The Month of August

Alrighty...so long weekend in August was spent moving into the apartment. We have our own place again and this will be "home" until we build our house. We have some noisy neighbours every now and again, but it's ours. My Aunt and Uncle had their 40th anniversary on August 11th in Winnipeg so that weekend found me in the big city once again. It was a great weekend of fun and family. I even impressed my almost impossible to please Great Aunt by making her the perfect coffee. Kudos to me for that! On the 18th I was on my way to Carberry to act on behalf of the Canadian Cancer Society at two young ladies' Buzz Cuts for Cancer. They put a terrible picture of me in the Carberry paper, but the point is that I'm in there and they mentioned that I was representing the Cancer Society. The two girls raised $10,000! WOW...and I thought cutting my hair and raising a few hundred dollars was impressive.
On that same weekend Neen (my sis) came back to MB from Alberta. She started moving stuff into our place and the following weekend we spent looking for a bed, sheets, and other room stuff. August 27 marked the first day of what I used to refer to negatively as "Hell Weeks". Since we've gotten more efficient and acquired some really great summer help I no longer refer to it so negatively. We have an "Easy" Button in our office and I think it has had some positive influence, just like the commercials. Although we check in about 400 students in about 5 days, meaning we do cable and internet connections, distribute parking passes, fridges, and televisions, activate student ID cards, and more and more and more, it's just really not all that bad. My motto for these weeks (Aug 27-Sept 7) is "slowly going crazy am I". That little quotations pretty much sums it up. This weekend is supposed to be gorgeous. Likely our last really nice weather before our long long winter so I plan to enjoy it!

Since the 5th

Well I have been quite busy by some standards and not that busy by others. Since the 5th I have attended an outdoor Candlelight Party in Shilo MB with Angie on the 7th. Ordered some yummy smelling aroma melts that make the whole room smell when you melt them. During the following week on Tuesday the 10th Bryan's Mom and I went to see the newest member of the Lussier family, Seth Ryder Lussier. This little gent is less than a day old and looked like he was at least a week old. He had absolutely no blemishes on his skin and no wrinkles. So healthy. What a little sweet heart!The weekend after that Bryan's cousin got married outside at a camping resort in Rock Lake MB. Tina Lussier became Tina Dubyts in a short, but sweet ceremony in a very peaceful and serene location. It was a really nice day, no rain and not too terribly hot. The main dish of the buffest style supper was carved pork that had been roasted rotisary style. The night finished around 12:00 midnight with a fireworks display, small but decent enough for what they had to work with. We had one little scare when one of the fireworks fell over and started shooting towards the crown of onlooking guests. Luckily no harm was done. I love the color of the bridesmaids' dresses and the little flower girls and ring bearer were just so precious.

I started much needed holidays on July 18th. The evening of the 17th was complete with a visit to Bryan's Memeire and Pepeire's where we were supposed to pick and shell peas for them, but by the time we got there, they had finished. We did have a nice visit though and on the way home we took the ferry across the Assiniboine River near Stockton MB. It was a neat experience to say the least. Bryan's Dad took us on a little scenic tour of his childhood stompin' ground which also led us past the training fields for the Shilo army base. Wednesday and Thursday were spent relaxing, reading, and watching movies. Thursday was also my "book adventure" day when I decided to take a stroll through some of the used book stores in Brandon. I stopped by one and thought it was decent, but the second one was the paradise of all used book stores. I thought the upstairs was incredible and then I noticed the downstairs! Crazy! I bought a bunch of books and have been showing off the little place ever since. I took a stroll along the River Bank Discovery Centre and snapped a few pics. I was lucky enough to get this great shot of a Redwinged Blackbird with its lunch in its mouth!

Mom came on Friday and we hung out, went for coffee at Forbidden Flavours, rented a movie, and tried to stay cool. Saturday we did a little shopping, went for lunch at Lady of the Lake and then had Elaine come and do a Mary Kay Facial for us. I got to see her professional wedding photos and catch up a little with the happenings of her newly married life. Sunday brought SPA DAY! Mom and I went to the Solstice Spa in Elkhorn MB. We spent two hours just relaxing in the mineral pool and hot tub, reading, and snacking on fruit and muffins. Then off to my Canadian Prairie Mud Wrap and her Hot Rock Massage. They actually plaster real mud from somewhere near Watrous SK all over your body, face, and hair. Oh yes, they poured mud in my hair! It was awesome. We had a BBQ buffet supper at the Mountain Grill at the Elkhorn Resort. Soooo good! And then were off to Onanole to the Smokey Hollow Resort for the night. Early Monday morning we were up, showered, and off to Clear Lake to spend the day reading by the lake, shopping in the little shops, eating icecream, and finally taking a tour of the lake on The Martese. The boat tour was really great! We had a bbqed hamburger for lunch and just enjoyed the scenery of the lake and staying cool via the nice breeze. There is a sunset version of the same tour as well that I would like to experience. I am sure it would be breathtakingly beautiful. After a relaxing day in Clear Lake we headed to GP, visited Baba, rented a movie, and yes...relaxed some more! Tuesday morning I was up bright and early to beat the day's heat and pick a pail of yummy raspberries for Baba. Another day of just relaxing and trying desperately to stay cool with no air conditioner. SO HOT! Stopped by the cemetary to replace some faded flowers, rented another movie, and went to sleep. Wednesday had Mom and I on our way to Aunty Eileen and Uncle Ed's in Winnipeg. Hello, central air! We spent the evening visiting and woke up Thursday to a day of shopping. I bought some clothes for work and a whole bunch more books at my favorite store...McNally Robinson! I am such a nerd...but I love it that way. Friday before we left shortly after lunch we were able to see Reagan and Alex, two of my youngest cousins. They are so adorable and I can't wait to go back to Winnipeg in a couple weeks to see them again.

So adorable. Mom dropped me off in Brandon on Friday and I spent the evening washing clothes and watching parts one and two of the first Planet Earth disc. If you haven't seen this series, you MUST watch it. It is amazing. There are 5 disks shot on all of the continents and in over 200 countries world wide. Let's see I've watched Pole to Pole, Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Desserts, Ice Worlds, and Great Plains so far and they are AMAZING. Saturday I went to Eleanor Kidd park to read and walk around. It's a beautiful park and I've only discovered its magic now after having lived in Brandon for 5 years (give or take). Went to Forbidden Flavors for a Carimella Coffee and some more reading and home again to watch more Planet Earth. Today is Sunday and it is so HOT that I am not doing anything other than sitting on the couch in front of the fan trying not to lose all of my bodily fluids via sweat. It is 35 out there today. SO HOT! I go back to work on the 2nd of August and until then I plan on relaxing some more, reading some more, watching more Planet Earth, and hopefully Wednesday moving into our apartment. It's supposed to stay this hot all week so moving will be a real sweat fest, but, and this is such a great but...we will have AIR CONDITIONIING there! Yay!

Fun at Work!

Since June 29th, Brandon University has been host to the International United Church Association. What that means for me is getting the floor plans, keys, maps, and parking passes arranged for about 85 people from all over the world. Not to mention printing and photocopying itineraries, scripts, and information sheets; running around getting personal computers connected to the residence Internet; and scrambling around unlocking doors and delivering extension cords. It sounds hectic, and believe me it is, but it is so great at the same time. There are people here from Australia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, England, Switzerland, South Korea, Germany, Iceland, India, Indonesia, United States, Tonga, and Canada. You should see some of their names! The Tongans were in their amazing traditional dress today to do a performance for the whole group (which sadly, I did not get to see). One of the main contact people that I deal with is from New Zealand. She is baffled at the fact that in Canada we eat supper (which is what they call the snack before bed) so early in the evening (between 5 and 6) when it is still so hot outside. I guess they eat the meal that we call supper between 8 and 10 p.m. Crazy! She also thinks that it is so great that we say "No Problem" in Canada. So now everytime I say "No Problem" I think of her. I got a hug yesterday from Harold who looks like Santa Claus and has a southern accent. I found out today that he lives in Ohio, but comes from Memphis...hence the southern drawl y'all! Anyway, the whole point of this blog was just to say how great it is that we have these people here, albeit I am not religious, but the culture is amazing!

Good Intentions

So, I had really great intentions of updating this on a regular basis, but those intentions never really led where I intended. Anyway to update everyone on my life since April 10th...here goes:



April was a CRAZY month. Insanely busy at work and then we had a catastrophic mishap that we had to deal with on top of the insaneness that already existed. I wrote three final exams in the span of a week and right in the midst of that Bryan's grandpa had a heart attack. On the up side, we worked through the problem at work, I aced all of my exams, and Bryan's grandpa is ok. With all that stress it is no wonder that I have spent the majority of May and June working through the troubles with my stomach resulting from anxiety. With some behavior modification and some meds from the doc I feel pretty confident that I am on my way up! Besides working through the illness I've had a little time to help plan and attend a bachelorette party, see my best friend get married to the perfect guy for her, read a bunch of books, and watch a tonne of movies. I've managed to spend some time with Mom and some time visiting Baba and other than that life is just, well, life.

There is a great picture of all of us gals at Houston's after playing some really great games at the hotel. I created a pictionary game perfect for a bachelorette, complete with penis shaped paper and both naughty and nice things to draw. We all had a blast and I know Leilanie (the bride) did too! Girls just wanna have fun right! Unfortunately I couldn't attend her wedding because it was the same day (June 23) as my best friend's. Sadly I couldn't be two places at once and I just couldn't miss seeing the person who's been my best friend since elementary school marry the man of her dreams.



And there she is, Elaine Mann...used to be Suidy. The wedding was outdoors at their home near Roblin. I used to get phone calls from this girl at 4:00 in the morning after a night at the bar while she was in Calgary going to university telling me about the lastest adventures she had gotten herself into. Those were the days. How things change. Now she's married to Peter and couldn't be happier, moving on to new adventures and a wonderful life. I am so happy for her!




So there you have it...a brief update, a few pictures, and the hopes that I will keep this updated!

Cheers!

The Long Road to My Degree

The Goal: Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) 4-Year Honours – English Major, Psychology and Religion Minors.

A Bit of Terminology/Explanation:
A course which takes 3 months or 1 term to complete = 3 credit hours.
100 level = 1st year class
200 level = 2nd year class The higher the level,
300 level = 3rd year class the more difficult the course.
400 level = 4th year class

The total requirement for a B.A. 4-Year Honours is 120 credit hours.

To get any B.A. at Brandon University you must have 6 credit hours in each of three specified course areas:
Humanities (ex. English, History, French, Music, Philosophy, Religion);
Social Sciences (ex. Business Administration, Economics, Native Studies, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology);
and Natural Sciences (ex. Botany, Chemistry, Physics, Geology, Mathematics, Zoology).

English Major 4-Year Honors requires:
a minimum of 48 credit hours with only 6 of those at the 100 Level and at least 27 at the 300/400 Level, plus only 6 of the 48 credit hours can be from Creative Writing.
And just in case that isn’t enough…let me explain the Historical Breadth Requirement:
I have to take a minimum of 18 credit hours from the following list of courses:
Greek Poetry in Translation Victorian Poetry
Greek Drama in Translation Victorian Prose
Latin Literature in Translation Medieval Drama
Women Writers I Old English Literature
Chaucer and his Contemporaries Literature of the Sixteenth Century
Shakespeare Milton
Literature of the Seventeenth Century Beowulf
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature History of Literary Criticism
Romantic Literature Contemporary Critical Theory
Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Comedy Middle English Romance
If you can believe it, this is actually one of the easier degrees in terms of meeting the requirements.

4-Year Minor in Psychology requires:
credit in 82:160 (Introduction to Psychology) and 82:161 (General Psychology) plus a minimum of 12 additional credit hours in Psychology.

4-Year Minor in Religion requires:
a minimum of 18 credit hours in Religion.

How Close I Am:
The Facts:
Since I am majoring in English and minoring Psychology, I have already met the general B.A. requirement of 6 credit hours in the area of both Humanities and Social Sciences.
I have completed a total of 9 of 48 credit hours in English (including 6 at the 100 Level – meaning I must take only 200 Level and up until I am finished). I have no credit hours as of yet for the Historical Breadth Requirement.
I have completed 6 of 18 credit hours in Psychology (including 82:160 and 82:161 – the required classes – meaning now I can take whatever I want).
I have completed 6 or 18 credit hours in Religion.
I have 30 transfer credits from Assiniboine Community College in the area of Business Administration (basically this does nothing other than fill electives for me, but that’s ok, every little bit helps!).
The Conclusion:
In total I have completed 51 credit hours of the required 120, meaning I need 69 more credit hours. I need 39 more credit hours in English (27 of which have to be at the 300/400 Level and 18 of which have to be from the list of Historical Breadth classes). I need 12 more credit hours in both Psychology and Religion. Amazingly my requirements equal out to 69 credits!

How Long This is Going to Take Me:
After trial and success and trial and near insanity, I have concluded that while working full-time I can handle 12 credit hours a year (15 if I take a class in the summer). Taking 12 credit hours a year it will take me 6 years to finish, taking 15 credit hours in a year it will take me 5 years.

Observation:
I’ve been working on my degree for two years now and my goal is to complete it in ten. The odds are in my favor!

The Basics - School

In the beginning...just kidding...anyway I graduated from Assiniboine Community College in June of 2004 with a Diploma in Business Administration-Management Specialty. It was a great 2-year program and I loved it. I met great people, students and instructors, and learned a heck of a lot about the real world. My college education got me my incredible job at Brandon University and now I am using my "ins" at BU to work on a Bachelor's Degree. By "ins" I mean I don't have to pay tuition...only student fees to further my education so I figured I had better take advantage of that! I started taking one class (Introduction to English Literature) that extended for both terms so September to April. Realizing that one class was easy enough to handle I decided to take two the next term (September to December) and so took Introduction to Psychology and Women Writers II. Once again, I realized that two classes were not bad and in the next term (January to April) took three classes. I am currently in the process of finishing General Psychology, Health Care Ethics, and Sex and The Sacred (which is a religion course by the way). Taking three classes per term qualifies me as a full-time student, albeit a full course load would be five classes. Basically I take two classes in the evening (three hours, two nights a week) and one class during the day (one hour Monday, Wednesday, Friday). The goal is to obtain a Bachelor of Arts with an English Major with Psychology and Religion minors. I figured it out and my projected time frame in which to finish and graduate is about 6 to 8 years from now. Slowly, but surely, I will get my degree!

April 9th (tomorrow) marks the first day for registration for classes for the 07-08 academic year. I will be registering in Creative Writing (Monday, Wednesday 3:40-5:00), Shakespeare (Tuesday nights) and Art Works (Wednesday nights). Creative Writing and Art Works are strictly first term classes and Shakespeare will take both terms to complete. As for second term I will be registering for Women Writers I (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) and Religion and Film (Wednesday nights). Wish me luck and learning!

The Basics - Work

Let's see...I started working at Brandon University in 2004, August to be exact. I actually applied for a different position than the one I was hired for, albeit the positions were in the same departmental office. I started out in a temporary position for the purpose of taking over for a lady who was set to retire in the next few years. Sadly...the lady passed away shortly after I started due to complications with her disease and associated surgery. Nice way to get a job huh!? I worked in the position as a temporary employee until January of 2005 at which point I had to re-apply for the position, be re-interviewed, and take a typing test (which I didn't have to do the first time around). Since I am still currently working for Brandon University in the same position, I was obviously the chosen candidate for the permanent position. That day, January 17th, 2005 will go down as one of the best days of my life. The security of knowing you have a stable job inevitably creates a comforting feeling like no other. With that said I have been working in Ancillary Services for almost 3 full years now. Bet you are wondering what Ancillary Services is...lucky for you I am about to kibosh the suspence! Ancillary Services is a subordinate department of Brandon University, basically "ancillary" means "revenue generating". So I work prodominantly with all aspects of Residence life, meaning applications for accommodation, room assignments, account set up, etc. I also deal with parking services on campus, the generating of student identification cards, special conferences that require casual accommodation in our residences, and oh so much more! All in all I love my job. I work jointly with one other person in my office (she's my mom's age so it makes things interesting to say the least) and have two bosses. One sort-of "sub-boss" and one "big cahoona". All three of them are great people and a joy to work with (for the majority of the time anyway...nothing's perfect right?!) My favorite part is working with the students. Each year we get a brand new group (some returning faces too) which keeps things interesting and always active. I do so many different things in my job it is hard to explain it to people...so questions are more than welcome here! One other little tid bit...I received my pension statement the other day (funny to a 23 year old) and my projected year of retirement is 2049! Oh my is all I have to say..."oh my"!

The Basics - Living Arrangements

I am currently living with my boyfriend (Bryan) at his parents house in Brandon. Not the greatest arrangement, but livable for now. Why you might ask...well we are saving to build a house next summer and paying approximately $1000 a month in rent and bills in our apartment was just not condusive to saving any money whatsoever. Needless to say we moved into the basement of Bryan's parents house sacrificing some privacy and peacefulness, but gaining some considerable funds in our savings account. Lucky for me, my inlaws (not quite since we aren't married, but that's what I refer to them as) are the most incredible people ever. Of course, everyone has their downfalls, but I can honestly say that I am one of the lucky ones. No horrific mother/father/sister/brother in-law stories from this gal. The plan is to move into an apartment again at the end of the summer (as thankful as I am, I just don't think I can take another winter with the adopted fam). Hopefully Denina (my sister) will be in Brandon by then too and she'll be our other roomy to help with rent and other bills. If all goes as planned we will start building in April of 2008! Yay! Why build you might ask...well this is again where my amazing in-laws come into play. You see Bryan's Dad is a draftsman/carpenter and is going to build it for us saving us the cost of labour and building us our dream home exactly as we want it! It's exciting and only a short year (and a lot of saving) away!

Starting Out!

This is me starting out. I am trying to figure out how to get a profile picture so this is me trying to follow the "Help"!

Got it...Yay!