In honor of Mica

Went to Mom and Dad's for dinner tonight; I brought the wine (hehe)...

'Bout to get a little sappy up in here

"So much of what is good and kind, so much of what we need we find within our mothers."

How is it that Moms always know? Know when to listen and when to speak, when to love and how to do it well. They know when to hold tight and when to let go, when to offer advice and when to steer clear. They know forgiveness and selflessness and how to express them time and time again. They know a remedy for everything from a broken toy to a broken heart and of course how to make the best chicken noodle soup when we're sick and birthday cakes for our special day. They know sacrifice, they know patience, they know compassion and grace. They know us better than anyone, all of our strengths and weaknesses, all of our flaws and our struggles, yet love us even more.

I was all by myself, no one was with me

People: 'So, what'd you do for the holiday weekend?'

Me: 'Went to Canada; how was your time off?'

People: 'You went to Canada?!? Who'd you go with?'

Me: 'Just myself.'

People: 'Oh ok, to visit friends?'

Me: 'No, just because I've never been there'

People: 'Wow, so you just went to Canada by yourself [looking shocked and not knowing what else to say]; that's awesome.'

This is roughly the conversation/reaction with everyone I've come into contact with since monday. Is it really awesome, people? Or are you secretly thinking I'm a loser with nothing better to do than run to a city where I know no one, with no one.

I mean, what's a single girl, 1,600 miles away from her best girlfriends to do, sit around and wait for her honeymoon to explore the world?? Not this girl! God has blessed me with a spirit of independence, courage, and determination; so YES, you better believe I went to Canada by myself! And it was fabulous.

Ohhhh Caaaanadaaaaa

Ok ok ok, as much as it pains me to admit, Canada's pretty cool. Actually, really cool. And beautiful. And friendly. And awesome. Everyone should visit. Or better yet, come visit me and I'll take you :)

My list of places I definitely wanted to visit, consisting of Notre Dame, Saint-Catherine Street, Bonsecours, Chestnut Street, Mount Royal, and Amherst Street was accomplished (mainly by accident due to me getting lost and aimlessly driving around until I found place that looked fun); Also, although not on the itinerary, yet a major plus that I made it to them, were the Casino of Montreal and the local Amusement Park. When I wasn't sightseeing you could find me relaxing in a park with a glass of wine and a good book--my favorite.

Highlights of Canadia:

Notre Dame:

       

Cute store fronts and flower shops:

  

Reminder of DR Days, 'Two egg whites a day...': 

Rent-A-Bikes: 

Silly signs: (this one means 'Construction Zone'...or running pants)

Tarp over a building renovation in a replica of the building, so even through construction it looks beautiful at all times, genious:

Canadian birds ain't scared 'a nothin'; or maybe they just like to attack americans, i.e. me:

Beautiful parks and Jesus Rocks (hah, pun intended.)

                

Life-size chess games:

Oh Canada, I think I like you.

     

Secret's Out

...I'm not in North Carolina.

I'm in Canada.

That feels good to get out. I've been chomping at the bit, wanting to tell you all, but I had to help Shannon's parents surprise her for her birthday by leading her on that I was still coming to visit her and Kevin in Charlotte, NC.

I feel a little guilty (sorry Shan!) but it wasn't a total lie and all with you in mind! I was actually going to come visit, but when I found out her parents wanted to surprise her the same weekend, I decided it best to let them have a nice weekend together, alone.

But no worries, that just means I'll be down a different weekend. It's not a visit missed, but a visit postponed :)

And about being in Canada, I'm not sure how I went from North Carolina to Canada, but I wanted to go where no one else would be going, which was opposite direction of all the East Coast beaches; that landed me in Montreal, Quebec.

I've never been one for Canada, Lauren feels me on this one, but I've thoroughly enjoyed my time here so far.  More stories and pictures to follow...

Espanol Queen

After months of searching for a non-expensive, full-time-job friendly, multi-level Spanish class, I found one!

Speed Spanish Level 1 of 3.

I'm a student again, starting today. And real excited about it. I'm not sure yet exactly how the class'll be set up, but the 12 lessons in the 6 weeks of the course seem pretty promising, then it's on to levels II and III.

Shoot, before you know it I'll be a Fluent Francisca [of course said in my best Spanish accent].

Ok, don't panic...

Found the bff. And got to talk to her for a wonderful hour.

Everyone may sleep now.

Where's my BFF?

Her name's Lauren and I've lost her.

We've been playing phone tag for a week now and she hasn't updated her blog since last thursday.

I'm getting worried.

Laureeeeeen come back! I miss you.

Sunday, Famday

Sundays have seem to become Mackenzie (and Kyle/Stephanie, obiv.) days.

And I like it.

This Sunday, however, also consisted of my two cousins (congratulations on graduating Amanda!), two aunts, and dad (sick mom had to stay home :( ) It was sweet being able to visit with everyone. 

Today also marks Mackenzie's 6-week birthday. She's changed so much, so fast, I can't believe it. Mainly she's gotten bigger;  girl's a chunk (granted she's only 10 lbs., the weight I was born at, so I guess I can't really talk) but the chubby cheeks and squishy thighs are FINALLY coming along; I love it.

(The picture on the right's not from this weekend, but I had to add it in because I love it.)

Baking machine

I love to bake, I love to eat food and I love parties; all of those combined? Yes please.

It's called Pampered Chef.

Genious.

Today Mom accompanied me to my first Pampered Chef party put on by one of my coworkers; so fun. We snacked, ate, baked, played games and tested out a whole bunch of awesome kitchen tools. And best of all, by the end of the week I will be receiving these awesome mixing bowls:

Look out, girl's 'bout to be a baking machine.

Hidden 'happy's

Is it sad how happy blog comments make me?

Is it normal to feel like a 10 year-old-kid on Christmas morning opening a huge present from Santa as I wait for the page to load the comment posted?

I mean, seriously, whoever's idea it was to put that comment link at the end of an entry is GENIOUS.

Oh, and mom cooked dinner for me tonight; also something that makes me (and the belly) real happy. SO GOOD. (Especially compared to my usual...cereal for dinner :\)

This morning I was stuck on my street

Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? It was.

Parking is extremely hard to find around my house, so when I find a spot on my street directly in front of my house, I feel so accomplished, like finding that perfect spot is a honed skill or something.

My laziness, however, kicked me in the butt this morning when I found myself stuck on my street. Seeing the line-up of two cars when I entered mine, I figured the first person in line had probably already talked to the construction workers jack-hammering at the end of my one-way street and let them know there were people waiting for them, so I got in my car and waited patiently.

After almost 10 minutes, I quickly realized they had not. Neither had any one of the now 4 people in the line-up stuck on my street; I guess they were all thinking the same thing I was, can't blame 'em. Normally I would break the law and go the opposite way on my one-way street to exit, but not only was I blocked in my paralell-parking spot by others waiting to get out, there were also a group of construction men with a crane, digging a huge hole at the other end of my street. Genius.
So I hobble myself up to one of the workers wondering how I'll get my voice loud enough to even communicate with him over the deafening jack-hammers. But I did, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi, how much longer are ya'll going to be? There's about 5 of us waiting to get out of this street but we're blocked in at both ends."
Man: [looks around, clearly oblivious to any cars waiting for him to finish] "Oh, do you need to get out to be somewhere?"
Me: "Yeah, just need to get to work." [thinking, really? It's 8:00 on a tuesday morning]
Man: "Oh ok, what time do you have to be there by?"
Me" Um, right now?"
Man: "Ok, one second."
[He goes to consult his co-workers]
Man: "Alright, we're going to finish up here then we'll move out of the road to let you by, can you wait 5 more minutes?"

Suuure, I mean what's 5 more minutes when I've waited 10; and where else was I going to go?

Six minutes later I was finally on my way to work; giggling at the mishap of the morning.

Over already?

How do weekends always go by so fast? I don't understand it, nor like it.

On the other hand, what would I do without them?? Scary thought. Maybe I shouldn't complain...

Speaking of weekends, this one was nothing short of awesome. Taking full advantage of my brother-in-law being away for guy's weekend, mom and I invaded Kelly's house; Bachelorette-Pad Style.

Highlights from the weekend:

1. A full Saturday of outlet shopping; literally, a good 6 hours or so (A Denholm-women specialty.)
2. Hanging out over glasses of wine/sparkling peach cider ;).
3. 6 Hours of road trip; i.e. uninterrupted and essential Kara/Mom time.
4. The BEST Mexican food I've had in a good 4 months (maybe the only Mexican food for that matter.)
5. Morning coffee on the porch with the local deer.
6. Brunch on the Potomac to celebrate the Mom! (Kelly spotted Hell's Kitchen's Gordon Ramsay; we dine with the rich & famous)
7. Exploring Georgetown in 75-degree and sunny weather.

Gosh, I love my family.

NoVa Invasion

Headed to Northern Virginia (where the sister resides) with the mom for a mother/daughter girl's weekend.

There will be some of this:

Some of this:

A whole lot of this:

And absolutely NONE of this:

I'm pumped.

Boot Stories

It's funny how many conversations a gimp boot can start.

They always start the same...

Random Person: "Ooooo [looking down at boot], What'd you do?"
Me: "Stress fracture in my shin."
Random Person: "[Now wincing like it's causing them pain] Oh man, How'd you do that?"
Me: "From running; it's not as bad as it looks."

From here the conversation will take one of two turns, it'll either 1. end in an awkward series of face squints and mumbles from the other person as I nod and smile then we both awkwardly walk away, or 2. the other person will continue on to tell me their story about when they had a boot and what happened.

Usually it ends with the first, but more often than you'd think, I find myself stopped for a good five minutes or so listening to a random stranger's boot story. When I decided to start counting the number of stories I heard, I counted 6 in the span of 2.5 days while I was in Austin. SIX! Who knew there were so many injured people out there?

In the beginning I found myself just listening to people's stories as not to be rude and cut them off, but now I find myself looking forward to running into random strangers and their random stories. They're always different and they usually, more often than not, are much worse injuries than mine and act as a reminder that I need to stay on the positive side; thankful for only a stress fracture.

On a funnier note, I finally thought I figured out why my boot is called a "Canwalker Boot" (I had always heard it, never seen it spelled out, so give me a break)...because you 'Can Walk' in it. Hah. Hahaha. Get it? But then I googled it and it's actually 'Cam Walker' with an M, so my genius-ness was shot down.

Introducing: JOE!

Readers, meet Joe. One of my three great roommates.

My house is three floors: living area on the first floor, two bedrooms and a bath on the second floor and two bedrooms and a bath on the third floor. Joe and I are on the second floor, and thus share a bathroom.

If you don't already know, secret's out, I live with boys. Three of them actually. It's pretty great. Interesting, and kind of dirty at times, but nonetheless great. I've been taught a lot with having boy roommates and actually really enjoy them. 

But, back to Joe. He's awesome. A strong Catholic and a northerner to the bone. When he's not working at the Manayunk Brewery (the main brewery/restaurant in our area), you can find him sleeping with the lights on, using my computer, or hanging with friends. He loves people and tries to act like a tough guy, but little does he know, he's not. 

Besides being someone to hang out with and vent to, we learn a lot from each other and I'm just really thankful that he's my roommate.

LHMess

I can't believe I forgot another major highlight of my trip to Austin. But really it works out because this deserves its own post anyways :)

Saturday night, after Kelli's wedding shower and after buying 6 pounds of Rudy's brisket to bring back for my texas-bbq-starved family (yes, i am still a vegetarian; ironic?), was the Longhorn Singers Spring Show. 

I wasn't able to go last year and just about jumped out of my pants when I realized the show was coincidentally the same weekend I'd be there. Thanks, God, for planning that one, I needed it.

Seeing everyone from when I was in LHS brought back such good memories and watching the show made me miss being on stage :( But the show was awesome. It never ceases to impress me. Unfortunately my 7am flight and unpacked luggage was calling my name at the end of the night so I couldn't hang out after the show, but I'm so thankful for the time I did get to see everyone. 

Singers I was able to see and why I love them...

Kristi and Kayla (pictured)--K.K.K, boobie buddies-although, still not sure how I made it into that club :\ but glad I did!

Mel--girl has got the most contagious personality, I just wanna be around her and feel so good when I am.

Johnny--ridiculous rants that crack me up; thank goodness for his blog.

Kyle--two words: big kid. :)

Buddy--i don't think i've ever seen him in a bad mood. he's just great.

Mr.--gives the best hugs

Laura Y--always smiling. she makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Scott S.--i just love him.

Scott T.--boy can dance.

Cesar--um he works for apple and he's starting a really awesome company, talk about the cool kid everyone wants to be like.

Thomas and Carl--adopted LHSers.

If you're reading this and I missed you, I'm sorry, I love you x10. 

I can't imagine college without LHS. The friends, the memories, the family that it forms.