A Crazy Fun Friendship

These pictures represent 2 years, the 1st 2 years of this crazy fun friendship. We were both 2 different people back then, so different from who we are now.  She was so anti-technology, the only one on our floor who didn't have her own computer, she had a line up of boys with 1 clear winner, she cared what people thought of her, but not so much that she couldn't get crazy! I was single and eager to have a new friend! We were a lot of fun together. We were all about having fun with very little stress/responsibility in our lives. We had so many things in common! We were also kind of weird.

Cougar Camp

Out of the blue the other morning I woke up thinking about Cougar Camp... I haven't thought about that in probably 8 or 9 years, which is just sooo long ago!!!

It's actually hard to believe I'm not a freshman in High School anymore or as I grew up calling in; grade 9! Anyways unless you're Carrie or my brother you probably are wondering what is Cougar Camp? Or if you know me from SAU, you are probably thinking; you were a Cougar in University, where you really a Cougar in high school too!? If you know me well then you know the reason why I initially decided to attend SAU, and that was the Cougar correlation!

CCI - also know as Chatham Collegiate Institute is the High School I choose to attend instead of the High School that was down the street and around the corner from my home growing up. I had to get up really early (7:10 was too early for a morning person), and ride the city buses to the other side of town. But it was worth it! My friendship grew with Carrie into something life-long! AND the experience I got there, the green and white that coursed through our veins, then poured out of our tear ducts. But that's not what I'm supposed to be writing about....

Cougar Camp, very similar to Cedar Bend. A weekend at the beginning of the school year. Senior students there to assist and make the transition smooth. Crazy fun activities. There we sang a crazy fun song,using rhythm's with our hands.... I can't explain it, but I have it on one of our band CD's. Camp food.

That's all - such good memories!

The Ghost of Valentines Day's Past

This will be our 4th Valentines day together. I think.... but here's a look into my past Valentines days!

The first one was particularly nice... we have been dating for 3 months and I talked him into buying tickets to the Piston's game through his dorm RD. He bought me the Rip Hamilton Jersey. We went with Adam/Cheryl & Chris/Kd. That night after the game, about 1am on the morning of the 15th - we had our 1st kiss.

Our 2nd Valentines day, we had passed the next milestone in our relationship of the saying of "I love you" 3 months earlier after 1 year of dating. We were busy and poor, so we unconventionally had a date in the SAU Library... we took over a study room on the 3rd floor and watched I believe Newsies on my laptop... we hooked up speakers and everything. We ate cougar den food for dinner and spoiled ourselves with coffee from the Sacred Grounds (Starbucks) in the Library. We also babysat Hailey Rae Pollak for a night so that Nich & Jennie could have a night out with out their baby, and me and my Babe got to hang out with the CUTEST girl in the world!

Our Third Valentines Day is documented here: but the nutshell version is 3 roses, swept off feet, a night at the theater.... check it out.

Our 4th Valentines day was our first as a married couple... here's a link to last years Valentines Day, which in a nutshell was Olympics in Canada, 1 small box of chocolates shared, yoga & chinese food.

Before I got the boyfriend, I still celebrated Valentine's day! My senior year of high school, I hosted a party for all the girls in my youth group. 21 girls came over to my house in FORMAL gowns! We all have them, we all want an excuse to wear them more often. I had this idea, and my bestest friends helped me to set it up.

 My parents and aunts helped cook the meal; a full 4 course meal,

with ambiance music, followed by a Red Carpet...

 ....awards show that awarded each girl with an award catered to their personality!

We also had special music!

We even had a photo shoot individually and in groups:

and a Dance party afterward:

You can't beat that! Pretty much a really fun night!

Before that my parents always made sure my brother and I each felt special on this most uniquely weird day that gives an outlet to those who love.  We would wake up to a heart shaped box of chocolates on our pillows every year! No matter if you love, you can celebrate that tomorrow!

missing those nights

This past week, instead of falling asleep on the couch and then slumbering to bed when Nick is done playing on the computer, we have been crawling in bed together and he's actually been awake enough to talk at night. It has made me miss the nights of my past.

1. the weekends growing up where I shared my room with my aunt, whom I would kick to keep awake because I was not done talking. We would talk for hours and hours! It was the best.

2. the nights in college, specifically Junior & Senior years when Mel and I were roommates and would talk in bed, plan her wedding, sing songs from our childhood.... good times.

These wonderful things are the things we remember all though our lives.

I remember: the years of TICS when every Christmas we had a surprise Christmas video and a Surprise guest to our youth group nights, during Christmas....  It was always 1 of 2 Christmas movies, and I can only remember 1 of them, but it rotated every year, so it was never really a surprise! 1 of the movies was the Grinch... the old one, the cartoon one.... Melissa - do you remember the other one? Every year 1 of the Ottaways dressed up like Santa Clause! I remember 1 year it was Marty, the years before he was old enough to be in the youth group. I don't really remember what he did or brought. But That is my memory of the TICS Christmas's.     (TICS stands for Teens in Christ's Service)

I remember: the Christmas that my family took off on Boxing Day for Disney World! That was certainly a different Christmas than I had ever had before! We had to go to bed early that night, so that we could get up early and fly to Florida! That was my first and only time to Disney! I will never forget it! We took Aunt Steph & Aunt Bessie!! How cool is that!!!?

I remember: the year that Dana got a Calendar for Christmas and as she was pulling it out of the wrapping paper, she hit me in the nose with the calendar causing me a bloody nose all over new clothes I had just received that morning and was wearing for the 1st time!

I remember: the years at my Grandma's house for Christmas. I really hope I never forget, I was very young when we used to have all the kids over there, we were all kids then - young even Chad & Ryan were kids so I was like 3 or 4 probably. I remember 1 year my Grandparents had gone to Florida and brought us (Jacqi, Michael & I) back dresses and new clothes! I don't remember, but I have pictures to solidify the memories of making Gingerbread houses with Grandma and Michael and Jacqi.

I remember: chocolate chip muffins, yule log cookies, & crepes!

I remember: wearing my new PJ's to bed and then staying in them all day, or until I got something new to put on instead!

Another College Memory

I have a ton of college memories that are documented by pictures, and that is really why I love taking pictures so much, but the ones I like to post on here are ones that don't have pictures....

Tonight I'm going to try to think of 1 memory from each year of college that I don't have pictures to remember by, and I'm going to write the first thing that comes into my head:

Freshman Year: This one was a big part of my freshman year- but still one I don't want to forget. Every night that there were open hours (the nights that boys were allowed over) specifically on Thursdays but this also occured on the Saturday or Sunday nights tooo.... we would stuff a whole  bunch of people into Jennie's room (she was the RA - resident assistant, and she lived next door to me). We would watch a movie.... sometimes there were 16 people in that 1 little room, we'd be overflowing almost out the door sometimes..... That was so much fun and I'm soo glad we did that! It was a a major part in making us such a close floor!

After 10pm when they boys had to be off the floors, just on Thursday's we (Jennie, Nich, Me and a combo of Jessie, Magan and Rryan) went to Steak n Shake. We played Euchre until like 1am. I always mooched off Nich n Jennie's Cheesey Fries! To this day I love their cheesy fries because of these memories!

Sophomore Year: This was the year of sitting in our suite and talking! Hilary, Mel, Emily and I shared a suite which consisted of 2 dorm sized rooms attached by 1 bathroom and 1 small room that we put all our beds in. One afternoon I was sitting in the little room talking on the phone to my dad, when around the corner poked a head of a friend that I hadn't seen since the end of Freshman year! My ROOMMATE. She had I had a great friendship, but she was an interesting roommate.... in that she was barely ever there.... but she was crazy fun and I miss her muchly.  I literally SCREAMED with excitement which was loud in my dad's ear whom I had forgotten I was on the phone with. I pretty much hung up on him and just hung out with her!

Another Sophomore Year memory can be summed up in one phrase: "What's that Noise?! I'm scared.!"... ok maybe it needs more explaination.... Mel was under her desk for some reason re-plugging things in or something... and I had this wind-up flashlight... and I was winding it, which made a scary noise apparently.

Junior Year: This memory is hilarious!! Mel and I had our beds bunked above our desks, so it kind of formed a tunnel underneath.... we used a ladder to get up to our bed at night... then across from the tunnel of beds and desks, we had a coffee table, TV and couch - a living room you might call it. Well at 1 point during the year we had a nice ceramic leaf-shaped dish on the table that Mel had acquired and it usually had cookies on it! One morning the phone rang at 7am (way tooo early) and I was scrambling to get out of bed fast enough to answer it.... on my way down the ladder I realized that half of my body was still "asleep" and I literally fell off the ladder, landed on the coffee table and the ceramic leaf dish shattered!! All that for a phone call from Jaime Cade (now Jaime Hall) telling me that their power was out (and was going to be out for a while) in the apartments and she was wondering if she could spend the next night in our dorm!

Senior Year: I lived in a house with 8 girls.... we watched a lot of girly things on TV but we went through almost the entire series of Smallville, we also marathon'd Gilmore Girls and Full House!!! Great times!


(I have a tendency to write these posts in chunks, so read the 2 posts below!)

It's Dinner Time!!!

Here is a memory from my pre-teen-teen years!  My parent's made a rule that 1 night a week my brother and I had to cook! We were to find a recipe the week before, put the ingredients we would need on the grocery list and the cook it! It was a brilliant plan on their part because 1. they didn't have to make a meal 2 nights a week, and 2. now my brother and I both know how to cook a good meal.... now he can cook a meal way better than me, because well he was inspired so much by these cooking nights that he went to Sir Sandord Flemming College and majored in Culinary Management! He did several co-ops at several restaurants. He is a very good cook and we try to get him to cook as often as possible!

Well Thursday night was my night, Tuesday night was his.... the very first meal that I made on my Thursday nights was Broccoli soup with sour dough biscuits! It turned out delicious and over the years I have modified my recipe and turned it into a fabulously delicious soup! Even Nick who used to not eat soup, and wouldn't even try a small spoonful of my soup - now REQUESTS it regularly!!

(I have a tendency to write these posts in chunks, so read the 1 post below!)

Scrabble in K12

It's been a long time since I posted a memory, and I really want to post more random memories from that time that is considered "the best time of your life" which is also known as college!

I'm going to start with a memory from senior year, not because it is freshest in my mind, but because facebook just recently reminded me about the online game. There was a week or 2 when everyone in K12 (the boys house), and a bunch of my friends from home, and the girls in my house as well all played the game! It was sooo fun! You could post a word on the "board" and then leave, and wait for the next person to post hours later or days later or just a few minutes later... you could play a 2 person game or a multiple person game, so I would be playing 5 games at a time with all different people!  There was at least 1 day if not more, where there were probably 6-10 people sitting in the living room of K12 all playing the game at the same time, with each other, in more than 1 game.... it was a bit chaotic and oh so fun!

Ode to Move-In Day

I started blogging post University, so I need to blog on here about some of the memories I don't want to forget - so here are a few pictures from the Move-In Days of past.....
This is me leaving my house for the first time! This is the outfit (with Jean variations) that I wore on the first move in day and every move-in and move-out day whilst at SAU and I even wore it when I moved into the Pollak household.... I might have worn it one of the days that I moved into the house that Nick and I moved into our house...

This is the only picture that I have from move-in day Sophomore year. Even though it's actually of Mel.... and it might even be of the 2nd day.

These are pictures of my stuff moved into my room of Junior Year!!!

Mel's stuff was moved in a few days after mine... I got to move in like a week early because I was an RA. I spent the week decorating the floor and learning out to be an RA:

This is technically "move-in day" and these are pictures of my girls moving in:

Kate and her mom

Our room again with Mel's stuff... we wanted it to look homey- so that the girls would feel welcome to come in have a seat, and take a cookie off our table!

Our next door neighbours: Kaitlyn & Anna (and Anna's mom)

That guy in the hallway is the President of Admissions... on our floor!

The following pictures are from my senior year! I was the Director of Communications for the Student Government so I was documenting the move-in day Parting at the Plaza ceremony!

All those green people up front are the student leaders for the year, I was supposed to be there, but I got to be on the roof instead, filming the event!

Yep my brother was participating in the events because he had enrolled at SAU - as well as Elise (Kevin's cousin) soo I got to take this sweet picture!

This is the Parting at the Plaza part... The new students are given a piece of the blue ribbon as a souvenir and then are separated from their parents to begin their new lives as college students!