia and Greece. 

Both nice and warm with gorgeous blue ocean!

I was very close to going to Greece once, but my plans fell through. There's a sailing-type course I would love to do one day through the Capernwray Kingfisher project in Greece. Simon would like to do this too! You get to learn to sail on one of their boats in the Greek Islands! Sounds perfect!  Sometimes Simon and I joke that we shouldn't ever have kids and just travel with the money we'd have :p Seems nice sometimes, like when there's a screaming kid in a store...

Australia would be fun! I love koalas, so seeing one in person would be super awesome! Also, one of my close friends lives in Australia, and has for 5 or 6 years! Seeing her in her "natural habitat" would be great!!

For now I will travel between Ottawa and Vancouver!

Happy Christmas Eve!

Day 23 - A photo of something you want to do before you die

I would like to speak 5 languages in my lifetime... 

English..

French...

 German...

 Japanese...

 And Sign language or Russian... or maybe both! 

Day 22 - A photo of someone who inspires you

My brother Colin. 

He's smiling (a silly smile) even while undergoing chemotherapy! 

And he was so positive with a great faith right up to the end of his life here.

If only more people could be like him.

Day 21 - A photo of your favourite band or artist

Celine Dion!!!!

Simon got me tickets to see her in concert a couple years ago for my birthday. This is a picture from the show, but it isn't mine, we were much further back, although I enjoyed it just as much!!!

Day 18 - A photo of what you ate today

I know I missed Day 18, but my dad just emailed me and asked what happened to it.. so I will do it now!

I was in Toronto for the weekend and didn't have all the technology to do all this.. (okay well I did but I was on mini-vacation and this day would've taken more effort that I would have liked)

So on Saturday Dec 18 I ate... 

 

Grilled cheese sandwiches and Chicken noodle soup for lunch...

  

And Chicken Cacciatore with spaghetti for supper!

Day 20 - A photo of something you're afraid of

 

Turbulence!!!!  

Cause I'm not really scared of flying necessarily..

Day 19 - A photo of you and your mom

 

My mom and I when Simon and I were engaged (top right), At my cousin's wedding (below) and the largest picture is my mom and I at my graduation in 2009 :) 

Day 17 - A photo of last summer

Okay so this one is kinda funny cause yesterday I had a collage of Simon and I from last summer, but I'll try and find something new for you!

This is me somewhere in the Niagara-on-the-Lake region. We stopped to buy some peaches and it happened to be on the side of the road next to a field of sunflowers, so I had to take a picture!

 

This is me and a beluga whale at Marineland in Niagara Falls :) Everybody loves Marineland!

Hehe I just had to throw this in... It's Simon at Marineland in front of the cafeteria :p

Day 16 - A photo of your favourite weekend

 

This is when Simon and I went to Niagara Falls for our anniversary, last summer. When I thought of my favourite weekend I thought of this immediately. I think I liked it cause it was summer and we had both been working lots etc through the summer, so it was nice to get away! A few things we did that are included in these pictures are... the maid of the mist, fireworks, a wine tour, a blue jays baseball game in Toronto and the Greek 'Taste of Danforth' festival in Toronto! 

It was a fun road trip :)

Day 15 - A photo of a night you loved

One night that comes to mind right away was this one...

Agggh I couldn't find the picture I wanted... well I might be able to, but I don't feel like it.. I'm tired and it's not on the computer already... 

Anyways It was when Simon and I went to Beauty and the Beast play in Vancouver. 

Here's some pictures of the play that I found online... 

Day 14 - A photo of your town

Ottawa! 

 

In the Summer, Spring, Fall and Winter!

The top left photo is the view across the Ottawa River valley. it's hard to imagine Ottawa in a valley cause there aren't really any mountains, but here you go, proof! This photo is taken in Quebec though! 

Then of course the typical Ottawa sights such as the Parliament buildings and the canal and I thought I'd throw in the U of O sign!

Day 13 - A photo of something you enjoy doing

What do I enjoy doing!? Well I can tell you that I learned in one of my classes that in order to define something you can describe what  it's not! I can tell you that I do not enjoy doing homework! Although I do enjoy getting good grades (and scholarships, woo!) I also do not particularly enjoy unloading the dishwasher! I don't mind washing dishes in the sink or loading the dishwasher, but do not like putting clean dishes away!

I do like sewing :) I made this sweatshirt for my build-a-bear when I first got my sewing machine :)

 I also really enjoy cooking and baking!  

I also really like saying: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! 

Day 11 - A photo of one of your classes & Day 12 - A photo of you on a school trip

Day 11- A photo of one of your classes

Although this is where I go to school now....

I wanted to share this fun picture from High School with you :)

This is my French Immersion class is grade 12. There weren't many of us, as you can see! But it was a fun class, as you can also see!

Day 12 - A photo of you on a school trip

A school trip??? When is the last time I've been on a school trip??? I can't think of one since High school at least!

I knew I had this picture tucked away somewhere. It's from a grade 7 class trip! It was so much fun, a very memorable trip. We were studying religions and got to go to the Vancouver area for the day and visited a Buddhist temple, a Synagogue, a Sikh temple (where we are in the picture), and I want to say somewhere else, but I can't think of any more that we could have visited (other than a church), nor can I remember any other experiences! So this is me and my closest grade 7 friends at a Sikh temple!

Day 10 - A photo of you at the last party you went to

 This is Simon and I (and Josie) at Sophie and Jeff's for supper one night in October... It wasn't necessarily a party, but we did have ice cream cake! And really, every time we go to Sophie and Jeff's it's a parrrtaaay!

I have a confession... Simon's work Christmas party was last weekend, so that is technically the last party I went to, but unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

While we're on the subject of confessions, I must also confess that I have cheated slightly on this "blogging a picture every day for 31 days" thing. I tend to write up 2 or 3 of these posts at a time and schedule them to "magically appear" on the correct day! hehe! In my defense, I am still in classes and will soon be in the middle of exams so this is not necessarily my top priority! Let's say after Dec 16 I will do one each day for real (okay maybe not over Christmas though..)!

Day 9 - A photo of you with your best friend(s)

Most of these pictures are at least a couple years old, but it's been a long time since I've seen some of these life-long friends. That doesn't mean I don't have any friends now, they're just not as close of friends :)

Day 8 - A photo of you as a baby

Awwww... Aren't I cute?? 

I know these are super "baby" pictures, but I like them so here you are!
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


In other news...
I'm much less stressed/busy than I was last week, so I've been making some creative dinners again! Simon and I had the problem of running to the grocery store every couple nights to get something for dinner/lunch or whatever, but lately we've been trying just to do one big shop a week (it also helps that Metro has a deal where when you spend $50 you get 50 Airmiles!) So I in turn have been trying to be creative by using the food that we have in the house for dinners! It seems easy, but sometimes it's not so easy!! I have also been more creative in the sense that I'm trying to use recipes less, or use them more as a "guideline" for my cooking. So here are some of the things I've made this week!

Monday: Avocado Risotto and Fiesta Chicken

 

I've been doing what I like to call "Risotto Monday's" for about 3 weeks now, and this week I decided to do 1/2 c rice and 1/4 c quinoa! I also bought a bag of 5 avocados that I thought would take much longer to ripen than they did, so I needed to use them up, and fast! I found a recipe online for Avocado risotto. So what you see here is the plain risotto (made just with chicken stock, as you would normally make risotto) and then the avocado salsa is on the side, but I mixed it in with my rice after this picture. I didn't mix it with the entire pot of risotto cause Simon mentioned he didn't really like avocados a couple nights ago. He liked this! And he ate it! I really like the texture of avocado :) Like butter in my mouth, but so much better for me than just eating soft chunks of butter! Then I just baked chicken breast with homemade canned salsa and cheese. 

Tuesday: Wonton soup (!!!)

Yummmm!!!! This was sooooo gooood! I could barely  believe it! I love wonton soup, but I had never made it myself! I thought I might try it out though. I bought the pre-made wonton wrappers, but probably could have made those myself too... So I was wary of how these would taste, but they were amazing! And they even look like 'regular' wontons! I just mixed a pound of ground pork with some green onion, a grated carrot, a couple chopped mushrooms and garlic then spooned it onto the wrapper and folded it up! No salt or any spices! (which was what made me wary of the flavour.) My one pound of pork + veggies made 60 wontons!! I only made 18 last night and froze the rest. I also thought we could just fry them and eat them as appetizers with some kind of sauce. And for the soup part, I just made 6 cups of chicken broth (with bouillon cubes)  and added some broccoli for more colour and veggie! My mouth is watering again! I will have to have leftovers for lunch!!!

Day 7 - A photo of your family

It's tough to get my entire family in one picture, so I made a collage (with the help of A.Lorrie's tutorial!)

Most of the pictures are of my family with one of Simon's side of the family from our wedding. And there are definitely more (grand) kids than shown here!

Day 6 - A photo of someone you love

 

Need I say more? 

Day 5 - A photo that makes you laugh

Simon always seems to make me laugh :) In a good way though!! This is him on his Birthday after opening the 25 presents that I got him for his 25th birthday! They were small-ish present hidden in a treasure hunt around the house! In this picture he's trying out his new "toys." I think it's especially funny cause the way the mask sits over his nose/mouth it covers the bottom of his safety glasses and therefore the glasses fog up! I hope he doesn't mind I put this picture up :P

Day 4 - A photo of the last place you went on holiday

Quebec City!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was soooo cold the weekend we were in Quebec City! Well maybe it wasn't too terribly cold, but around  +/-0! We just weren't quite ready for that kind of cold in October! We had lots of fun nonetheless!

Day 3 - A photo that makes you happy

I actually had a tough time finding a picture of something that makes me happy... weird! I guess it was just putting my finger on one specific thing. So I ended up picking this sunflower picture that Simon snuck and took in the summer and got blown up and framed for me for our anniversary. This is in a sunflower field in the "experimental farm" area of Ottawa. It's weird all the sudden in the middle of the city (ish) are these huge fields of "experiments", including a large field of sunflowers!! I always loved driving past :)

 

In other news... we got our Christmas tree last night!!! We went to Loblaws to get it, and theirs are really nice, but all of them are $40... a bit more than we wanted to spend this year. I thought of mom though cause there were some small-ish ones and some huge "fluffy" tall ones, that I thought my mom would have bought when I was growing up. It was hard to believe that the small ones and the huge ones were all $40! Anyways, we went to Ikea because we've always said getting a tree there would be a good idea. So the tree was $20 and then we got a $20 gift certificate to spend at Ikea in January.. I don't know if we'll use it, but essentially we got a free Christmas tree! This picture would also be something that makes me happy :) Simon's family has always been really crazy for Christmas/decorating etc., and I think that through Simon it's rubbed off on me :) I do love Christmas baking! Although, this year I've made sugar cookies, ginger snaps and "slice-and-bake" cookies and they're all gone already... I make a batch then we eat them... I'm hoping that when school is finished for the semester (next week!!!) I can bake so much that we can't possibly eat it all before Christmas (Is that a challenge...?)

Day 2 - A photo of yourself a year ago

This is me roughly a year ago when the Olympic Torch was in Ottawa. Simon and I met at Parliament after work to catch the end of the festivities and take some pictures. It made us miss home, but I think we're better now :) I haven't changed much.. shorter hair maybe...