SOMEthing's Drawn

Today I'm linking up with Mrs. K for SOMEthing's Drawn. Click on the above button to check out everyone's posts!

He looks like he's eaten A LOT of lasagna!

This was my drawing for plumber

Oprah

thief

graduate

If you want to start a game with me my username on there is carisle

Vegetable and Pasta Salad

Sometimes we just want to make a certain recipe but we seem to be missing a few ingredients from every version we find. This happened last week when we wanted to make some pasta salad to go with dinner. So we decided to make our own version that would be a combination of a few recipes. It turned out really good! We’ll definitely be making it again sometime! We don't measure exactly but kind of eye it up so hopefully this turns out for you if you try it!

Ingredients:
-pasta
-mayonnaise
-mustard
-green onions
-garlic salt
-fresh parsley
- 1 red tomato
-1 red pepper
-purple onion
-feta cheese
-salt and pepper

1. Boil water and cook your pasta. We did about half a regular size bag of bow tie pasta

2. Meanwhile chop up your green onions, parsley, tomatoes, red pepper, and onion.

3. In a bowl combine 1 cup of mayo, few squirts of mustard (about 1 tablespoon?), sprinkle in some garlic salt, salt, and pepper. Mix it all up. Crumble in some feta cheese. It’s not over powering in this recipe.

4. Once the pasta is done, drain it and pour cold water on it, drain that. Once the pasta has cooled dump it in a large bowl. Mix in your veggies. Add your sauce mixture and you’re good to go! Enjoy!

Looking Forward To: Summer Edition

My natural disposition is to be pessimistic. I'm working on it.  [insert sarcastic pessimistic comment/joke that wouldn't properly translate online]. One characteristic of Jon's that I'm learning to appreciate more and more is his almost annoying optimistic outlook on things. One of his loveable quirks is that he enjoys planning the future... now. Who does that?! I'd rather: either worry endlessly about it now and plan it at the last moment or block all thoughts until that time. Anyways, he is always saying "This summer let's do this! Ok? Let's plan every detail about it RIGHT NOW."  Never mind that it'll all change six times before then.

Usually I smile and nod and say "Yes dear. We'll put that on the list. But we'll plan it closer to the date."

Here's a few things on our list that we're looking forward to doing this summer:



Hiking! Last summer, for the majority of it, the weather SUCKED! There. I said it. I doubt I jinxed anything for this year. We couldn't possibly get anymore rain than we did last summer! Two years ago when we moved back to British Columbia from Saskatchewan we were so excited to go hiking! We tried to go a lot that year. Last year I think we did 3? It was always raining! So this year we're itching to go! A few hikes we've recently found out about and would love to do. As well as a few we've done before that we'd like to do again!



Geocaching! This kind of goes hand in hand with hiking. A lot of hikes have geocaches hidden on them. But there's a lot in the nearest city that we have hardly scratched the surface of. So we'd love to check a few more of these off.

Kayaking! We've gone once already this year but we definitely hope to do a lot more! The lake that we live on is quite large and we've hardly even kayaked any of it!

Ok so turns out  most of our list contains summer outdoor activities! But after last year, we're ready to make the most of beautiful weather! What are you looking forward to doing this summer?

SOMEthing's Drawn

I've missed several weeks but I thought this week I would link up with the beautiful Mrs. K for SOMEthing's Drawn

My drawing skills have been lacking lately. I'm sure it's making the guessing more of a challenge!

This squirrel looks a little possessed. Or perhaps just really obsessed with his acorn.

That'd be scary if that's really what our skeleton looks like!

haha this is my definition of "gangster"

Some nights before we fall asleep, Jon and I play a few rounds of Draw Something. This is one I drew for him. He couldn't figure out what it was and I really don't blame him! It's supposed to a scene from Seinfeld with George and Mr. Costanza!

 

If you want to play Draw Something with me, my name on there is carisle. Click the SOMEthing Drawn button at the top of this post to check-out everyone else's drawings this week!

The One Where I Am Given A Knitting Machine

A few years ago I decided I need a hobby. I didn't really have any and I thought it might be fun to have something I liked doing that could be classified as one. I made it a goal to try anything and every project I could get my hands on. Since then I've enjoyed sewing, oil painting, acrylic painting, knitting, crocheting, quilting, and other diy crafts.

I'll be the first to admit that I can be a bit of a pack rat. Especially when it comes to craft supplies. Often I have some of my older adult friends say they have some supplies hanging around their place if I'd like to have them.  I have such a hard time turning them down. I mean, think of all that potential! So my craft has slowly gotten fuller and fuller. I had just spent a couple of days going through and critically purging things that in all honesty I probably couldn't use. But then I got a call... was I interested in an old knitting machine? Um... yes!



I was picturing like something you hold in your hand with plastic hooks. I was not expecting this! Actually, I received two of them. This is the more complicated looking one. I had the simpler one set up at first but I haven't been able to find the manual for it yet. It's taken a bit for me to get the hang of it but I think I might have it figured out!



Not bad eh? That's just the practice piece. But I also acquired a lot of old patterns too. So perhaps once I do a few more practice rows I'll eventually be ready to try a pattern.



After we set it up one of the first things I noticed is that there is no cords. It looks like it would be electric but it's not! The manual, which is dated in the 70's, says if you have problems take it to your local knitting machine store. Haha! I don't think we've had one of those for a while!



Speaking of things I've acquired. Along with the knitting machines I also was given boxes and boxes of yarn and patterns. This is just a portion of the boxes. The rest of them had to be put in the living room as I ran out of room in my craft room! I'm excited to keep playing with the knitting machine! Who knows what I'll be able to create!

Sunset Reflection

I'm by no means a photographer nor do I consider myself one. I do however love photography. The other day I was looking on one of our old laptops and saw some of the photos I first took after I bought my camera 4 years ago. I remember at the time thinking how great they looked, but looking back now I can't believe how far I've come! I still have so much to learn and one day hope to look back on the photos I'm taking now and be surprised by how far I've improved!

I'm a hands on learner. I learn things best if I experiment and figure out what I did wrong. I love looking on pinterest and admiring some of the amazing photographs people have taken. I often pin images that inspire me and make me want to learn how to take similar photos. I while ago I saw a beautiful one of a wine glass in front of water while the sun is setting. I decided I have to give it a try! Mine didn't turn out quite as amazing as the one I admired but I'm still happy with it!

I headed down to the lake with 3 different size glasses full of water. I wasn't sure which one would make the best reflection photo. I decided the wine glass photos turned out the best.



 



 



The next time there's a pink/purple sunset I'm hoping to run out and try some more!

 

Life According To Instagram

I don't always carry my camera around with me but I almost always have my phone; so what better way to get a glimpse into the past week than through instagram photos!

We spent several hours last week-end working in the garden and trying to get it ready for this year. We had planned to plant it this weekend but the past couple mornings has surprised us with snow on the ground. It melts not long after the sun comes up but I still think we might hold off planting till next week-end.

We've had a few crazy hail storms this past week. Lucy was curious about them.

One of our favorite things about where we live is that we have a fire pit right next to the lake. We spent two evenings last week out there watching the sun set.

We finally took the kayaks out! The water was perfect on the way out, nice and calm. As soon as we turned around and started to head home, the wind picked up and the water got rough. It's been rough and windy every day since then but hopefully this long weekend it's nice enough to take them out some more!

There's nothing like getting the marshmallow roasted perfectly golden! It's the small things!

My elderly friend is moving so they are downsizing all their belongings. In the course of that, she has found a lot of things she thinks I will love. She's dropped off 11 boxes and a knitting machine already! The boxes have old vintage fabrics, loads and loads of yarn, and this treasure! Now I just need to order some film and try it out! Has anyone used a knitting machine before? I have no idea how it works! I'll have to read the manual a few times!

The Furbabies

If you were to look at my laptop or phone and browse through the photos on them you'd find quite a few pictures of our furbabies. I'm coming to grips that perhaps I'm definitely  a crazy pet lady. I'm not going to win any awards as the most obsessed but I'd be in the running. With the exception of my instagram feed, I usually try to keep that part to a minimum on here. But I'm probably overdue for a post about them!



The wonderful spring/summer like weather we've been having has allowed us to spend a lot more time outside enjoying it. Despite the fact that they're indoor pets, we try to make sure they spent a couple hours a day outside playing and exploring. The other evening after Jon got home from work we took the dogs out for some play time.

We have a rule that when headed out to play they have to sit quietly and patiently at the open door while waiting for our command before they step out.

This is Kudjo's way of rebelling

He refused to look directly at the camera but sure had concentration for the tennis ball

The littlest dog's toy of choice is a hockey puck. Doesn't get more Canadian than that!

We've tried to get him interested in other toys and sometimes it works but pucks will always be his toy of choice.

And then there's Lucy

He's scared of almost everything but he's getting better at being on a leash outside. But in the safety of indoors he's the boss of the house, teasing everyone!

This squirrel has taken to taunting him from the safety of the deck railing. But one of these days Lucy might get out!

There! I didn't come across too crazy right?? Righhhttt???

Spring Means Wildlife

Generally speaking, we don't try to teach our pets to chase wild animals. At least one of us doesn't *cough* Jon *cough cough*. This would be part of the reason why when the first time Butch met a ground squirrel in Saskatchewan he tried to get it to play with him and was so confused when it wouldn't chase him. This goal doesn't always happen like we'd like. Sometimes they just have to chase that crow or rabbit off the lawn. It's just a natural instinct for them to want to protect what they consider theirs. With the arrival of warmer weather we've also noticed the appearance of a lot more wildlife.

It started while I was away. During one of my phone calls home, Jon informed me that some new residents had taken up the large puddle that is in our yard.

His colors on his neck are so beautiful!

Lately we've had quite a few little birds fly into our windows. They sit on the ground for a bit than fly off. This little guy was in recovery mode the other day so Butch took the opportunity to sniff it. He was very careful and gentle with it, almost like he knew he needed to be. Ten minutes we went back to look and it had flown away.

With winter now officially far away it also means the bears are awake and back roaming the neighborhood.

Last week-end when we were almost home we saw a black bear on the road up ahead. We slowed down and watched it cross. It then hid behind a tree and kept peaking out at us. We took a few photos with our phone and had just started driving forward again when we noticed two very tiny cubs up a tree! "It" was actually a "she"! Mama bear wasn't acting nervous or threatened but we didn't want to cause her any more stress so we didn't stick around. But those cubs were so cute! I just hope we don't come across them when we are on foot!

Stronger Than I Think

Heading to on vacation to an all-inclusive resort made me very nervous weight-loss wise. I've been losing weight but I'm not exactly bikini ready. I forget where I read this but when losing weight it can take your mind a lot longer to see the weight gone. When I first started seeing the numbers going down I didn't really believe the previous statement. But now that I'm inching (pun intended) closer and closer to that 20 pounds loss mark I think I can see some validity to it. In my mind I'm still that starting number my clothes have just magically gotten bigger.

And although that encompasses a large part of my worrying, there was so much more than that causing my nervousness.

I started really strictly tracking and monitoring my meals in January. And as the charts show, it's made a difference. For years I've  had difficulty with consistently eating balanced meals. I like to control things so one way I do is by limiting how much I eat. Several years ago I had some medical problems and my doctor gave me heck for my poor eating habits. I had gotten better after I started dating Jon but I still couldn't allow myself to eat 3 meals a day. Once I started tracking everything in January I realized on a typical, average day I eat 600-800 calories a day. Definitely not enough. An overweight person that doesn't eat a lot; that doesn't sound right. After doing some research I found it's really not a healthy lifestyle! So I've worked hard to change it. But it's not an easy one day fix! It's taking a lot of work to  convince myself that calories don't always equal weight gain and that there is a difference between good calories and crap calories.

With the help of myfitnesspal I've been doing great! I'm consistently eating enough calories each day and feeling good! My weight and inches are going down; clothes are fitting looser. At first I thought it was my imagination. But after trying on the bridesmaid dress in March that I ordered in December and needing it resized by a lot I was confirmed!

As I mentioned at the start of the post, vacation made me nervous about all the progress I've made. Tracking my food just seems normal now so the thought of going a whole week eating at buffets and not tracking worried me! I wasn't really concerned I wouldn't eat enough, but rather that I would eat too much! That and the combination of free drinks, I thought would guarantee my dress wouldn't fit on my friend's wedding day! I was also quite concerned about the free flowing alcohol. There's been times in my life where I've had alcohol abuse problems. I've come a long way but it's not something I talk about a lot and is something I became good at hiding from others. I won't go into details about it today but I would use alcohol as a numbing agent and often in place of food. Anyways, the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass my friend, her friends and family, or myself.

After spending all this time worrying about what ifs, it seems it was a waste of time! I was careful what I ate at the buffets and restaurants. I watched my portions, made healthy choices, and except for 1 time I never went for seconds or desserts. I watched myself with drinks and stopped before I needed to. The chambermaid left a large bottle of water in the room every day so I made it a goal to drink it all each day plus a glass or two at each meal and after every couple drinks.

We walked a lot every day so I was thankful for that plus we went on a hike through the rainforest during our zip lining adventure. But I was still worried about fitting into my dress so if I had 15-20 mins before I had to get ready to meet everyone somewhere, I quickly hit the floor in my hotel room and did some calisthenic exercises. And wouldn't you know it, my dress was considerably looser and could have used to be taken in a bit more. But I wasn't complaining!

But than I got home and starting seeing the photos from our trip pop up on facebook and I had a melt down. While I was there I felt like I looked good and looked like I had lost weight, but looking at those photos I thought I looked bigger than I had ever been! That and the jet lag made me into a huge emotional mess. Poor Jon had his hands full. He helped me calm down but I still wasn't excited to step on the scale! I decided the next morning that it was better to know how much weight I had gained since I left than worry about it so I did it. I thought maybe 3-4 pounds from my week of relaxation. It showed -2 pounds! It turns out that this healthy lifestyle I've been working on has become easier and more natural than I thought. And even though I've made bad choices in the past, that's the past. I'm stronger than that now.

Playing On Repeat In My Head: Panama Edition

As I mentioned in my post about my trip I was introduced to latino pop music in Panama! The unfortunate part about my very limited Spanish vocabulary is that I would get the melody of a song in my head and only catch a word or two. So when I returned home and tried to find the song it took a lot of work to track down! I was able to find 2 of the songs that have been playing in my head since leaving Panama. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zp1TbLFPp8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oe1fRwgGu5E

Panama!

I've been home for 2 weeks now so I'm probably overdue for writing my post about my awesome trip to Panama!! Jon wasn't able to come with me so I missed him a lot while I was gone. I did however, enjoy my time immensely with my friends! The majority of people I know IRL (in real life) don't know about this blog so to respect their privacy I won't post any photos of them on here.

I went on my first international trip to Panama for my friend's wedding! Having never been out of Canada (except for a quick non-stop road trip through the US)  I didn't know what to expect. But Jon actually went to Panama 5 years ago for his college "final exam" so he told me some of what I would experience.

I love stats so here's a few about my trip:

Travelled over 10,000 miles

Over 20 hours in the air

5 hours by bus

3 different time zones

7 nights in Panama

We stayed at the Royal Decameron Resort which is about a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Panama City! It is quite a large resort with just over 850 rooms so you get your exercise walking around!



A map of the grounds



This was the view from my Oceanfront room!

The grounds were beautiful! There was always people working on them throughout the day.

This was one of our favorite pools to hang out at.

On one of our first days in Panama we took a taxi van to a small village where a lot of the resort employees live about 20 minutes away. It's not super touristy there so it was a great experience of Panama culture. The van ride itself was quite the experience! They stop at various bus stops along the highway and town roads and pick up anyone who's going our way. They can cram a lot of people in there! At one time we counted 18! No one signals and they swerve in and out of lanes like crazy! But for $2 you can't go wrong!



At a marketplace I bought these handmade sandals for only $10.75 and they are the most comfortable sandals I have ever worn! I totally should have picked up a few pairs!

At lot of the employees of the resort spoke a limited amount of english so it probably would have been very helpful for me to learn Spanish before I went. One of my friends spoke it fluently so she translated things for us when needed. I have a translator app on my phone so sometimes I tried to learn the phrases I needed but I still think they came out terribly wrong!

I burn really easy so I wore 60 SPF all the time! And even with that I still burned! I didn't mind this cloudy afternoon but I was still red later!

On one of the days we went on a canopy adventure! I'm really not the brave adventurous type so I definitely surprised myself when I agreed to go zip lining through the jungle! It started with a 45 minute hike through the rainforest. I really enjoyed the walk despite my fear of spotting a snake!

Then before I knew it I was all geared up and it was my turn to run the first line! For 3/4 of the lines you had to have one hand on the cable behind you so you can slow yourself down and stop at the next platform.

The 3rd line was SO scary! It was the only one that the zip line guides controlled when you stopped. It looked so steep and you picked up speed! The view was amazing as you went right past a waterfall. They stop you so you can look at it. So for one scary minute you're dangling way up there trying to decide if you want to turn yourself around and admire the view, or beg them to keep you going!

After that one, the 4th and last one seemed so easy and fun!

That evening we celebrated my friend's last night of being single! We had a delicious meal and then headed to the discotheque for some dancing! They played a mix of english and latino songs. It was a lot of fun but I definitely can't dance like the Panamanians!

Than it was my friend's wedding!! It took place right on the beach. The weather and the view was gorgeous but was nothing compared to the bride! She looked so amazing in her dress and the ceremony was so beautiful. I was so happy I could be there to see them get married!

The reception was at a beachfront restaurant metres from the where the ceremony took place. The evening was full of great food and speeches, along with lots of laughter and dancing!

Our last full day there was Sunday so we made the most of the beautiful weather and spent the day relaxing. Before I left Canada I looked to see if there were any geocaches near where we would be staying in Panama and wouldn't you know it there was one! So I thought it would be fun to move some tracking bugs from here to there! Tracking bugs are small items that people track from  cache to cache. Some of goals are to travel across a country, visit certain attractions, etc.

This one's goal is to be photographed at interesting and exotic locations! So I thought a beach in Panama fit that criteria!

This one didn't really have a goal but I thought it'd be neat to bring a winter travel coin to a beach!

 Anyways, me and a few friends decided to go look for it

the GPS showed it was about 1 mile down the beach. We arrived at a beachfront restaurant and started looking. We almost gave up a few times because we couldn't find it anywhere! The people who work at the there know about it and told us they knew it was for sure still there so we kept looking.

We got covered in sand but finally we found it! So I signed the book, left the travel bugs, and carefully re-hid it.

We spent the rest of the day on the beach enjoying some sexo en la playas!

The next day we packed and headed to the airport. The overcast and rainy sky made it a lot easier to leave the beach! And home we went! I had such an amazing time on my trip but it was sure nice to sleep in my bed again! If you're thinking about taking a trip to Panama I definitely recommend you go! I had such a great time! I loved the area and their culture is so rich and interesting!