Happy 1 Year Anniversary

It has been exactly a year since my last post, but today, for some reason, a blogger stumbled on my site. He added it to his blogroll and I was instantly panic-stricken knowing I hadn't posted in a year.

I have lots to say, but life is busy. Maybe this was the little kick in the pants I needed.

I don't know if I can commit to regular posts with all the things I have going on. For those outside of Fort McMurray, you may have heard stories of there being nothing to do in this town. My weekly schedule will tell you the real truth.

On Monday nights I teach a course to a group of 24 students. On Tuesdays I play competitive women's volleyball at the Sport and Wellness Centre. One Wednesday a month I have volunteer meetings for KidSport Wood Buffalo where I volunteer as the communications representative. Thursdays I curl either at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Fridays and the weekends are usually filled with tournaments or catching up on other work that falls to the wayside during the week. And of course, I have my full-time job to keep me extra busy during the daytime.

For those who have known me since I was 12 years old, you'll know this is exactly the way I like my life. Busy. I recently stumbled across a calendar I'd been saving from my grade 11 year. Some months, I had every single day filled with some kind of activity. On every day I didn't have volleyball after school, I worked at my part-time job. In grade 12 I was on a million school councils, played fastball in another town and volunteered for a crisis line.

It is, as I said, just the way I like it.

I guess some things never change.

Lanette

January update

I have been giving a half-hearted effort to completing all the things on my 30 x 30 list. This, in itself, stresses me out. Now I see why people recommend not making these kinds of lists.

I did read one book in January and have started a second (and a third). I also did my best to spend one day totally relaxing by booking a manicure/pedicure and dinner with my bff, Erin. Unfortunately, a snow storm, bald-tired rental car and an 8 a.m.-Saturday-morning-downtown hair appointment did affect the "total relaxation" effect I was going for, but I won't complain. Not only did I get to spend some much needed time with one bff, but I also got to spend time with another girlfriend who is pregnant with her first baby. All of these ladies made the day worthwhile!

Erin and I also decided on the destination for our 30th birthday girls trip: San Diego. Originally we were thinking San Francisco, but when we got together last weekend, having both watched the PGA Tour event at Torrey Pines, we both said San Diego was the place for us. Once we settle on the dates for our trip (tentatively scheduled for mid-September) we'll make plans to book a tee time at Torrey Pines since it's a municipal course that's open for public play.

Now that we have a location picked out, it's time to start saving! I can't wait to take this trip.

Lanette

Crossfit? Sure. Whatever works.

I like a good challenge as much as the next gal and when that next gal is your sister, a healthy dose of sibling rivalry makes the challenge even better.

Kelsey and I have recently embarked on a little fitness adventure known as Crossfit. We joined a Facebook group, Crossfit Villa, which is lead by a hometown friend, Lars and are starting to get our booties moving.

It may not be pretty now, but come summer, I hope it looks a whole lot better! So far, we have one WOD (workout of the day) complete and another day of cardio in the books.

Wish us both luck as we trim fat, strengthen our muscles and feel like we've never felt before, all while hurling harmless curse words in Lars' direction.

Forget resolutions, bring on the 30-list!

Since I had a hard time coming up with a good new year's resolution* earlier in December, I decided to try something new. You see, in October I will celebrate my 30th birthday. That's right, the big 3-0. I'm not really scared, per se, but thought this would be the perfect time to challenge myself to a bit of a contest. I call it the 30 x 30 list. And, here it is. This blog is where you will see my progress between today and October 11, 2011. Hey, I like the sound of that.

1. Read 15 books
2. Lose 30 pounds
3. Save an extra $3,000
4. Play 30 rounds of golf
5. Write (and send) 30 cards/notes (thank yous, hellos, etc.)
6. Meet 15 new people
7. Learn a new skill
8. Go on a 30th birthday trip (I have my eyes on Boston, but may settle for golf in Cali)
9. Restart my money blog and gain 30 subscribers
10. Reduce the burden of our house in Calgary (long story...)
11. Start and finish a significant project at work
12. Exercise every day for 30 days
13. See the mine
14. Break my low golf score of 94
15. Do one thing I've never done before
16. Call my parents more often
17. Golf at five new courses
18. Make a five-year plan
19. Make a vision board
20. Buy a postsecret book (check it: postsecret.com)
21. Spend one day a month doing something relaxing
22. Splurge on something luxurious, but not essential
23. Take golf lessons
24. Go camping
25. Do something unpredictable
26. Organize my office
27. Volunteer a minimum of 30 hours
28. Reconnect with girlfriends from years gone by
29. Be the best girlfriend I can be
30. Make this year my best year yet. Bad news, tragedy, anger and pain need not enter.

*I actually did come up with a new year's resolution after a particularly forgetful holiday season. In 2011, in addition to working off the items on the list above, I resolve to lose fewer things!

Happy new year everyone.

Somethin' to talk about

Ladies and gentleman, please mark this date on your calendars. I finally have something to blog about.

Today, on hole #9 at the Fort McMurray Golf Club, yours truly got an ace! Not just any ace, but an albatross!

That's right...a hole in one on a par 4. Wooo hooooooooo!

Here's how it went down:

1. Boys tee off at white tee box

2. Boys accompany Lanette to red tee box.

3. Lanette tees up, smacks ball, watches it approach green.

4. Ball bounces up to the green, boing boing, rolls, and disappears.

5. Lanette's heart stops because she thinks it may have just gone in. But, boys aren't saying anything, so doesn't open her mouth for fear of the ball actually being 10 feet away from the hole.

6. Boys, thinking the ball was just a straight drive, have dropped heads and are moving toward their own balls.

7. Rossy realizes Lanette's ball is not on green where he expected and asks if it should be on there.

8. Lanette tells him yes.

9. Rossy walks up ahead and confirms: BALL. IN. HOLE.

Sweet jesus baby, that's a hole in one.

Here are the details:

Course: Fort McMurray Golf Club

Hole: #9

Distance: 200 - 225 (scorecard says 277, but I think that's from an old tee box location).Ball - Club: Driver

Ball: Precept Lady iq180 (my favourite...well my favourite ball I can afford to buy and lose. My ultimate favourites are the pricey ones that cost $6 each).

My special friend

I nearly forgot about blogging tonight. That is, until I'm watching a movie with Brod and he turns to me and says this: If I could choose to be any two people in life, I choose Steve Stifler and Kenny Powers.

Yup, that's right, folks. Not Nelson Mandela, not David Beckham, not even Gene Simmons. My bf of seven years chooses Steve S and Kenny P.

I like where this is headed.

:s

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

I wonder about $

Sometimes I think that if I didn't find my way into the communications field, I would have become a financial planner. I'm not sure what would have had to happen to make my brain go that way in high school, but it only took one thing in my 20s to catch my attention.

The book by David Bach, Smart Women Finish Rich, not only changed the way I thought about money but also the way I thought about my life...when I wanted to retire, where I wanted to spend my money and how my personal values related to cold, hard cash.

Since then, I have made budgets, organized accounts and started saving for retirement.

Today I'm trying to figure out if I'm saving too much or too little (although anything more than $0 is better than nothing) and trying to decide if I should rebalance my money habits.

Hopefully I can find a financial advisor to help answer that question!

Wish me luck.

Ps, I'd write more, but I'm blogging from my phone and it's about to die :(

Do you have a bucket list?

Ever since The Bucket List came out, it seems like everyone has one. Or, if they don't, they've at least given some amount of thought to the things they may want to do before they die.

I've started a Life List...same idea as a bucket list. One day I'm sure I'll share it on here so that I can let everyone see how I'm making progress, but for now I'm just going to keep it to myself.

But, having a physical list makes me more likely to work toward the things on that list. If all we did was try to keep all of that stuff in our heads, we'd forget about the items on the list and we'd be less likely to actually achieve them.

If you haven't physically written them down, I encourage you to do so. Throw it in a notebook and keep it in your nighstand, or start a list on your smartphone.

I hope my Life List keeps growing and shrinking for the rest of my years.

Green

I'm going to kick off NaBloPoMo (attempt #3) with a quick "what about me" list because #1 - I'm short on time and #2 - it's the least creative thing I could come up with on short notice.

1. My favourite colour is green
2. I will never be a total "greenie", but I try to do small things to help the environment
3. I work in Fort McMurray, Alberta...for an oil company.
4. I think the company I work for is working hard to reduce their impact on the environment.
5. For some ridiculous reason, I make a snap judgement on peoples' financial well-being on how full their gas tanks are when I ride in their cars for the first time (I quickly dismiss it, but I can't lie that it happens).
6. I wish I could get back to being as fit as I was eight years ago
7. I hope one day I can shoot below 90 on the golf course
8. I would hit the links every day if I could. It is one place I can forget about everything else going on and focus on the next shot, the next swing, the next putt.
9. I think there's a giant market for affordable women's golfwear
10. I hope that I can actually post every day for the next month.

That's what you get for now. You can look forward to more of these top 10 lists on days when I don't have anything else to write about.

All dogs go to heaven

On Sunday, May 30 the sweet English Coonhound, Rhoda, fell into my life when I passed her by on Highway 63, in the middle of nowhere about 200 km south of Fort McMurray, and immediately turned myself around to see if I could pick her up and take her somewhere more safe than the side of the busy highway.

Rhoda, before she grew her angel wings.

It was raining and dismal outside and she was shaking and nervous as I coaxed her across the busy highway, stopping both lanes of traffic. When I finally grabbed hold of her trembling body, she seemed grateful for the scratches and cuddles. I managed to load her up into the back of the Rav as I held on to her with one hand and with the other, moved stuff on to the floor and spread out a freshly-knitted blanket my aunt had just given me as a gift. I cranked the heat up in the vehicle and after five minutes of licking herself clean, she curled up on the blanket, nose tucked into her belly, and slept soundly for the next two hours.

I texted photos of her to Kels and others and proudly gave her the fitting name of Rhoda. Over the next ten days, I loved her--despite her crazy barking, infatuation with shadows and her stubborn little quirks. She couldn't hear very well and she needed more attention and training than I had time to give her in Fort McMurray, but if I'd had her in Calgary, I know that she and Barkley would be the best of buddies today.

For ten days, I walked her at 5:30 in the morning, took her to all my softball games, let her play at the dog park and did my best to teach her all I could, not knowing how long she'd be in my life.

Unfortunately, after having her for more than a week, I managed to track her owner down in Wandering River through a crazy web of coincidences. He sent his brother to retrieve her from my house a couple days later and as I watched him load her into his jacked-up truck after offering a quick "thanks", I knew this wouldn't be the last I heard of my pretty girl, Rhoda.

Call it mother's intuition, call it a gut feeling, call it whatever you want. This past Friday, two friends headed to Edmonton in separate vehicles, about an hour apart. The first texted my sister mid-day and said he'd seen Rhoda wandering on the side of the highway. The second sent message a while later. He'd also seen Rhoda, but this time she was laying on the side of the highway, killed by a car.

Jody-from-Wandering-River, you don't deserve to own another pet. You should have left well enough alone and let her be adopted to a caring family in Fort McMurray. They would have kept her safe in a house, away from the dangers of Highway 63. They wouldn't have tied her up--where she hated to be--and let her break free from her leash. She needed someone special in her life who could be her ears when she couldn't hear the noises she needed to hear.

Rhoda, you left a paw print on my heart. I hope you have more fun in heaven than you had during your seven short months on this earth.

I miss ya, girl.

Rhods goes to the field

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Sweet little Rhoda

This little girl was found along Highway 63, about 70 km north of Boyle and 180 km south of Fort McMurray.

She weighs about 40 pounds and didn't have tags, a collar or any kind of tattoo.

If you know someone who took their dog hunting and lost her, or was stopped at the rest stop and had a dog run off, then please get in touch with me. I really hope we can return this sweet pup to her home.

Rescued from Hwy sixty three

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

IMG00329.jpg

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

House number!

We've had this backboard and the numbers for well over six months now and finally got around to putting it together!

Next step: erect above garage.

New goals needed

Last year, I decided to set a few short-term goals for myself. Just today I decided to revisit them to see how I was doing. To my surprise, I was able to put a nice big check mark beside each and every one of them.

- Run a 10k in 2009 (already checked)

- Run a half marathon in 2010 (new check mark as of yesterday!)

- Be promoted (check)

- Shoot under 100 (checked three times since I wrote this goal down last summer)

For me, goal setting doesn't always have to be a formal process. Sometimes I just keep the goals inside my little mind and work toward them subconsciously. For instance, ever since I was in grade school, I pictured myself working downtown in a big city in some giant high rise tower. Now, I know this isn't necessarily the most fascinating or even an ideal vision for one's future, but for me that vision symbolized getting a degree and starting a real career.

I can now probably say that every experience and ounce of hard work that went into getting me into that downtown office building could probably be attributed to that single vision.

My aunt even tells me that when I was two or three, my mom took me downtown Calgary for a visit. While my aunt went to a meeting, my mom put me in her big leather office chair. When my aunt came back into the office, Mom said "One day, this is where she'll be." My aunt agreed.

And while I might not have some swanky corner office with a giant leather office chair, I still feel like some little piece of that vision has helped push me along the career path I find myself on today.

But, this post isn't about tooting horns. It's about goal setting. I am a firm believer that everyone needs a few goals to help them navigate this crazy world. We don't always need to follow a set path, but having a vision of the destination can help us choose which way to turn when we come to the inevitable fork in the road.

I hope each of you can think of one or two things right now that you want to achieve in the next year or two. And, in the next five or 10. You don't need to cut out pictures and put them on some fancy vision board and you don't need to write them down in a journal or tell five friends who will hold you accountable. All you need to do is think about what your life will be like when you achieve them. What will success feel like? Look like?

Here's hoping there's a leather office chair in your future.

The place I (proudly) call home

They will tell you this place is riddled with drugs. They will show you the scantily clad chicks raking their bodies across a baron stage at Showgirls. They will show you the hooker on the corner of the 7-11, across from the bus stop, thumbing cars as she waits for her next customer.

That's how the rest of the world sees Fort Mcmurray.

But, for those of us who have been here and seen the good of this city, those of us who have the sense and the ambition to look past the bad and see the opportunity, we think this is a great place to work. And, we think it's a great place to live.

Where else can you head to a gorgeous 18-hole golf course for your 6 p.m. tee time and play a full round? Where else can you play double-headers at the beginning of the softball season without having lights on the diamond? Where else do you jolt awake at 5 a.m. thinking you'd slept in well past your alarm clock because it's broad daylight outside? Where else do you go to work and within eight hours have meetings with people from South Africa, Pakistan, Venezuala and Australia? Where else would you possibly find such a large group of 20somethings who have more ambition, hefty savings accounts, charitable donations and beautiful homes? Nowhere.

This, my friends, is the Fort McMurray I know.

Have I seen drug deals outside of the local casino? Check. Have I seen homeless people with their dogs sitting outside the mall with their hats out? Check. Have I seen juice monkeys driving giant trucks? Double check.

But who hasn't? I can find every single one of those things in Kelowna, Vancouver, Toronto, and every small town and big city in between.

For once I want a reporter to come here and interview those who are up here for the career opportunities. For the great dinner parties we throw. For the post-baseball-game parties. For the evening golf games.

For once, I want people to see this city through a different pair of eyes.

Kelsey on moving day

While Scott is busy cleaning the kitchen and I finish cleaning out the basement, this is what Kelsey is doing.

After we tell her to get her a$$ moving, this ensues:

Kelsey (in the box): "Scott, help me"

Scott: Kelsey, come on.

Kelsey (struggling): I don't wanna break the box.

Kelsey wiggles around some more and Scott reaches in to help lift her up.

Scott: C'mon Kelsey, show some athleticism!

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Ugh

I do not mind it here, I do not mind it here, I do not mind here.

Todays affirmation.
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Fun times in Calgary

Usually when I'm in Calgary my time is spent at home or running errands around town and at the mall (hah!), but this time I added something new to the mix: an evening of UFC fights and karaoke.

Last Saturday Brody's boss's wife and a couple of his kids were hanging out at a pub in NE Calgary and we decided to head out to meet them there.

A few hours and a couple drinks later, we were laughing and having a grand old time. The fights were good (I even watched this time...even if my eyes were closed during a few crazy punch sequences), but the karaoke and company were fantastic.

Jocelyn is a talented little lady with a voice that just makes you stop and stare. Check out her latest song now: The Thought of You. Creepily, I have listened to it about 10 times today and I'm not getting bored of it.

Her brother, who works with Brody, is also an absolute hilarity,and not a bad karaoke-er. My abs and cheeks got a full workout that night.

Their step mom is also hilarious and crazy at the same time. After several hours, numerous shots and a lot of laughs, we were snapping BlackBerry photos as she reminisced about introducing Brody to her husband.

It was nice definitely nice to meet some new people in this big old city, that's for sure.

Tomorrow we're off to Phoenix for some golf and hot weather. Adios!

PS - go and check out Jocelyn's music right now!